NewYorkJets – The teams have more at stake than their high profiles in the United Kingdom, although the Jets are playing in their third London game after a win over Miami in 2015 and a loss to Atlanta in ’21, while the Vikings are 3-0 in their London games.
Both are among the NFL teams active in the U.K. in the league’s Global Markets Program.
But as Jets HC Robert Saleh might say, we have to keep the main thing the main thing.
The Jets are 2-2 and fighting to wipe out a difficult 10-9 home loss to Denver with a major victory over the 4-0 Vikings, one of only two undefeated teams after four weeks.
There are plenty of story lines in this game but the primary sidebar, not surprisingly, involves the quarterbacks.
The teams didn’t come together in the day before the game to hold a reunion bash, but they could have, Both rosters have multiple personnel with connections to the other side.
For the Vikings, that starts not only with Darnold but with HC Kevin O’Connell, who never played for the Jets but was on their roster for periods of the 2009-11 seasons. O’Connell’s assistant head coach/outside LBs coach is Mike Pettine, Rex Ryan’s defensive coordinator from 2009-12.
Also on the Vikings staff is quarterbacks coach Josh McCown, who started 16 games at QB for the 2017-18 Jets.
Blake Cashman, Minnesota’s starting MLB, was the Jets’ fifth-round pick in 2019. Backup C Dan Feeney played 33 games with seven starts for the Green & White in 2021-22.
Third QB Brett Rypien was on the Jets’ active roster for the final five games last season but never played a down.
Aaron Rodgers needs 96 yards to reach 60,000 yards in his regular-season career, and 74 yards to leapfrog Dan Marino at 65,871 yards into seventh place among the list of NFL passers with the most career yardage in the regular season and playoffs combined.
It’s not out of the question that Rodgers could pass both mile markers with one completion of 23-plus yards sometime in Sunday’s first half.
Rodgers will be trying to outduel Sam Darnold, the Jets’ former first-round draft pick in 2018 who has found a home with Minnesota. in four starts Darnold has 11 TD passes and leads the NFL’s qualifying QBs with a 118.9 passer rating.
