Is it even possible to make Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson, who turned 24 last month and is starting merely his third season of NFL football, feel old?

Rookie wideout Malachi Corley may not have succeeded, but he tried.

"I've been following Garrett on Instagram since I was 16 years old, watching him at Lake Travis High School," Corley, a much younger man of almost 22½, told reporters following the Jets' combined practice with the Carolina Panthers today.

And just as Corley had that praise and more for Wilson's game, Wilson returned the favor.

"It's been super awesome to see his progress," said Wilson of the first-year player he and his teammates call Chi, pronounced "Kye." "Just the way he goes about things, the way he's understanding the playbook now and understanding these little things.

"You know, all of a sudden when you're a rookie at OTAs, everyone's watching, like, is he going to run the right route? Because I remember that was me just two years ago, right? So it's really cool to see his progression and the way he's wired."

It remains fascinating to ponder how Wilson himself is wired. On the one hand, it would be understandable if the new No. 5 in the Jets offense thought he had the NFL world by the horsecollar, after becoming one of only a handful of NFL players to clear 1,000 receiving yards in each of his first two seasons and being on the doorstep of joining George Sauer from 1966-68 as the only receivers to string three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons at any time in their Jets careers.

On the other hand, Wilson said with a seriousness and an intensity that he's still got plenty to prove.

"Yeah, 100 percent yeah. Damn right. That's the reality of it," he said. "And in this league, the moment you stop feeling like that, you're probably not going to be in it much longer. So I'll say that."

That attitude explains a little more about those celebrated animated "words" he and Rodgers shared on the field recently. Fracturing at the top of the Jets' offensive foundation? Hardly.

"Aaron wants it done a certain way, but it's not all a one-way street," Wilson said. "You've definitely got to talk about it and be able to have some harder conversations where he's telling me what he wants and I've got to listen to that, and I weigh in on how I feel. And then we come to a decision together.

"It's kind of just spending time together and playing, you know? You start to build this chemistry, this understanding for how he goes about his and how I go about mine."

The chemistry was bubbling during the two-minute period against the Panthers when Rodgers quick-pitched a touchdown strike to Wilson, similar in impact to the no-looks and double-coverage long balls the two have been collaborating on back at 1 Jets Drive this summer.

Wilson sounded like an adolescent philosopher as he tried to explain some of the metaphysics of him playing pitch-and-catch with one of the NFL's QB gurus.

"When you've got him in front of you, you're like, 'This dude can throw anything, he can throw it anywhere,' " Wilson said. "It's just like for me, it feels like pure football. It feels like I'm a kid again and I can kind of believe what I see. It's the best way to put it for me.

"With Aaron, everything's ... you can do it. And that's how football should be played, when you can do it. So it's exciting for me and for all the receivers in the room, the tight ends, we all feel like we can really just go out there and play and trust our eyes, we don't have to overthink anything."

Heavy stuff from the Jets' mature 24-year-old pass-catching luminary. Wilson loves the whole spectrum that he and the Jets find themselves in right now, where Rodgers can find him or Corley — or Mike Williams or Allen Lazard or Breece Hall or Tyler Conklin — on third down, in two-minute, in the red zone for just the play the Jets need. And where all the guys in green and white can see their dreams taking the color and shape of reality.

"It's cool, you know. It's really cool," said Wilson, a young professional now and a kid no more. "And I'm excited to be a part of it."