FIGHT OR FLIGHT
Gang Green expect to compete despite doubters, depleted roster
The Jets reported to training camp Friday and, no, they did not forfeit the season.
Despite talk of tanking and predictions of being the worst team in football, the Jets’ players said they are optimistic and believe in this team.
“The standard and belief that we have within those walls is high,” quarterback Josh McCown said. “That’s what we’re chasing. Everybody else is entitled to their opinions about things. For us, when we come to work ours is the only one that matters to us.”
The Jets take the field for their first practice Saturday afternoon. Their belief is that will be the beginning of a long journey with plenty of success.
Asked to define a successful season, veteran running back Matt Forte said, “Anything playoff-wise and forward.”
Forte said the players look at the Jets’ lone Super Bowl trophy every day and believe they can win another.
Linebacker Demario Davis said the only way this season will be successful is a Super Bowl.
“There’s only one name for success in this game for all 32 teams and that’s the Super Bowl,” Davis said. “It’s win all or nothing. That’s what success is on the team scale.”
Super Bowl talk might seem silly to anyone objectively evaluating the Jets’ roster. The 2017 Jets look much less talented than the 2016 team that went 5-11.
Everyone is predicting doom and gloom this year. USA Today predicted a 1-15 season for the Jets this week. Pro Football Talk ranked them as the worst team in the NFL.
Even former Jets such as Brandon Marshall have taken their shots. Marshall, who is now on the Giants, told WFAN this month that he could not play for the Jets this year because he “wouldn’t have made it through an entire season knowing that we didn’t have a chance. That’s all you want as a player. You just want a chance.”
Forte was asked Friday for his thoughts on Marshall’s words.
“It doesn’t matter,” Forte said. “He’s not here. He hasn’t been here the whole offseason. He doesn’t know what chance we have or anyone has. That’s Brandon speaking on Brandon. That’s all I have to say on that part.”
The Jets are tuning out the naysayers.
“The outside world is not in here,” nose tackle Steve McLendon said. “That’s the difference. I’m not really worried about what they say. It’s not about prov- ing them wrong. It’s about doing what we’re supposed to do.”
Players returned to Florham Park, N.J., on Friday and went through their conditioning tests. The work on the field begins Saturday and the first preseason game is in two weeks against the Titans.
The Jets are trying to move past the stench of last season, when high expectations crumbled. The locker room splintered as the losses mounted and added a layer of dysfunction to the losing. Now, the players say the locker room is more cohesive. Forte said it is more “tight knit.”
“Any season like that there’s going to be people who do that,” Forte said. “That’s a good thing in a way because it shows you who that person is and you can get rid of him. It’s good for the young guys to have experienced something like that because they know that once you go through a season like that you don’t ever want to do that again.”
The Jets cut many of their veteran players this offseason. Nick Mangold, Darrelle Revis, David Harris, Eric Decker, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Marshall are all gone. That does not mean the remaining players are writing off the season.
“You lose some of the names that have been here for a while with Mangold and all that, but we still have a goal and our goal is to win,” right guard Brian Winters said. “That’s our expectation, to continue to win.”