Ignore the year listed on C.J. Mosley’s birth certificate.
On a Jets’ roster invested in 39-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers, 37-year-old left tackle Duane Brown, 36-year-old defensive tackle Al Woods and three others who already have celebrated at least 32 birthdays, Father Time doesn’t have his sights set on Mosley.
In fact, the 31-year-old linebacker only seems to be getting better with age and defying conventional NFL logic.
“That’s exactly what’s happening,” Mosley said. “It’s really a mental and physical thing. … I’ve been feeling great coming into camp. My mind and my heart have been happy playing football, being here with the Jets. And I really feel like I’ve been playing my best ball under this defense.”
Two years ago, it seemed as if Mosley would be out of the NFL by now.
Mosley played two games in 2019 before he was lost to groin surgery, and he opted out of the 2020 season due to COVID-19 concerns — prompting a need to reestablish himself as an elite player in order to quiet talk that he might be another Jets free-agent bust who became a salary-cap casualty.
“Once I got back, I knew what time it was,” Mosley said. “This is a business. I was coming off two years off of injury with a big contract. I had to come in with the right body shape, with the right mentality. One thing I never let go is people questioning my game and my work ethic. When I came back, I knew I was going to be a different guy — same results, but a different guy.”
Same results indeed. Mosley’s two highest single-season tackle totals (168 in 2021 and 158 in 2022) have come since his return from the gap year during which he trained alongside his brother in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
“When we go to [battle], we go behind him,” second-year safety Tony Adams said. “That’s our leader. He’s a person that is consistent — going to bring it every day. Age is just a number. C.J. is playing great ball.”
Matching wits against Rodgers as the defensive signal-caller during practice is a fresh challenge for a seen-it-all veteran.
“The best part of camp for me is during our walk-throughs when both sides get to go through their checks,” Mosley said. “One of the coolest things I’ve seen so far is I saw one of their formations so I called it out the play. He looked at me and said, ‘What did you say?’ and changed it. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s different.’
“The first day in OTAs he did one of his no-look [passes] and took me off my position and threw the ball. That’s another way he got me better. Now I’m just locked in on being in my spots and playing off him.”
Mosley is a five-time, second-team All-Pro, but his selection last year was his first since he left the Ravens for a five-year, $85 million contract in 2019. He is attacking training camp with a tenacity that suggests “it would mean a lot” to become a first-time first-teamer.
“Every year I’ve made it — and every year I didn’t make it — I feel like I’ve been one of the best linebackers in this league,” Mosley said. “That’s just the pride I put in myself.”
Not that Mosley is spending too much time prioritizing individual goals at this point.
“I expect every person to come here every day ready to be the No. 1 defense,” Mosley said, “and ready to help this team win a championship.”
Because Rodgers’ arrival has increased expectations to levels not often seen around the Jets, Mosley feels like he is reliving his college days at Alabama or his first five NFL seasons in Baltimore.
“Every single year you are expected to win a championship or a Super Bowl, every single year you are expected to win the division, every single year you are expected to win the conference,” Mosley said. “That builds the mindset that, ‘I need to be prepared every time I come into the building.’ That started from a young age and hasn’t changed at all for me.”