Plenty of Jets fans were not celebrating Sunday’s 30-28 victory over the Commanders.
At 6-9, the Jets are going nowhere this season and the thought for many is they would be better off losing at the end of the season to get a better draft pick than winning games they view as meaningless.
Coach Robert Saleh said there will be no tanking with his team.
“As a fan, I get it, but I would challenge the fan to walk into the locker room and look at all those men who strap up every day and crossed the white and put in all this work,” Saleh said Monday. “We are all competitive, and no one wants to step on the field and put together a poor effort and look bad on tape. That is their résumé, that’s who they are. That’s who we are.
“Our game plans, our performance on the field as players and there’s a lot of pride and there’s a lot of sacrifice that all these men who play football have sacrificed their entire lives, the blood, the sweat, the tears, the family time, the vacations, to put themselves in position to call themselves professional athletes. While I get it from the fan perspective, you will never see a player ever think about anything other than stepping on the field being his absolute best and trying to figure out how to win a football game, same with coaches.”
Fans experienced a wide range of emotions in Sunday’s win.
The Jets jumped out to a 27-7 halftime lead, and it looked like they would win a laugher.
Then, Jacoby Brissett entered the game at quarterback for the Commanders and led three straight touchdown drives to put Washington ahead 28-27.
It took a 54-yard field goal in the final seconds from Greg Zuerlein to give the Jets the win.
Though these past few games may look meaningless from the outside, the Jets’ roster is filled with young players, and they are getting a chance to show how big a part of the team’s 2024 plan they can be.
“[Jason] Brownlee gets his first touchdown [Sunday], Xavier Gipson is becoming more and more of a player, Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall are still just second-year players, both were obviously major contributors [Sunday], like they are every week,” Saleh said. “[Joe] Tippmann is a rookie, Carter Warren’s a rookie, Jacob Hanson is trying to prove that he belongs. Then obviously Laken [Tomlinson] and Mekhi [Becton], both veterans trying to finish out their season strong and there is more. [Tyler] Conklin’s playing well, [Jeremy] Ruckert, second-year kid. So, there is a lot of youth on the offensive side of the ball that is just trying to find ways to get a little bit better every single week, every day and really kind of propel themselves into the 2024 season.”
Team owner Woody Johnson told The Post on Sunday that Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas would be back in 2024.
Saleh said Johnson has always supported them.
“Woody has never wavered on his support for us and the things we’re trying to get done,” Saleh said.
As for how his first three years have gone, Saleh knows he needs to improve moving forward. The Jets have gone 17-32 in Saleh’s time as head coach.
“It’s been a grind,” Saleh said.” Everybody has closed [their] eyes, closes their eyes and imagine success right away. We knew there was going to be a process. Obviously, we all felt great coming into this year with all the expectations and hype that’s around the football team, and it was awesome. It hasn’t gone the way we wanted, obviously, but it doesn’t mean that the goal of winning championships is over. I still think we’ve got a really good football team. I’ve said it before. I think we built the championship roster.”
