Yep, that was Aaron Rodgers seated at a table at the head of the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center auditorium flanked by Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh. 

Yep, that was Aaron Rodgers throwing Aaron Rodgers passes in the spring and summer to Garrett Wilson and Jets fans chanting his name at practice. 

Yep, that was Aaron Rodgers having a blast at the Knicks and Rangers games, and yep, that was Aaron Rodgers grooving to Taylor Swift at MetLife Stadium. 

Yep, that was Aaron Rodgers feeling so good about the New York Jets that he could toss $35 million dollars, or $10M more than Broadway Joe Namath’s reported net worth. 

Yep, that was Aaron Rodgers gushing over Liev Schreiber as the Voice of God on “Hard Knocks.” 

Yep, that was Aaron Rodgers on the headphones on the Jets sideline during the Bucs game at MetLife Stadium, and yep, that was Aaron Rodgers sitting next to Zach Wilson on the bench. 

This is all a dream, isn’t it? 

Aaron Rodgers … quarterback for the New York Jets? 

Yep. 

We arrive at the intersection of surreal and real on Saturday night, when Aaron Rodgers, formerly No. 12 of the Green Bay Packers, drops back wearing No. 8 representing a tortured franchise that has been willing to wait until hell’s frozen tundra freezes over for a Lambeau Leap toward a forsaken Lombardi Trophy. 

Because the Jets aren’t strangers to the darkness anymore than Rodgers is, or was. 

The game means nothing, even though it is against the Giants, but it will mean everything at the same time. 

It will mean even more on 9/11, when Rodgers, in a Jets Legacy white uniform, represents a new city on a hallowed day and night against the Bills when the games begin to count. 

On a night like this, not even Tom Coughlin would dare play Rodgers for four quarters, and Saleh ought to know enough about Jets history by now not to tempt the fates and recognize immediately if not sooner when enough is enough for this dress rehearsal. 

For as long as Rodgers is out there, Woody Johnson and Douglas and Saleh and all Jets fans will be counting on each offensive lineman to block for him as if their career depends on it. Of course they all tell us that it doesn’t matter who their quarterback is, it’s their job to keep him upright and out of harm’s way, but it does matter here. 

They are blocking for the savior. 

Rodgers will do his part and get the ball out of his hand quickly against whomever will be rushing him. He won’t have his best five offensive linemen because again-but-trusted LT Duane Brown was just activated off the PUP list, but the circumstances are not as dire as they seemed weeks ago with RT Mekhi Becton rising and LG Laken Tomlinson and RG Alijah Vera-Tucker back ready to rumble. 

Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale might call a blitz or three merely from muscle memory, but he knows it would be ill-advised to throw any part of his kitchen sink at Rodgers since he will get to play chess against him on Oct. 29 with considerably higher stakes. 

Rodgers, with Brett Favre No. 4 jerseys littering the Lambeau stands, received a nice ovation in his first preseason start as a Packer after Favre had been traded a week earlier to the Jets in the summer of 2008. 

“I’ve always felt like we have the best fans in the NFL, and that they would support our team regardless of how they feel about myself, or Brett, or management or whatever,” Rodgers said afterward. 

Rodgers weathered an early deflected interception before finishing 9 of 15 for 117 yards and a 30-yard TD to James Jones against the Bengals. 

“It’s been an interesting last month, but I think our team has gotten pretty tight,” Rodgers said in 2008. “The support from our teammates throughout the day today was definitely encouraging.” 

Then-Packers coach Mike McCarthy was pleased: “I understand the attention around him, his performance tonight and him playing tonight. But I saw Aaron just like he is every day. I thought he went out there, he played with excellent energy, which I always recall him playing with. I think he’s done a really good job being consistent, and understanding that the microscope is on him.” 

The microscope will be on him again on Saturday night. There were nine packed practices open to the public at the Jets Atlantic Health Training Center. It won’t be Jets versus Jets his time. 

Yep, that’s Aaron Rodgers … quarterback for the New York Jets.