Sam Darnold Sees the Rebuilding New York Jets as Growing: 'There is a Different Vibe'

After closing 2019 strong, the New York Jets see a difference emerging in their locker room.

All the talk outside the New York Jets is that this team is at least a year away from being playoff contenders, even in an AFC East that hasn’t been this wide open in two decades. And yet, the Jets as a locker room are not buying into the talking point that this is merely a building year.

They are here, rebuilt, and ready to prove a point. A team that finished the season with six wins in the second half of the season to go 7-9 on the year is trending up.

That attitude is reflected in the locker room.

“I think there is a different vibe. I think it’s just continuing because there are going to be ups and downs throughout the season, there always are,” quarterback Sam Darnold said in his virtual press conference on Tuesday.

“And I think for us it’s continuing to stay positive, even if we lose a game or even in a quarter. If a quarter doesn’t go where we want, if I throw a pick or someone fumbles, it’s like, we just have to sustain that positive energy. We got a lot of guys in the building that are able to pick each other up and that’s a really good thing. And again, we just got to use that during the season and even during the course of games.”

It is solid accountability on the part of Darnold but it belies the fact that the Jets need to, at some point, get over the hump. This is a team that has been stuck in neutral for far too long and seemingly lacking direction.

The Jets haven’t made the playoffs since the 2010 season. During that stretch, they have had just one winning season. And yet there is a sense around this team that the Jets are in a different place.

They were rebuilt this offseason, in particular along the offensive line. The unit protecting Darnold will feature five new starters in Week 1 at the Buffalo Bills then in the season opener a year ago. What was one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL last year should be adequate to say the least if not vastly improved.

Darnold has been praised this offseason for doing all the right things. He has sworn off fast food, reshaped his body and has a command of the playbook to the point that he can correct his head coach when it comes to calls. If the Jets are going to defy expectations and have a winning season, it begins and ends with Darnold under center.

“You want the kind of locker room when adversity strikes you’re looking for the guys that are going to put their head down and go to work, not the guys that are going to kind of get in little cliques and talk amongst each other and disrupt,” Gase said Tuesday in his virtual press conference.

“That’s why I love this locker room right now, these guys just work. They look for solutions, they don’t look to be a problem. They want to try to find a way to put us in the best position possible, and really now when you get that group like that and then our job as we move forward is make sure that we bring the right guys in through the draft and that we’re smart free agency and bringing in guys that have the kind of track record that we’re looking for, and I feel like we’ve added guys like that. The free agents we brought in, they are guys from winning programs for the most part, guys that have done a lot of good things in this league, that have come in this locker room and have been a positive influence, helped guide the younger players. The guys we drafted, it seems like those guys, everybody is the same.”