After trading for Aaron Rodgers and appearing on Hard Knocks last summer, the Jets headed into the regular season with a spotlight on them and that turned out to be a bad thing.
Rodgers was hurt four snaps into the season and the Zach Wilson-led offense was a mess that mitigated a strong defense on the way to a 7-10 finish. Head coach Robert Saleh reflected on last season during a Tuesday press conference and somewhat charitably said “there was a lot of chaos” around the team as the 2023 season unfolded.
Saleh said he spent the offseason “making sure that I reconnect to focusing on the things that I got control over” and shared his view that the team can benefit from having gone through all that happened last season.
“To grow in the world, to grow as an individual, you got to live in uncomfortable environments,” Saleh said, via the team’s website. “And I would say last year was one of the more uncomfortable environments that you could create for an organization and because of it I think of players, coaches, everybody in this building are better for it and because of it. I think the team is better for it and better equipped. As coaches, I think we learned a lot from last year with regards to adjustments and the things that we need to do. I’ve said it before, not fully injury proof, but a little injury proof where we can adjust and move things on the fly a little bit better. But yeah, we’re definitely all better for what happened last year.”
It’s an appealing thought for the Jets, albeit one that’s balanced out by the fact that chaos has frequently been part of life for the organization and they haven’t learned enough from it to make the playoffs since the 2010 season. Most of those teams have been less talented on paper than the current Jets squad, but the proof of any growth will have to come on the field this fall.