Aaron Rodgers has emerged from his cave. Now, we wait to find out if he saw his shadow. 

Will there be six more weeks of speculation or an early spring for some NFL team? 

The Jets, like the rest of the league, are in a holding pattern as we await word from Rodgers on what his future looks like. The waiting game has led to some angst from fans and media about whether the Jets should just pounce and sign Derek Carr now. 

Personally, I don’t see the rush. Everyone is acting like Carr is going to sign somewhere else any minute now. Carr’s brother, David, said he wants to visit more teams and this could be a “long process” for him to pick a team. 

There is also this: Carr’s agent has to know that waiting for Rodgers can benefit his client. If Rodgers shows up on “The Pat McAfee Show” in two weeks and says he is either retiring or returning to the Packers, the price tag for Carr just went up among teams desperate for a quarterback. 

Though it feels like some in the media are making this feel like Christmas Eve, it is more like Black Friday. There are plenty of shopping days left. 

Things will likely heat up next week at the scouting combine in Indianapolis. That is when all the NFL general managers and agents are in the same place for a week, and see each other at the hotels, bars, restaurants and walkways. One NFL source predicted the quarterback dominoes would fall by the end of next week. 

The Jets are well positioned after their meeting with Carr last weekend. All indications are the two sides enjoyed the time together, and there was a feeling that this could be a match. No one knows what Rodgers is thinking, as he has made clear several times. Those inside the Jets are playing a guessing game with Rodgers just like those of us on the outside. 

If Rodgers ultimately decides that he wants to stay in Green Bay, walk away or just that the Jets are not for him, expect the Jets to pivot quickly to Carr. They believe they can win with Carr. They feel like they have a better supporting cast than Carr has ever had with the Raiders. Carr has never played on a team with a top-10 defense. 

The Jets feel with their top-five defense, young offensive weapons and a revamped offensive line, they are ready to win. The “missing piece,” as owner Woody Johnson put it, is a quarterback. 

If Carr, 31, threw for his career average for 3,914 yards this season, it would be the second-best single-season total in Jets history. His 64.6 career completion percentage would trail only Chad Pennington among the Jets’ top-10 all-time passers. 

The Jets have compared Carr to Matthew Stafford in that he put up good numbers on a team that did not do much winning for most of his career. Stafford then got traded to the Rams and won a Super Bowl with a good team around him. 

This is where the discussion of Carr being able to rewrite the story of his career with the Jets came in. No one from the Jets told Carr he would be a first ballot Hall of Famer if he won a Super Bowl with the Jets. What the Jets believe is if Carr, a four-time Pro Bowler, came to the Jets and experienced long-term success with the team (8-9 years) and won a Super Bowl or two along the way, he could rewrite his legacy. 

Any quarterback who wins a Super Bowl with the Jets will have a statue outside of MetLife Stadium and never pay for a meal again in the tristate area. Team brass can tell Carr that winning here would be different than winning anywhere else. 

For now, the Jets, Carr and everyone else are playing the waiting game with eyes on the mercurial Rodgers. There is no need to panic yet. As Rodgers once told Packers fans, “R-E-L-A-X.” The Jets are in good position no matter what Rodgers decides.