Jets rookie tight end Mason Taylor has high hopes for the future: 'We're pretty dangerous'
Jets rookie tight end Mason Taylor reacts during the second half against the Cleveland Browns at MetLife Stadium on Nov. 9 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Credit: Getty Images/Evan Bernstein
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — People use a lot of words to describe the Jets, their decade-and-a-half without a playoff game, their nearly six decades without a Super Bowl appearance and their unimpressive three wins this season. Not all of the vocabulary is fit for print. As coach Aaron Glenn noted recently: “Everybody on this team gets bashed for everything.”
Even when things go embarrassingly wrong for other teams — like, say, Giants kicker Younghoe Koo’s aborted field-goal attempt on Monday night in which he drove his foot into the turf rather than through the ball — it gets thrown back on the Jets as feeling like something that normally happens to them.
Here’s a modifier we don’t hear about them very often, though, from one of the players who is trying to adjust that language:
“We’re pretty dangerous.”
That’s what rookie tight end Mason Taylor told Newsday he thinks of the Jets.
He didn’t necessarily mean right now heading into Sunday’s game against the Dolphins at MetLife Stadium, a rematch of the Week 4 game in Miami that was one of the seven straight losses with which he and the Jets opened this season. And he understands that the Jets are on the brink of mathematical elimination from postseason consideration for the 15th straight season, so it’s not as if they are going to make a run. But he also sees what is being built, both with and around him, and it excites him.
“We have a lot of young talent that works hard and works well together,” he said. “We’re on the track of clicking and getting things rolling . . . We know that the standard around here is changing. We’re here to change that culture, so we have to take that responsibility and learn from these vets every single day and try to put our best foot forward.”
It wasn’t too long ago that a different group of rookies was saying the same thing. The Jets felt as if they were on the verge of finding success when they had Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson, Breece Hall and Jermaine Johnson as the young nucleus in 2022. Even their prodigious skills couldn’t change things, though.
Gardner already has been traded away, Wilson is on injured reserve, Hall is a pending free agent who may or may not be back and Johnson has only three sacks.
So now it’s on to the next class of hope. This one includes Taylor, first-round pick Armand Membou and defensive backs Azareye’h Thomas and Malachi Moore, and we can even throw in recently acquired second-year receiver Adonai Mitchell, part of the Gardner trade with the Colts. Maybe next year they’ll add that coveted quarterback to the picture, too.
Taylor is under no illusions about where the Jets are. Three wins — even if it is three in the last five games — isn’t good enough. He’s just focused on where they might end up.
“That’s the goal,” he said of ending the streak of seasons without a postseason, becoming a regular playoff participant and maybe even one day raising a trophy. “And I think starting from the bottom and accomplishing that is the best way to do it, so that’s definitely exciting.”
Taylor definitely has excited the Jets. The second-rounder has become one of the main pieces in the offense. He leads the team in receptions (39) and is second in targets (57) and second in receiving yardage (318). Those stats are all in the top five among NFL rookies.
“Mason has done a great job,” quarterback Tyrod Taylor said. “We've asked him to do a little bit of everything in the passing game as well as in the blocking game. I'm pretty sure when he first came, he didn't know he was going to have to be blocking some of these defensive ends that he's blocked this season. But a very dynamic player. I'm very impressed by him and his ability to get open. He's a matchup problem and I'm looking forward to continue keep giving him the ball.”
Last week against the Falcons, he caught only two passes for 21 yards but played a big role in slowing down Atlanta’s pass rush.
“We did ask the tight ends to block quite a bit on third down last week because of the pressure package that they have,” offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand said of the limited pass reps. “It's just a matter of us continuing to feature him and get him as the primary [receiving option] so we can help him in the progression.”
That could come this week against the Dolphins, a team he already has had some success against. In Week 4, Taylor had a bit of a breakout game. He caught five passes for 65 yards in a game in which his father and uncle, Hall of Famers Jason Taylor and Zach Thomas, were the honorary captains for the opponent.
“That was cool,” Mason Taylor said. “It was a dream come true for my dad to have played there, and then me playing against them, it was a crazy moment. I was just taking that all in. I definitely was excited to do that.”
In the end, though, the Jets lost. That’s what sticks with Taylor the most.
“We’re working toward winning games,” he said. “You want to build a winning culture here? How do you do that? By winning.”
Sounds easy.
Maybe even a little . . . dangerous.
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.
