Robert Saleh searching for ways to keep Jets fresh physically and mentally

The Jets know all too well that it’s not how you start but how you finish. It’s almost a battle cry after how painfully last season ended for them. They were 6-3 heading into their bye, in control of their playoff destiny, and then went 1-7, including losses in their final six games to shatter their playoff hopes.

The Jets enjoyed this season’s bye last week. They’re 3-3 and have everything in front of them again. The pain of last season’s meltdown and unfulfilled potential still lingers, though, and it could fuel them beginning Sunday against the Giants as they attempt to put an end to their 12-year playoff drought.

“It definitely sticks with you,” tight end Tyler Conklin told Newsday. “There’s enough guys on this team that were here last year. Losing one game hurts, but losing six in a row after a hot start, it hurts you, it hurts the fans, it hurts everybody. It [stinks] to lose. I definitely think it’s something that sticks with everybody in this locker room that experienced it.”

One of the many T-shirts that hang in the Jets’ lockers says, simply, “Finish.” It came from last season’s ending.

“That’s on my mind,” center Connor McGovern said. “The vast majority of this team, especially the leadership, was here last year, so I think everybody feels it.”

The coaches do, too, especially Robert Saleh. He did some soul-searching and self-scouting on what he could have done differently to avoid last season’s face-plant.

This is Saleh’s third season as the Jets’ coach. He believes they “stayed on the gas” after the bye the first season and saw improvement. Last season, however, he thinks “we may have taken too much off” and “it just kind of fizzled away.”

Now he is looking for a happy medium.

Like many teams, the Jets have leaned into sports science to see if they can limit injuries and keep players physically and mentally healthy. Saleh decided to change the daily schedule — when the Jets practice, when they meet, when they lift, when they do walk-throughs — in an effort to keep them sharp and on the field for the final 11 games.

“Everything for me last year was ‘physically fresh, physically fresh, physically fresh,’ and forgot to take care of the mental,” Saleh said. “Not necessarily forgot, but took the mental for granted, if you will. You can be mentally exhausted if not done the right way, so just trying to be more cognizant of the total human, if you will. We’ll see how it goes.”

Saleh and his coaches have kept the Jets from folding after losing Aaron Rodgers to a torn left Achilles tendon in Week 1. The defense has been strong. The offense, particularly Zach Wilson, is improving.

This is critical. The Jets need Wilson to be better for them to keep their playoff goals alive, which also would keep the dream of Rodgers returning alive. There would be no reason for Rodgers to return if the Jets aren’t playing for anything late in the season.

One silver lining is that for the first time under Saleh, the Jets won’t be in New England coming out of their bye. In 2021, the Jets lost by 41 and Wilson got hurt. Last year, they fell, 10-3 — and Wilson hurt himself. He

played poorly and didn’t take accountability for it. Then he lost his starting job and the locker room.

Mike White started the next week. He led the Jets to a victory over the Bears to get them to 7-4, but they didn’t win again.

“I thought we were going to the playoffs,” Conklin said. “To have that feeling and thinking if we keep doing what we’re doing, we’ll get to the playoffs, and for it to all fall out from underneath you .  .  . I guarantee you that whenever we get to 6-3 or whatever and we’re close to that area, I guarantee we don’t relax and let it fall out from underneath us this year.”

The first three losses in last season’s streak were one-score games. In the last three, the Jets didn’t get in the end zone.

They lost White to fractured ribs in Week 14 at Buffalo. Wilson replaced him and was benched for Chris Streveler during a Thursday night loss to Jacksonville. Joe Flacco started the final two games.

Linebacker C.J. Mosley said, “Things kind of went sideways” late last season, but he likes how this group has returned from the bye.

“I definitely feel like everybody is more mentally and physically in a better state of mind,” he said. “We’re excited just to get back out there and keep showing we have what it takes to get that [playoff] ticket.”

The Jets aren’t entirely the same team as last season. Rodgers’ presence and potential to return looms large. He should be around the team more, and his leadership and calming effect on some players, namely Wilson, is invaluable.

Having Breece Hall healthy also is a huge plus. The dynamic playmaker missed last season’s final 10 games after tearing an ACL. The offense struggled. Hall could be a difference-maker now.

“I just think I bring the mentality that not only helps myself but helps the guys on our team out,” Hall said. “I have that mindset that I’m the best player whenever I’m on the field, so those guys see that and they believe in me and they know I believe in them.

“I just want to be one of those guys that just grabs everybody and kind of turns everybody up and makes everybody play a little bit better. I think we all do that to each other.”

Out of the bye, the Jets will face three straight sub-.500 teams: the Giants, Chargers and Raiders. That’s followed by back-to-back huge division games against Buffalo and Miami leading into December. That’s when the Jets became their toughest opponent last season.

“Some people have a saying, ‘It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,’ ” Mosley said. “Some people like, ‘Start fast and finish faster.’ At the end of the day, it’s how you finish. This game is about finishing.”

Last season serves as a painful reminder of that for the Jets and the motivation to not let it happen again.

By Al Iannazzone

al.iannazzone@newsday.comAl_Iannazzone

Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.