Their Quarterback Got Injured. This NFL Team Got Better.

When Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon on his first drive as quarterback of the New York Jets, it wasn’t simply another catastrophe for a woebegone franchise. It also served as a grim omen for the rest of the NFL. 

Over the course of the rest of the 2023 season, star quarterbacks that franchises had invested fortunes in continued to go down and to not get back up again. When the likes of the Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow and the Minnesota Vikings’ Kirk Cousins suffered season-ending injuries, their teams’ Super Bowl hopes plummeted instantaneously.