Another Jets season rests on life support, and now it is Tim Boyle who will attempt to save it.
On this last, Black Friday chance for the Jets to prevent their 12-year playoff drought from becoming a 13-year playoff drought.
It was just seven Novembers ago when a reeling Packers team was 4-6, same as the 2023 Jets, when Aaron Rodgers drank from his half-full cheesehead:
“I feel like we can run the table. I really do.”
And they really did, and finished 10-6 and made the playoffs, before falling to the Falcons in the NFC Championship game.
Tim Boyle knew better than to make any such proclamations. He wasn’t dragged out of mothballs to run any table. He starts on Black Friday against the Dolphins’ Greatest Show on Surf simply because the Jets required a new presence and a new voice in the huddle, whether or not he gives them a better chance to win than Zach Wilson.
Robert Saleh spared Wilson the wrath of angry Jets boobirds — who were devastated when Rodgers lasted all of four plays then resigned to hoping against hope that Wilson, with assistance from offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, would not sabotage their swaggerlicious defense.
So Boyle will get himself a honeymoon of sorts that could last beyond his first interception before “We want Trevor” will echo through MetLife Stadium, because the backup will be Trevor Siemian with Wilson now the break-glass-in-case-of-emergency quarterback.
Saleh is looking for a spark, and of course those in Connecticut who remember Boyle from Xavier High School are confident he is the right man for the job. Greg Jaskot was an assistant coach/offensive assistant at Xavier.
“Number 1, he’s a tremendous leader,” Jaskot told The Post. “He’s a great people person, he cares about the people that he surrounds himself with, namely his teammates, and that’s been that way since he was a young guy. He should feel pretty comfortable in the system, being that he was with Coach Hackett in Green Bay. And yeah, I think he can provide a little bit of a spark, certainly.”
Sean Marinan was Boyle’s head coach at Xavier High.
“He played with Aaron for three years, and I saw a lot of Aaron’s influence on him in the preseason when he was playing,” Marinan told The Post. “Sometimes Aaron would just sidearm a throw out on that little bubble screen thing you run on the edge, and just noticed Tim do exactly the same way that Aaron would do it in one of the games.”
James Sullivan caught passes from Boyle at Xavier High and at UConn.
“He’s been around Aaron Rodgers for a long time,” Sullivan told The Post. “Not that Zach hasn’t, anybody else hasn’t, it’s just I think him being around Aaron Rodgers and then Jared Goff last year, he’s been around some great guys and he’s learned a lot. And he’s very cerebral in terms of his football knowledge. I think he’ll bring in like a calmness, and also just he loves football so much, so a love for the game and a love for his teammates, and I think that’ll bring a spark.”
Sullivan was asked to describe Boyle’s leadership style. “Tim’s a lover,” he said. “He loves everyone, he loves throwing around, ‘I love yous.’ He’s always upbeat and always forgiving and on to the next play.”
Marinan: “He’s very upbeat. Always positive about things. Those are the things you look for.”
Boyle and Sullivan connected on a memorable 94-yard hitch-and-go TD in a state championship game. “I remember us just making eye contact and knowing before the play that we scored,” Sullivan said. “It was a beautiful ball.”
Earlier in that 2012 season, Boyle led a comeback from 28 points down to beat Hillhouse. “I just remember everyone being very emotional about it, and Tim being very calm and just in the moment and being able to calm everybody down,” Sullivan said.
Boyle had an underwhelming college career at UConn and Eastern Kentucky before the Packers signed him in 2018 as an undrafted free agent. If nothing else, look for him to get the ball out of his hand behind that problematic offensive line more quickly than Wilson did.
“He is very intelligent, he understands the offense, he knows the intricacies,” Rodgers said before the 2020 season. “For him, it is about more experience, getting him more reps. He can do it all. He can throw it, he can move, he is really smart at the line of scrimmage, he is good with his checks and I think he is pretty settled in his third season.”
It should never have come to this, of course. Joe Douglas kept all the Jets’ eggs in the basket of Zach Wilson. Wilson was Rodgers’ backup for four plays. Tim Boyle was Rodgers’ backup for three years. Now he tries to give Rodgers and his Achilles another chance to save another season. One miracle at a time.
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