If there’s one distinct positive from a New York Jets season that has seemingly gone off the rails, it’s that the entire organization is sticking together.
Unlike past years of anonymous sources and angered interviews, the Jets locker room has continued to be a tight-knit group that continues to try and find answers to their current four-game losing streak. While their playoff odds tether, the team went back to the basics after their 34-13 loss to the Miami Dolphins last Friday.
“Obviously it didn’t go as well as we wanted it to go last Friday,” Laken Tomlinson said Monday. “Coach was just talking to us in the team meeting room, and he challenged us. He challenged us and said we could all be better as players and coaches.”
Robert Saleh’s message to the team was well received by several in the locker room and highlighted his importance within the organization as the head coach.
“I thought it was a really good message because I definitely feel that there are more things we can do, especially myself, to try & help the team,” Tomlinson added.
Talk of Saleh’s job security has grown louder over the last few weeks as several changes to offensive personnel have had little to no positive results on game day. While the Jets head coach confirmed after Friday’s loss that his job security was not something he was overly worried about, the latest conversation with players was a welcome sign that the locker has not fractured as many had feared.
“It’s just constructive criticism,” Jermaine Johnson explained. “It’s someone who wants us to be the best version of ourselves.”
New York’s meeting today may have been an important reset, but the arrival of their biggest star certainly helped whatever message the coaching staff wanted to bring out.
Aaron Rodgers was at the Jets facility Monday and is back with the team months after suffering the torn Achilles that many believed would end his 2023 season. As the quarterback continues to rehab quicker than any other professional athlete with this kind of injury though, the excitement of having him back with the team is enough to get the veterans back to focusing on the “controllables.“
“Just coming in and seeing Aaron in the building doing treatment, a guy who’s in there doing everything he can treatment-wise, for me coming in off the game that we had and seeing him, how hard he’s been working, that was motivation for me,” Tomlinson said of Rodgers. “That’s one thing I can control, is my attitude towards my work, and just seeing Aaron working as hard as he can, that’s motivation for me.”
Rodgers is trying to do something that no NFL athlete or athlete as a whole would even dream of doing as he attempts to return at the end of the 2023 season. With him back in the team facility, it’s certainly been a boost for an offense that has struggled to maintain any sort of flow through the entire regular season.
On the defensive side, there are still those trying to grasp the understanding of a 39-year-old quarterback defying modern medicine in the best possible way to help the team both in the present and in the future.
“It’s really hard to say because no one has seen anything like this,” Jets defensive captain C.J. Mosley stated. “You can just look at the process and where he is at now and just be happy for him. As a friend and teammate, I’m just happy to see him healthy, smiling, see him have a little pep in his step which is crazy.”
As happy as someone like Mosley is to see a leader like Rodgers back in the locker room, there is still concern from analysts and fans that the future Hall-of-Fame quarterback could end up re-injuring the same Achilles he tore back in September.
“Any time you step on the field there’s a chance (for injury). There’s a chance for injury but there’s a chance we can all witness something that’s never been done before,” Mosley explained. “It’s not in our hands. It’s Aron’s mind and body. If he feels he’s in the right position to do something he’s put his mind and heart to, then who is to stop him?”
The Jets’ quarterback has had a motivation to return this season that can hopefully spark life into a Gang Green squad that is on the brink of their 13th straight year without a playoff appearance. Now with him being back with the team, Rodgers hopes that he can offer some guidance and a lightning rod of positivity to the squad.
It’ll be up to the rest of the Jets to see how far they can go without their franchise quarterback.
