On a day when prominent figures in the Jets locker room were being asked what would constitute a successful season, wide receiver Garrett Wilson had an eye-opening response. The fifth-year wideout said not only that success would mean making the playoffs, but that doing so is “realistic”.
It’s a bold claim for a team that Las Vegas has set the over/under win total at 5.5 which would extend their playoff drought to sixteen years. A team that hasn’t even finished .500 or better since 2015 when they went 10-6 under Todd Bowles.
Head coach Aaron Glenn and quarterback Geno Smith were asked the same questions and both offered a far more vague response with plenty of wiggle room to claim success with a variety of outcomes. Both Glenn and Smith said “winning” would mean success. But neither offered a number of wins or the possibility of a playoff berth. So technically speaking, the Jets could go 5-11 and clam that they “won games”.
While some may be critical of Wilson’s comments, it’s important to remember that he hasn’t had a winning season since coming to the NFL. He’s ultra competitive, and if you can’t be optimistic at this point in the season, when can you be?
The Jets have also made tons of upgrades on both sides of the ball. Adding T’Vondre Sweat, David Bailey, Kingsley Enagbare, Joseph Ossai, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Dean Belton should make the Jets a far better team against the run and the pass. While on offense, there’s an offensive line in place that should give Geno Smith plenty of time to operate in throwing the ball to Wilson, AD Mitchell, Omar Cooper, Mason Taylor and rookie tight end Kenyon Sadiq.
So disagree with Wilson all you like, but who can blame him for trying to speak success into existence after so many years of failure?
