Aaron Rodgers is headed to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

That’s true even if the New York Jets can’t find a way out of the early-season spiral that saw their record fall to 2-3 and their head coach, Robert Saleh, fired on Tuesday. Oh well, that’s true if he never completes another pass for the New York Jets or even if he never becomes a New York Jet in the first place.

His 18 seasons in Green Bay, highlighted by four MVP trophies, a Super Bowl championship and 475 regular-season touchdowns, ensured that long ago. He’s a legend.

And yet legends are compared to legends. Levels of greatness matter, and Rodgers’ late-career franchise move is also up for debate, especially compared to peers Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.

In 2023, at age 39, Rodgers left Green Bay for New York in search of a Super Bowl. He followed the path of Manning, who went from Indianapolis to Denver in 2012 at age 36, and Brady, who moved from New England to Tampa Bay in 2020 at age 42.

Both Manning and Brady won Super Bowls, made playoff runs in other seasons and generally changed the direction, if not the hard-to-define “culture,” of their new franchises.

They finished strong. They turned out to be more than just their original franchises.

Rodgers, the jury is out.

An opening night and season-ending injury last year slowed things down. Now, five weeks into the season, the Jets look like the Jets of old. Their two wins are against bad teams from New England and Tennessee. They looked lethargic after the loss to Minnesota – and longtime QB San Darnold – in London.

That left Saleh without a job.

“This is one of the most talented teams ever assembled by the New York Jets,” said team owner Woody Johnson. “I wanted to give the team the best chance to win this season.”

How much does this cost Rodgers? How many not? How much can he reasonably be expected to change? These are the Jets, after all. Dysfunction, especially during the Johnson era, was common.

Well, the offense has been bad: just two touchdowns against four goals the last two weeks. The offensive line had problems with Rodgers’ hard count – a known weapon of his – and made too many false starts. And Rodgers was…just okay by his standards. His completion percentage this season (61.0 percent) and interception percentage (2.2 percent) would be close to the worst of his career.

Much was made of Rodgers’ decision to skip a mandatory mini-camp in June to travel to Egypt, considering it a “bucket list” trip. The Jets fined him $50,000, but Rodgers shrugged it off. Perhaps some of the criticism of Rodgers was unfounded. How much does it really matter?

Well, Manning and Brady wouldn’t have done that. When Manning arrived in Denver for his first season, the NFL was in a labor lockout. He borrowed the Colorado Rockies facility to train and then organized practice sessions for players himself. Brady, meanwhile, came to Tampa at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He gathered players on the field at a local high school to get reps.

That’s not the only way to put your stamp on a new team, but whatever system Rodgers uses hasn’t delivered yet. On Wednesday, he defended himself on The Pat McAfee Show and stated that he had nothing to do with Saleh’s firing.

“I reject all of these allegations because they are patently false,” Rodgers said. “It’s interesting how much power people think I have.”

Rodgers is worth taking his word for. There is no indication that he fired the head coach. Still, it’s the power he has that is the reason the Jets brought him in. It wasn’t just making passes or running the attack; it was intended to lead a young team and teach an organization that hasn’t won yet how to do so.

A big part of the story of Rodgers’ final years in Green Bay is that the organization failed him by not providing the final pieces needed to win another Super Bowl. That may be true. But here we are in New York and the grass may be a different shade of green, but it’s certainly not greener.

New York is on its way to a restart. New coach. New approach.

There is still plenty of season left and Aaron Rodgers remains Aaron Rodgers, an extremely gifted player and proven champion.

But if he wants to prove that his second act can be considered in the same league as Manning or Brady, now is the time to start delivering.

His entire legacy is not at stake here, but some of it is.