Game Preview Jets-49ers – Monday Night Football, Week 1, 2024

Malachi Corley will make a dream come true on Monday night when the Jets and 49ers meet in the NFL's final game of opening weekend. Corley, a third-round pick out of Western Kentucky, will play his first professional game on a roster loaded with talent and will be backed up by a historic fielder, Aaron Rodgers, at quarterback.

“As a kid, you literally dream about these situations, like Russell Crowe in 'Gladiator,'” said Corley, the rookie receiver. “Just being a gladiator in that coliseum. As kids, we dream about that big moment, that moment in prime time in a nationally televised game against one of the best teams in the league right now, with one of the best quarterbacks of all time on the team. It's an incredible feeling.”

The Willing Gladiator
While Russell Crowe played a reluctant fighter in the role of Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius, Aaron Rodgers is an extremely willing gladiator. After being limited to four appearances in his first season as a Jet, Rodgers' torn Achilles tendon has healed. In his 20th professional season, Rodgers offers prospects and has a long way to go.

“No matter what happens on Monday, if we win, the headline will be that we're going to the Super Bowl,” he said. “We're losing, same old Jets. I think we have to move on from some of these side issues and trust that the program — if it's good enough in Week 1 — will be good enough for the rest of the season. So we have to trust the process. Be a great competitor, be a professional, show what you want on the field and let things go the way they go.”

Rodgers has been in the national spotlight for most of his career and that will not change this season, as seven of the Jets' first 11 games are single-game series. That all begins Monday night on the road against a Niners club that lost a thrilling Super Bowl OT thriller to the Chiefs in February and has advanced to the NFC Championship Game the last three years in a row.

“An NFL game day is like being in the Roman Colosseum,” defensive lineman Jermaine Johnson said. “It's like going back thousands of years and I can't wait to go back there. I know none of us can do that.”