Regrets? Hardly.
Despite injuries, losses, Forte won't look back
Matt Forte stood in front of his locker Wednesday with an aching right knee, staring at another season without the playoffs, but with no regrets about joining the Jets last March.
Forte signed a three-year, $12 million deal, envisioning a big season with an offense featuring him, Brandon Marshall, Eric Decker and Ryan Fitzpatrick. Instead, the Jets are 4-9 and Forte is hobbled by a torn meniscus in his right knee that kept him out of practice.
Does he wish he signed somewhere else?
“No,” Forte told The Post. “In anything we do in life, you’re where you are for a reason. I believe God has me here for a reason. I was meant to be here. I made my decision. I’ll always stick behind it.”
Forte has had some good moments in his first year with the Jets. He leads the team with eight total touchdowns and has rushed for 792 yards. He has slowed down in recent weeks, though, and left Sunday’s game in San Francisco with a knee injury. An MRI exam showed the torn meniscus, but Forte said his knee is feeling better and he is optimistic he can play Saturday night against the Dolphins.
With three games left, Forte took stock of his first season with the Jets. Not surprisingly, the wonloss record hurts him the most.
“It’s gone well at times,” Forte said. “I’m always my worst critic, my hardest critic. I feel like, as a team, we have underachieved based on the talent level. You can always look at a team and say, ‘They have a lot of talent,’ but until it’s displayed out there, it really doesn’t mean anything. Potential is talent that is dormant, waiting to be expressed. We definitely underachieved. Personally, I always go back and look at the film and feel like I could have done something better there or made a better run there.”
Before the past three games, the Jets were giving Forte the ball a lot. He had a stretch in midseason of carrying the ball 30, 25, 12 and 20 times. The 31-year-old answered questions about his durability, making it to December before showing any signs of wear and tear. It remains to be seen if the knee injury causes him to miss any time.
“He brought us some things,” Jets coach Todd Bowles said. “The biggest thing is he didn’t turn the ball over [one fumble]. He was running the football very well when he was in there. They had some games where they stopped us from running the ball. He’s been durable, and he and Bilal [Powell] have been a good 1-2 punch before he got hurt.”
Forte has two years remaining on his contract and he is not going anywhere. It could be a $6 million cap hit if the Jets cut or trade Forte this offseason. So, pencil him in for the 2017 Jets. Forte remains excited about this team, even though 2016 has been a disappointment.
“The future still looks good. I’m always going to be optimistic,” Forte said. “We still have a lot of talent on this team. It just has to get drilled in and displayed on the field to the best of our ability. That’s the worst thing — wasted talent. There’s guys I grew up with in the neighborhood that were more talented than me who aren’t in the league. We have to figure out a way to not just win games, but not lose games because when you’re playing in these games and you have silly, stupid penalties and mistakes in the game plan. We can’t have that. We study all week so we don’t make those mistakes, especially mentally. The mental part of the game is 80 percent or more. You can’t have it.”