Mike White energizes Jets: 'That's my quarterback, baby!'

Tyler Conklin was looking to celebrate Sunday’s big victory with its biggest star.

“What are we doing later?” he asked after the Jets’ 31-10 win over the Bears.

Nothing, it turned out. At least nothing together.

Mike White told him he was going home to be with his kids.

Conklin smiled at the snub.

“That’s my quarterback, baby!” he said.

White now is everyone’s quarterback, baby, after making his first appearance of the season and pumping life into an offense that was barely conscious just a week ago. He brought the MetLife Stadium crowd to its feet and had the fans roaring his name in unison. He reignited the team’s hopes for a playoff run and dared his teammates to go back to dreaming dizzying thoughts about the heights they might be able to reach.

There were many elements the Jets hoped he could give them that benched starter Zach Wilson was not providing: production, leadership, maturity, confidence. White checked off all of them like a suburban dad with a honey-do list from his wife.

And then he drove home.

That’s Mike White, the Everyman Quarterback who might save this season not through some superhuman effort or outstanding physical contribution but just by being himself.

He’s the unassuming, humble player who insisted he was “not complaining” but politely reminded fans that chanting his name while he is trying to get the football snapped can be a distraction.

He’s the “King of New York,” as Conklin has taken to calling him (T-shirts are in the process of being made, the tight end said), sitting on what served as his throne: a folding chair in the locker room, his leg casually crossed onto his lap as he chatted amicably on the phone about the day’s experience, without a hanger-on or fame-sponger within yards of him. Royalty in boring anonymity.

He’s the quarterback who, on his way out of the building, stopped one of the team’s staffers not with a request or a demand, but just to say, “Thank you.”

Oh, right, he also became just the fifth Jet to have multiple games with at least three touchdown passes and at least 300 passing yards. Considering he’s had only four career starts, that’s not too shabby.

There obviously is a big chasm between beating the already hibernating Bears and the playoff-caliber teams the Jets will be facing in the next few weeks. Those upcoming games will be the real tests to see if what White gave the Jets on Sunday is sustainable. Unlike last year’s flash of hysteria followed by two clunkers and a return to the bench, it should be.

The biggest difference between this wow performance and last year’s against the Bengals is that these Jets have a much better team around him. They have a dominant defense and offensive playmakers. The only thing they were missing was someone to bring a soothing serenity to it all.

“Personally, the way I approach the quarterback position is to be a calming presence in the huddle, especially when things aren’t going well, because that’s when things can start to spiral,” White said.

That certainly was the direction of the organization a week ago. White stepped in and Zenned them out of their brief nosedive.

Robert Saleh said White “made the easy look easy” and has a “mastery of the obvious.” That was about his on-field accomplishments, but he easily could have dished the same compliments for White’s demeanor off the field. His humility and straightforwardness contrast as sharply with his predecessor’s as his passer rating did. White made sure this felt like a big day for the Jets, not for himself.

Good quarterbacks can win games on their own. Great quarterbacks make those around them better and allow them to win the games. That’s what White did against the Bears. There were no absurd no-look passes or wild scrambles, just a simple circulation of the football to 10 different receivers. Everyone on the roster seemed energized by his presence. (Well, almost everyone, as Wilson spent the game inactive on the sideline with the rain pelting the hood of the sweatshirt he was wearing.)

“It’s just distributing the ball and letting them be who they are,” White said of his teammates. “They are all in that locker room for a reason. This is the NFL. Everybody that wears pads on Sundays is very good and you just have to get them the ball and get their confidence going. When someone’s confidence is up, I highly believe that you see their game go to the next level.”

So how is White’s confidence now?

“I feel good, obviously,” he said. “It was a good game for the offense. I’ll enjoy this one with my friends and family and then tomorrow turns into Minnesota prep and we turn the page and keep going the way we’re trying to go.”

With him as the Jets’ quarterback, baby.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

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.