C.J. Mosley's bold Jets prediction not a flight of fancy
C.J. Mosley of the Jets celebrates a defensive stop against the Bills with teammates Kwon Alexander and Jordan Whitehead at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
C.J. Mosley raised some eyebrows and likely evoked some head shakes when he said before training camp that the Jets had a realistic shot of making the playoffs. It looks like Mosley wasn’t lying.
The Jets entered their bye week with a 6-3 record, one-half game behind Buffalo in the AFC East, and the No. 5 seed in the AFC. The Jets absolutely have a chance of ending their 11-year playoff drought, but they need a strong finish to make the postseason a reality.
Mosley, who played college football at Alabama and started his NFL career with the Ravens, knows what a winning team looks like.
The veteran linebacker saw something from his teammates during the offseason program — their talent, drive and how hard they worked. It gave Mosley the confidence to make the bold statement that is probably evoking some head nods now.
“I was really just speaking from the heart and just believing what we can accomplish and setting our goals to a very high standard,” Mosley said. “It doesn’t really matter who believes us outside of the building. We believe in each other. We put in a lot of work. We just got to keep doing what we’ve been doing going into today.
“When we step on the field, we know once we get on the field, we can run with anybody if we’re doing our job. That’s what we’ve been proving.”
The Jets were generally viewed as a young team with unproven second-year quarterback Zach Wilson, and they needed more time to grow and develop.
VegasInsider.com had the over/under on Jets wins at 5.5. They’ve already surpassed that and matched their win total for the last two seasons combined.
The Jets are following coach Robert Saleh’s lead and not publicly discussing the playoffs. Mosley said it something that’s mentioned from time to time among players, but they’re not looking ahead.
“I feel like it comes up naturally,” Mosley said. “We don’t really talk about it that much. I would say our main thing is: We know we can play with anybody based off our confidence, based off our skill level and really based off our ability to understand the game. We’re a young group, but we’re very wise in a lot of areas. It makes up for a lot of things.
“All around we got pieces to the puzzle and every piece is in the right spot. When we can do that week in and week out we give ourselves a fighting chance every day.”
The Jets have won five of their last six games. It might be six straight if Wilson hadn’t thrown three interceptions in a 22-17 loss to New England two games ago.
The Jets’ defense has been the spark plug. They are shutting teams down when the game is on the line.
The Jets have not given up a fourth-quarter touchdown in the last five games. They’ve outscored their opponents 47-6 in the fourth over the last five. The Jets still don’t feel they’ve arrived.
“We got a lot more games left, and it can go south real quick if you have that mindset of, ‘I’m on top of the world,’ ” defensive tackle Quinnen Williams said. “Nobody in our room has that mindset. Nobody on this staff has that mindset. We all got to learn, we all got to get better and we all got to be consistent.
“I feel like we’re on the right path to becoming the defense we want to be, but we’re not there yet.”
Five of the Jets’ remaining eight games are on the road — and all five are against teams above .500. They travel to New England after the bye, but the Jets’ biggest opponent this week may be themselves.
Saleh challenged his players to rest their bodies, stay focused on football and come back ready for a playoff push. Mosley, one of the Jets’ captains, reiterated that.
“This bye week is going to be really big for us to get healthy, get mentally right, get physically right,” Mosley said. “When we come back we have eight very good games to play. It could make or break our season. We’re going to see where we really stand and where we are mentally as a team collectively when we come back from the bye.”
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
