Jets are green with envy as they watch Browns clinch playoff spot
Sauce Gardner of the Jets interacts with Joe Flacco of the Browns after their game at Cleveland Browns Stadium on Thursday in Cleveland. Credit: Getty Images/Gregory Shamus
CLEVELAND
Garrett Wilson wanted to watch.
He could have ducked straight into the locker room after the Jets’ 37-20 loss to the Browns on Thursday night after the obligatory handshakes and jersey swaps and prayer circles that take place at the end of just about every NFL game. But the second-year receiver felt an obligation to stick around and take what he could from the scene.
And what a scene it was.
The Browns clinched a playoff berth with their victory and the entire stadium erupted with a mix of joy and relief as the final seconds ticked down. Then, when it became clear that none of the home players wanted to leave the playing surface and none of the fans wanted to go home, the team took a victory lap around the circumference of the field, high-fiving the faithful and pulling them into the celebration.
Players and fans rejoicing as one big, happy family.
That’s what Wilson saw.
That’s what Wilson wants.
Not in Cleveland for the Browns, but back in New Jersey for the Jets.
It won’t happen this season. This miserable year is a 13th straight campaign that will end without a postseason appearance, the longest such streak in North American major league sports.
But maybe, Wilson said, one day. Maybe soon.
“I got a lot of boys on that team,” he said in the postgame locker room, perhaps the one and only subdued space in the entire building. “I definitely saw them make their rounds around the stadium and clinch their playoff spot. I’m confident that my turn is coming, that our turn is coming.”
It’s one thing to say that, of course, and quite another to actually do it. That seems to be the lesson Wilson has taken from his first two NFL seasons with the Jets.
“I’m going to grind and make sure that happens,” he said. “I know it’s not by accident. Winning in this league is precious, and because of that, I have to be on my details. This offseason will be the hardest I have ever gone in my life. I want to make it possible for us. You give yourself a chance by working hard, you give yourself a chance by going about things right during the week and preparing. And then you have to go out and do it on Sunday.
“Credit to them for getting it done when they had to,” he added of the Browns. “We were in their shoes last year and we didn’t. We needed a game to get it done. Winning in this league is hard, it’s precious. We have to find a way to get over that hump and pull it together because that’s the goal, to make the playoffs.”
While Wilson forced himself to witness the festivities, others took different elements from the experience. Sauce Gardner wanted nothing to do with it. He sprinted off the field as soon as he could. Why would he want to watch other people get what he wants for himself and his team?
Cornerback D.J. Reed said he didn’t see the parade at the very end but definitely took something from the sounds that cascaded down throughout the night, particularly when those final seconds of action were expiring.
“That’s probably the loudest [crowd] I’ve heard throughout the season,” he said. “I congratulated some of the guys, talked to a few guys I know. I saw [tight end David Njoku] celebrating with the fans a little bit. And then I just walked in. I didn’t really sit and just look at it.”
Running back Breece Hall said he didn’t need the Browns to clinch the playoffs in front of him to know what he and the Jets have been missing out on.
“This whole season has been frustrating,” he said. “I’m motivated every week, but I worked my [butt] off this offseason to come back and I expected to be one of the best in the league and I couldn’t really show that the whole season. I just tell everybody to get their laughs out now because it’s not going to be like that for long. In the near future, we are going to be a lot better. I’m excited to see what we do.”
They won’t be trying to do it themselves. In 2024, they’ll have Aaron Rodgers back on the field with them, which — presuming he can stay healthy — should make a significant difference in their week-to-week chances and their overall ambitions.
Perhaps at this time next year, the Jets will be running victory laps, throwing their arms toward the heavens, hugging each other over what they have accomplished and getting ready for a playoff game. It will be the first time any of them will have done so for the Jets.
At least after Thursday night, they know what such an event might look and sound like.
Now they just have to go make it happen.
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.
