A good move for Favre and Packers

Now that Brett Favre is headed for the Pro Bowl, and his New York Jets can clinch the AFC East by winning their final two games, should the Packers be green with envy?

Not so fast.

Yes, folks in Green Bay are disappointed their team is out of the postseason picture. But that doesn’t mean the Packers brass made the wrong decision in trading Favre to move forward with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback.

First of all, Rodgers has had a good season, notching a triple-digit passer rating in half of his 14 games. He has a respectable 23-to-12 touchdown-to-interception ratio, and has proved wrong those who thought he was too fragile to play through pain. He has completed 63.5% of his passes, 11th best in the league, although inferior to Favre’s second-ranked 67.6%.

Most important, the Packers who surround Rodgers believe in him.

“I’ve always been supremely confident in my abilities,” Rodgers told reporters last week. “But the biggest confidence boost is when the guys around you, you feel like they have confidence in you.

“If I felt like I was losing any guys, if I felt like when I stepped in the huddle with under two minutes left and they didn’t believe we could win the game, then that would make me have a diminished sense of confidence about myself. Which I would address. But I haven’t gotten any of that.”

As to whether Favre has been an unmitigated success for the Jets, the next two games are crucial. Because if this team misses the playoffs after an 8-3 start, it will be hugely disappointing for the franchise and its fans.

If history is a guide, the Jets have the right quarterback to finish strong. Rich Cimini of the New York Daily News came up with this telling statistic: In the last 16 years, Favre is 26-6 in the final two games of the season and has never lost both in the same season. The Jets, meanwhile, have a losing record in the final two games over that span.

Favre has been shaky at best in the three games leading up to this week, with one touchdown and four interceptions, lending credence to the argument that he made the Pro Bowl based on his reputation.

The Packers are certainly rooting for him. Because the better Favre does, the better the 2009 draft pick Green Bay will receive in exchange for him. It started as a fourth-rounder, but has moved up to a third because Favre met the playing-time requirements.

If the Jets make the playoffs, the pick going to the Packers will jump up to a second-rounder, and will improve to a first-rounder if New York winds up in the Super Bowl. Then, everyone wins.

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sam.farmer@latimes.com