FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – From the day he entered their lives, there wasn’t a soul among the Jets, from top to bottom, who couldn’t stop telling the world how Aaron Rodgers raised the standard of everyone in the building, and how he lifted everyone up with his football wisdom and the kind of magical right arm that none of them had ever seen.

The honeymoon is on its last legs.

If Rodgers wants that rarefied New York legacy reserved for legends, he better start building it, now.

He has thrown six interceptions in the past three games and is the not-so-proud owner of a 40-year-old hamstring, a 40-year-old knee and a 40-year-old ankle.

But it’s always been foolish to leave him out, even though he’s never been a 40-year-old Jet, and luckily more help has come than anyone expected he’d need.

Rodgers tried as hard as he could to change the culture, but within days the Jets tell us it was Davante Adams, his all-time favorite receiver, who miraculously changed it.

If that’s the case, we can expect more energy, energy and zest for life and TEAM from the Jeff Ulbrich Jets on Sunday against the Patriots, and more mental toughness in the face of adversity.

And for however long Haason Reddick plays in his long-awaited Jets debut, he will help Will McDonald and Quinnen Williams chase Drake Maye if and when Rodgers can grab a lead and keep it this time.

If Rodgers has a “savior” in him, he needs to recognize that he needs to save a season in jeopardy, and do it now.

“I have to be a great leader,” Rodgers said this week. “It starts with me, and I’m going to set the tone this week.”

It actually started with him from the beginning, that day 19 months ago when he walked into the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center and saw the lone Super Bowl III Lombardi trophy still desperate for a companion after all these years.

This is not the time to even say the words Super Bowl. That can and should be left behind for now – while even Joe Namath may be reluctant to guarantee a win, even over these Patriots.

The Jets have been a sinkhole for franchise quarterbacks, young and old, for veteran hires, decade after decade. No one could ever imagine that Aaron Rodgers, the future first-ballot Hall of Famer, would suffer the same fate.

He’s 2-5 as the Jets’ starting quarterback, and no one cares that he’d be 4-3 if Greg Zuerlein had made the field goals he’s paid to make.

Rodgers wasn’t brought here to be 4-3, let alone 2-5.

He has had seven games to work off the rust from his lost 2023 season.

He’s had two games to get used to interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich and new playcaller Todd Downing.

He had one match to renew vows with Adams.

No excuses.

That won’t be Tom Brady and Bill Belichick on the other side. It will be Jerod Mayo, a rookie head coach, and Maye, a rookie first-round pick making his third NFL start, and Mayo’s soft defense. It was against the Patriots last month, and only the Patriots, that Rodgers looked like MVP Aaron.

That quarterback is gone.

The onus is now on him to raise the standard of his own game, and to take his own game and that of those around him to the next level. The burden of proof is on him to prove that age is just a number, two months after his 41st birthday.

Of course, his challenge is all the more intimidating because these are the Woody Johnson Jets, where disaster, chaos and unrest relentlessly rear their ugly heads.

The offensive line that was bolstered in the offseason to keep him afloat has too often left him battered and sore.

But blame the playcaller and blame Rodgers because this is his offense for relegating the run game to a true afterthought. Whatever happened to the raging bull visions of 220-pound Breece Hall and 240-pound rookie Braelon Allen imposing their will on a defense?

Against the Vikings, the pass-run ratio was 54-14. The vote against the bills was 35-21. Against the Steelers it was 39-15.

Let the damn ball run!

In a different era, Namath (17-for-28, 206 yards, zero touchdowns, zero interceptions) won Super Bowl III, leaning heavily on FB Matt Snell (30-for-121 rushing with a touchdown, 4-for-40 receiving ) .

And it would be nice if Ulbrich’s beloved defense showed more pride than it did in the first half against the Bills and in both halves against the Steelers.

Disturbingly, the Jets look like a bunch of independent contractors looking for an identity and a paycheck. Remember the Eagles of 2011? Who imported big names and called themselves a Dream Team? They lost eight of their first twelve games.

Ulbrich is learning as he goes. As interim head coach, it is a matter of trial and error. The owner is counting on Rodgers to be the deodorant. It’s time for Rodgers to take the stink away.

After all the hype and all the hoopla and all the headlines, it’s time for Rodgers to find a way to win and keep winning. If that’s too much to ask, he and the Jets retreat into the same old darkness together.