Favre trade looks good, but...

There are many reasons Jets fans should be excited about the Brett Favre trade: 1. They no longer have to watch a QB with a Johnny Damon lollipop for an arm. Sorry, Chad. You played hard and were an accurate passer and all, but even at age-38 Brett can put more mustard on the ball than you could in a game of Madden. 2. The Giants might never precede the Jets on SportsCenter this season. 3. We get to see Brady vs. Favre times two. 4. An offense that was originally built around the running game can now add an entirely new dimension to its attack. 5. Countless moments of Brett feeling awkward and uncomfortable in the big city spotlight. Welcome the Big Apple, country boy. You've already handled it better than Randy Johnson. There are more reasons than that, of course. Like Brett giving fans a sense of hope and delivering a vision of playoff dreams and Super Bowl fantasies that they haven't felt since the days of Broadway Joe. Well, I'm here to tear away all of your hopes and dreams. To bring you back down into a land of reality. Don't get me wrong, it will be much more interesting watching the Brett Favre Jets than it was last year's 4-12 club. But let's remember that fact: The Jets were only 4-12 last season. Sure they bolstered their offensive line with Alan Faneca (very good still) and Damien Woody (overrated, if not below average at this point), which I think is going to help running back Thomas Jones have a bounce-back season. The team is also deeper on offense and improved on defense with the additions of Kris Jenkins, Calvin Pace and rookie Vernon Gholston, so the Jets should have been better this season with or without Favre. But in the AFC, I have a hard time imagining the J-E-T-S pulling off what the Giants did last season. The fact of the matter is the Jets are in a race against time in a league that doesn't exactly allow teams to play catch-up. One of the first things Favre said at his introductory press conference was that he's out of shape – I mean, compared to the other guys. Not to mention, he didn't know a soul on his new team before yesterday, let alone the team's playbook. New York's season opener at Miami is pivotal, because the Jets follow that contest with a home game against the Patriots and a roadie at San Diego – two games in which the Jets will be definite underdogs. Can they go 10-6 and make the playoffs? If everything comes together and they get a little luck, I could see it. After all, they are playing the lowly NFC West this season. But can they actually beat the likes of the Patriots, Colts and Chargers come playoff-time? Hard to imagine. That being said, the NFL is a win-now league. There is no waiting around because things can change in a heartbeat. That's why, no matter how you feel about Favre, you have to applaud Jets management for taking a shot. Was it partly a publicity thing? No doubt. But it was a football thing, too, and there's no question that the Jets are a better team today than they were on Wednesday.