GREEN BAY -- A look at what's happening around the New York Jets:

1. Cheesy matchup: Quarterback Zach Wilson, a self-proclaimed "fanboy" when he met Aaron Rodgers for the first time a year ago at joint practices, can't afford to be starstruck when he meets up again with his boyhood idol Sunday at Lambeau Field. This time, Wilson doesn't need an autograph as much as he needs a signature win.

Wilson outplayed rookies Skylar Thompson and Kenny Pickett in his first two starts of 2022, demonstrating signs of maturation, but now it's about to get real. He gets the Green Bay Packers in The House of Rodgers, arguably the biggest game of his young career.

Dreams do come true! I can't tell you how many times @ZachWilson and I have watched Rogers on tv or studied his every movement on YouTube. Today he gets a chance to play against him. Parents if your child has a dream, embrace it. Sometimes dreams do come true. pic.twitter.com/wJlAMpNFMu

— Mike Wilson (@wilsonohana) October 16, 2022

"To be on the same field as him is cool," said Wilson, who started studying Rodgers' tape when he was 13. "It'll probably be the same thing like last year, when we were playing Tampa Bay. It was like, 'Wow, we're playing Tom Brady right now. I've been watching this guy since I was born, which is kind of crazy.' I'm sure it'll be the same thing in this game."

Wilson 2.0 is off to a good start -- two games, two different kinds of wins. He "looked like a guy who can put the team on his back" in the comeback win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, coach Robert Saleh said. In routing the Miami Dolphins, it was the reverse. He rode the team's back in the role of "facilitator," Saleh said -- a fancy word for game manager. Maybe that taught him a valuable lesson.

"It probably was a little eye-opening for him to say, 'OK, I just played a game within myself and, all of a sudden ... boom! It explodes,'" backup Joe Flacco said of the 40-17 win over the Dolphins.

Wilson too often last season tried to play hero ball, looking to make the splash play when mundane would've sufficed. Those games didn't explode; they backfired. Fast-forward to the present: He has played five good quarters in a row, having led eight scoring drives in 13 possessions -- impressive stuff.

Now, a new challenge: A showdown against the quarterback he has tried to replicate and "steal things from." On Sunday, Wilson tries to steal a win from his idol.

2. Did you know? Wilson is the only player in the league with a passing, rushing and receiving touchdown. He's one of only 19 quarterbacks since 1970 to accomplish the hat trick, including the first for the Jets.

3. Heeding Kobe's words: Left tackle Duane Brown, 37, is a five-time Pro Bowl player who has earned more than $90 million in his career, per Spotrac. His legacy secure, he could've easily walked away from the game after tearing a rotator cuff at the end of the preseason. Doctors recommended surgery. Instead of taking the money ($9 million guaranteed) and running for the hills, Brown postponed surgery and rehabbed his way back into the lineup.

"I'm not going out like this," Brown told the team after the injury, according to offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur.

Brown will have surgery at the end of the season. For now, he manages the pain, impressing teammates with his toughness. As Wilson said, Brown is "willing to give up his arm for us." Asked about his plight, Brown quoted Kobe Bryant: "When the game itself is more significant than the injury, you don't feel the injury."

Every locker room needs old pros like Brown and defensive end Vinny Curry, who has overcome his share of personal adversity.

4. Nice comp: LaFleur was asked if rookie running back Breece Hall reminds him of anyone. Without much hesitation, he named Matt Forte, the former Chicago Bears star who finished his career with the Jets. That's a great comparison because of their versatility and similar size (Hall is 5-foot-11, 217 pounds; Forte 6-foot-1, 221). They also have the same draft qualification -- second-rounders.

Forte had lost a step by the time he got to the Jets in 2016 at age 31, but he was a fantastic dual threat in his prime, once amassing 1,933 yards from scrimmage in a season. The Jets believe Hall has that kind of potential.

5. Strong finishers: For years, the Jets were known as a bad fourth-quarter team. From 2016 to 2021, their point differential was minus-243 -- by far the worst in the league. They were bad at holding leads, bad at playing catchup, just plain bad.

The season still is young, but they've already started to reverse the trend in dramatic fashion. They've scored a league-high 58 points in the fourth quarter and their differential (+38) ranks second.

A lot of factors have contributed to the turnaround, but you can't ignore this: The last two quarterbacks they faced in the fourth quarter were rookies who came off the bench in their NFL debuts -- Pickett (Steelers) and Thompson (Dolphins).

Fourth-quarter differential in those two games: +28.

Yes, the Jets are moving in the right direction, but let's hold the trumpets and playing "Narco." They're not big-time closers -- yet.

6. Finally, they meet: Defensive end Carl Lawson is looking forward to playing in Green Bay, but not because it's where he suffered his Achilles' injury in August 2021. The reason is David Bakhtiari.

Lawson has a "warrior's respect" for the Packers' left tackle even though he never has faced him. Bakhtiari was out with an injury in 2017, when Lawson dropped Rodgers for his first career sack. Talking to him after the game, Lawson came away with the impression that Bakhtiari didn't think the sack would've occurred on his watch.

After admiring him from afar, Lawson finally gets his shot in what he called a "fated" matchup.

7. From GAs to HCs: Two of Saleh's closest buddies in the coaching profession are Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel and Packers head coach Matt LaFleur. He beat McDaniel last week, and now the "Friends" portion of the schedule continues in Green Bay.

Saleh and LaFleur were roommates in 2004, when they served as graduate assistants at Central Michigan University. They lived in a tiny apartment with no cable and a kitchen table that had no chairs. Saleh, who said LaFleur is "like a brother," helped him land his first NFL job with the Houston Texans in 2008. They talk almost every day during the season -- except this week, of course.

"I don’t know if either one of us when we were together at Central in that small little office ever dreamed that it would be like this," Saleh said. "So we’re very blessed, very fortunate."

They won two games apiece when Saleh was the San Francisco 49ers' defensive coordinator and LaFleur the Packers' coach. This is their first meeting as head coaches.

8. Kudos to coach: Alijah Vera-Tucker is receiving a lot of well-deserved praise for his position versatility. Offensive line coach John Benton should get a shoutout, too. Because of injuries, he's had to be a master juggler.

The Jets have used four different starting tackles, including a rookie (Max Mitchell) and a first-time tackle (Vera-Tucker). In fact, Mitchell leads the tackles in offensive snaps. Benton's steady hand has prevented a full-blown disaster.

9. Beware, the hard count: One of the coaching points this week was to be wary of Rodgers' cadence, which he uses to draw teams offsides. Interestingly, the Packers are one of 13 teams that hasn't drawn an offsides penalty that was accepted, although Rodgers has still been effective. In Week 1, Rodgers drew an offsides penalty against the Vikings and turned it into a free-play 17-yard completion to Juwann Winfree. He did it again in Week 2 and turned that into a 15-yard pass to Aaron Jones.

10. The last word: "Do we maybe talk about it sometimes in the offseason? Sure. Does my mom not like this game? Sure. But this is the sixth time we've played against each other -- obviously, the third different venue -- so we’re kind of used to it." -- Mike LaFleur on coaching against his brother, Matt