How the Jets' Andre Cisco landed on the No. 8 jersey once worn by Aaron Rodgers
Aaron Rodgers with the Jets in 2024, and Andre Cisco with the Jets in 2025. Credit: Jim McIsaac; Getty Images
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Some defensive backs may think they have a certain quarterback’s number. For Jets safety Andre Cisco, that will be the case on Sunday.
“Yeah,” he told Newsday. “Quite literally.”
Cisco, who signed with the Jets as a free agent in the offseason, wears No. 8. That is, of course, the number Aaron Rodgers wore during his two rollercoaster seasons as a member of the Jets and has continued to wear with the Steelers this season.
But Cisco said that coincidence wasn’t on his mind when he chose his new digit.
“I was just looking at open numbers,” he said. “I wanted 8 when I initially got into the league with Jacksonville, but it was retired because of Mark Brunell, so I never got it. I came here and it was open.”
It certainly was.
The Jets had announced their decision previously before officially releasing Rodgers on March 12. Cisco agreed to terms with the Jets on March 10 during the open negotiation window but couldn’t sign until March 14.
Cisco wore No. 5 for most of his career with the Jaguars and was No. 7 in college at Syracuse, but before that, he was always an 8 dating to his earliest roots on Long Island.
It was so much a part of his identity that the Instagram handle he chose in sixth grade while growing up in Valley Stream — and then playing at St. Anthony’s High School — was (and remains) @ochocisco, a play on Chad Johnson’s “Ocho Cinco” nickname that was molded to fit his own actual name.
“It was always a thing for me to wear 8,” he said. “When I got here, it all tied together.”
Cisco said he has noticed a lot of folks who still wear the No. 8 Jets jerseys they likely purchased at some point during the past two seasons. And he knows there are likely to be a few Starter-crossed fans at Sunday’s game wearing a shirt that represents the home team in color and design but with the opposing quarterback’s name on the back. Perhaps a few of the creative ones will even tape over the “Rodgers” and write in “Cisco.”
“People have no shame; they just wear whatever Jets jersey they have,” Cisco said. “But it’s cool, I guess. I mean, I’m not going to get confused. I’m not going to look up there and think they are wearing my jersey.”
Not yet, anyway. Perhaps a few key plays on Sunday against the former No. 8 will start to change that.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
