Entering the 2024 NFL season, the Kansas City Chiefs are the betting favorite to win Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. Doing so would make Kansas City the first team in NFL history to secure a Super Bowl three-peat — and that means the Chiefs have a giant target on their backs entering the new year.

One team that will be hoping to take down the Chiefs is the Baltimore Ravens, who visit Kansas City in the season-opening game next Thursday night. The rejuvenated Cincinnati Bengals are considered another contender in the AFC, while the Buffalo Bills always seem to hang around (until the Chiefs invariably knock them out of the playoffs). But one other AFC team has been touted as a surprise contender to Patrick Mahomes‘ throne — even after a brutally-disappointing 2023 season.

Can Aaron Rodgers and the Jets hunt down the Chiefs?

With a healthy Aaron Rodgers back under center, ESPN‘s Mike Greenberg believes the New York Jets are the strongest candidates to end Kansas City’s dynasty — even after missing the playoffs for a 13th consecutive season in 2023.

“They have the best defense of anybody, with the possible exception of Cleveland, and they have the most proven quarterback,” Greenberg said on Tuesday’s edition of “Get Up”. “He is Aaron Rodgers, for crying out loud.”

The Jets have the joint ninth-best odds to win the Super Bowl next February, perhaps because bookmakers are confident Rodgers will return to form after he missed all but four plays last season recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon.

New York returns most starters from a top-drawer defense and is hoping to agree on a contract extension with edge rusher Haason Reddick — who has been holding out from team activities ever since his trade from the Philadelphia Eagles in April.

Still, the Jets — like everyone else in the AFC — face significant hurdles in their quest to overcome the Chiefs, even with former NFL MVP Rodgers back in the fold. The Ravens, Bengals, Bills, and Houston Texans all have shorter odds to come out of the AFC than the Jets do — and none of them is featuring a 40-year-old quarterback coming off a serious leg injury.