During the Week 3 victory against the Patriots, Jets right tackle Morgan Moses suffered an MCL sprain and a bone bruise.
The 33-year-old returned two weeks later and has played with a Grade 2 MCL tear and a fracture ever since.
“When you go through a battle of OTAs and training camp with your guys, you build this camaraderie that never goes away,” Moses said. “You never want to feel like you let guys down.
“Everyone in this locker room is playing through something. Whether it’s personal, whether it’s physical, emotional, or whatever it is, that’s what football teams are great for.
“When I can’t give you 100 percent, I know the guy right there beside me is going to give the extra 15 percent or whatever it is. Being the veteran guy, you always want to be able to grace the field because you never know when it’s going to be your last time and I take that personally.”
The Jets acquired Moses in a trade with the Ravens in March, hoping to fortify their offensive line. Moses has not only done that but he has also become a locker room leader.
In 408 snaps, Moses has not allowed a single sack this season. In the Week 7 loss to the Steelers, Moses helped limit linebacker T.J. Watt to just one tackle. Moses and the Jets’ offensive line was also solid against the Texans after allowing just two sacks against a defense that’s top five in team sacks this season.
Moses’ play and his willingness to play through injuries has made him beloved in the Jets locker room.
“The crazy thing is he never complained about it one time,” Jets linebacker Quincy Williams said about Moses’ injuries. “He never came in the locker room or complained about it, he is a hard worker.
“Guys like that don’t really complain or talk about all the stuff they got going on just to step out on the field and give us their all of Sundays or Monday or whenever we need them. Now I feel like I gotta go harder with me feeling healthy because he is doing all of this to get on the field.”
Down 7-0 at halftime and on a then five-game losing streak, Moses delivered a halftime message that energized the Jets players and helped them put together their best half of the season.
Gang Green rallied to defeat Houston, 21-13, after scoring 21 points in the second half. The Jets defense also allowed six points after halftime and held Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud to 11-of-30 passing for 191 yards, his worst outing of the season.
“If you looked at the first half, man, it was nothing that they did to stop us from stopping ourselves,” Moses said. “When you look back at that, you tell the guys, ‘Hey, we just put one good drive together, we can get this thing going.’
“We moved the ball up and down the field throughout the game, but it was really just coming back to those halftime adjustments and guys getting together. Not sitting in their locker, not sitting in their position groups, getting together as an offense and saying, ‘This is what we are going to go out there and do and this is the outcome we are going to have’ because our defense was playing lights out.
“Anytime your defense is playing at a high level like that, we had to take the opportunity to take advantage of it. Anytime you can get the guys together and let them know that it was nothing that they did to stop us; it was all self-inflicted wounds.”
Now Moses and the Jets hope to carry that second-half momentum into a long winning streak. At 3-6, the Jets’ margin for error for making the playoffs is slim. They are currently 10th in the AFC with eight games remaining.
“It takes one win to get this thing started,” Moses said. “We got it and now, it is up to us to take the momentum. Looking at the film today, it’s a lot of stuff we can still get better at and correct.
“It was a tale of two different halves speaking on the offensive side. We gotta figure out a way to start faster, that’s the biggest thing. We gotta figure out a way to put together a full 60 minutes.”
WEEK 11 GAME VS. COLTS FLEXED
After losing six of their first nine games of the season, the NFL has decided they have seen enough of the Jets in primetime.
Gang Green’s Week 11 matchup against Indianapolis will now be a 1 p.m. kickoff on Nov. 17 at MetLife Stadium. The game was initially scheduled to be the sixth and final national television game for the Jets this season, but now the Bengals at Chargers game will move to Sunday Night Football on NBC instead.
The Colts vs. Jets will be shown on CBS.
Following the release of the NFL schedule in May, Mike North, the NFL’s vice president of broadcast partners, said he felt like the Jets “owe us one” following Aaron Rodgers’ Achilles tear in 2023 and the team finishing 7-10.
The Jets are on pace to miss the playoffs again unless they can have a miracle finish down the stretch. If the Jets do get on a winning streak, they can be flexed into another primetime game. As it stands, the Jets are not scheduled to play on national television again this season.
