Tyrod Taylor could be Jets’ next bridge starter pending Aaron Rodgers divorce

Tyrod Taylor hasn’t thought about it yet.

About the opportunity to open next season as the Jets’ starting quarterback, depending on the new general manager’s decisions with Aaron Rodgers and in the coming NFL Draft. About everything — at least as of now — starting to align for Taylor, who will be 36 in August, to enter 2025 with a chance to start his first Week 1 game since 2021.

He won’t worry about any of that until the Jets’ dismal campaign ends next month.

But with Rodgers and the Jets possibly destined for a divorce and with Taylor set to make $6 million next season in the final year of his deal, he has emerged as Gang Green’s best in-house candidate to bridge the present to an unknown signal caller of the future.

It’s a role that he filled earlier in his career, too.

For now, as the veteran quarterback has always done as a backup, Taylor has tried to remain ready in case Rodgers, banged up and on the injury report for seven weeks this season, can’t start any of the Jets’ final five games.

“I haven’t took my mind there yet,” Taylor told The Post on Thursday. “I’m a big believer of being exactly where my feet is, and for me, that’s, right now, finishing off this season strong and being prepared if the opportunity presents itself. And if not, being able to lead and support Aaron, support the team, support the wide receiver group and every group on this team. …

“And then we’ll focus on next year after the season.”

The concept of being a bridge quarterback wouldn’t be a new one for Taylor. After a three-year stint as the Bills’ starter from 2015-17, Taylor was traded to the Browns a month before they took Baker Mayfield No. 1 overall.

He started the first three games in 2018, and while he didn’t view himself as Cleveland’s patchwork solution — “Hopefully, I’m helping bridge this team to a Super Bowl,” he told reporters that year — until Mayfield developed, a Week 3 injury snowballed into a demotion.

Then, after a year as Philip Rivers’ backup in 2019, Taylor positioned himself to serve as the Chargers’ bridge quarterback once the franchise snagged Justin Herbert No. 6 overall.

Taylor started Week 1 that year, too. But a Los Angeles doctor punctured his lung while providing treatment for a rib injury ahead of the second game that year, and Taylor only took one additional snap the rest of the campaign as Herbert stepped into the starting job.

Since then, his football life has been filled with a six-game cameo as the Texans’ starter in 2021 — the year before they drafted C.J. Stroud — and three years of Giants and Jets chaos.

Big Blue dysfunction in 2023 has been replaced by Gang Green dysfunction in 2024.

Owner Woody Johnson reportedly wanted to bench Rodgers and pivot to Taylor following a Week 4 loss to the Broncos, but that never materialized. The Jets, for better or worse, have stuck with Rodgers.

Even before the bridge quarterback murmurs resurface in the offseason, Taylor could end up playing for the Jets.

Rodgers reiterated again this week that he wants to finish the regular season, and interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich — who left the door open for a change in the moments following Sunday’s loss to the Seahawks — said the 41-year-old will remain his starter, but Taylor knows he’s one snap, one injury away from that outlook changing.

That’s life as an NFL backup.

“My mindset since I got drafted 14 years ago, just come into the building each and every day and prepare like the starter,” Taylor said. “… You never want to get the opportunity and not take advantage of it.”

Taylor still believes in Rodgers, despite the mounting heap of evidence and stats and trends suggesting the latter’s career has spun out of control.

Taylor has never seen anyone “spin it” like Rodgers can, he said. He admired Rodgers earlier in his career, and that hasn’t wavered.

Still, when mapping out the rest of his NFL career, he’d “for sure” welcome another chance to start full-time again.

“I mean, obviously, I would love to play,” he said, and he’ll be “ready for whenever it comes.” He’ll keep working on his craft, keep relying on the one-day-at-a-time mindset that has worked for him since being a sixth-round pick in 2011, keep focusing on how he can contribute in his current role as a backup.

And depending on how the dominos fall the next five months, that chance could happen with the Jets after all.