Mike White alone can't lead Jets to playoffs
Mike White of the Jets looks to pass in the first quarter of a game against the Bills at Highmark Stadium on Dec. 11 in Orchard Park, N.Y. Credit: Getty Images/Joshua Bessex
There obviously — and rightly — is going to be a lot of delirium around the Jets this week now that their most productive and most popular quarterback has been cleared to return from his rib injury.
Mike White will start Sunday’s game against the Seahawks, Robert Saleh announced on Monday, a day after the holiday weekend provided the results they needed to rekindle their postseason vision and cleared an achievable pathway to the playoffs.
They head into this stretch with the quarterback who undeniably gives them the best chance to win, to complete that journey and to end a playoff drought that reaches back to the 2010 season.
But believing his mere presence will overcome the rest of the flaws that have made them losers in five of their last six games — including two that White started, by the way — is a dangerous perspective.
White gives them a fair opportunity, yes, but he is not a one-man cure. There have been ills beyond the play of Zach Wilson that have left the Jets bedridden the better part of the past month and a half.
Though spirits will be buoyed by White stepping back into the starting job with a chance to turn around the fortunes of the season and the franchise for the second time since Thanksgiving, Saleh needs to remind the other players that they need to do their part in making the Mike White Magic come to life.
There is the running game, which Saleh last week described as “putrid.” A defense that has allowed two killer touchdown drives in the last two games. The special teams unit that has given up two punt returns for touchdowns during this stretch of woe (the rest of the league has allowed one such scoring play all season).
“The big thing is us coming out as an offense and executing better and all of us being better for each other,” tight end Tyler Conklin said. “This is a good opportunity for us to come together as an offense and no matter who the quarterback is to play better as a unit.”
Relying on White to fix it all is a mindset the Jets seem humble and wise enough to avoid.
“I don’t think we can fall into that trap,” Conklin said. “It’s not like we’ve been good in all areas, right?”
Mike White is back. That is good news for the Jets. Really good news. It won’t mean anything, though, unless the rest of the team shows up and plays to its capability on Sunday along with him.
“We have to get back to what we were in the first half of the season,” Saleh told reporters and, presumably, the team on Monday. “We have to find ourselves, we have to find our confidence, we have to get the ball rolling, and it starts with how we prepare day in and day out . . . Our messaging doesn’t change from what we talked about on Friday.”
That was the day after the Jets lost to the Jaguars and Saleh called reaching the playoffs “far-fetched.”
Now if they win their remaining two games against the Seahawks and Dolphins and the Patriots lose at least one of their final two (against the Dolphins and Bills), they are in.
White does seem to have a presence that brings out the best from his teammates. They enjoy playing with him and playing for him. There is a noticeable increase in oomph when he is on the field. Even Saleh can’t deny that.
“Whenever you’re playing with someone that you feel you have confidence with and confidence with one another and team confidence, it is contagious,” he said. “You can tell when players have confidence in one another and when they don’t.”
But the Jets can’t sit back and say “Mike is here to save the day” without doing their part to help him. To help themselves.
White has spoken often about avoiding his “hero ball” tendencies, about trying to not do too much with each throw he makes and taking what the defense gives him. In these next two weeks — and possibly beyond — everyone on the Jets needs to adopt that same philosophy in regard to their quarterback.
White may be the symbol of the hope, potential and confidence that has been lacking from the team since he left the field in Buffalo with his battered midsection, the personification of the toughness and audacity that the Jets will need to rely upon to salvage their season.
But he can’t do it all by himself.
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.
