The Jets have been here before.
They better have learned their lesson.
Coming off their bye week, the Jets’ season resumed Monday as they prepare for a critical Week 8 clash against the Giants.
The Jets entered the bye off an emotional win, upsetting the Eagles with a late comeback to improve to 3-3 and breathe new life into their season.
It marked the Eagles’ first loss of the season, dropping them to 5-1 at the time.
The Jets were in an almost identical situation last year.
They upset the Bills, who entered the clash at 6-1, right before entering their bye week to improve to 6-3 and deliver ample optimism about their season’s outlook.
But they unraveled after the bye, going 1-7 the rest of the way.
Robert Saleh, in his third season as the Jets’ head coach, is still trying to figure out how best to handle his team’s post-bye week.
“Just scheduling stuff,” Saleh said on a Zoom call on Monday, when asked if he’s changed or is changing anything this year. “Just trying to tweak the schedule. The first year, it felt like we stayed on the gas and we did improve as the year went on. Last year, I felt like we may have taken too much off, where it just kind of fizzled away, and we’re trying to find that happy medium, because in Year 1 I felt like we got better as the year went on, finished strong. Last year, obviously we didn’t.”
In Saleh’s first season, when he believes they kept their foot on the gas pedal, the Jets entered the bye week at 1-4, and went 3-9 after the bye.
He’s altered his strategy each year in charge, looking at every aspect he can control to make sure the Jets are as unaffected and ready to go as possible after their bye.
Saleh repeatedly pointed to the need to keep his players “fresh,” a balance between working them hard enough to be able to play at their best and laying off enough to make sure his players don’t tune him out or lose their “excitement” for each day.
Last year, he strayed too far to the latter part of that balance.
Now, he’s again changing how and when he will conduct practices, meetings and just the overall daily schedule this week.
Saleh believes giving players something new will help them remain locked in.
“We witnessed it last year, coming off a bye with a pretty decent start, then things kind of went sideways,” linebacker C.J. Mosley said. “We know how that felt, we know what that looks like. I think we did a really good job going into the bye [this year]. Saw how guys came in today with the right mindset, mentally and physically.
“Just comparing last year to this year coming off this bye, I definitely feel like everybody is more mentally and physically in a better state.”
Beyond remaining locked in, Saleh’s changes are designed to keep his team healthier than last year.
“The shame of last year, just offensively, I think we were so depleted, within the first couple of weeks after the bye week, we just couldn’t recover,” Saleh said. “The important thing is to stay healthy. … Somewhere there’s a middle ground where we can keep guys fresh and healthy and try to finish this thing as strong as we can.”
Stud running back Breece Hall was the most notable absence last year, as he tore his ACL two games before the bye and missed the rest of the season.
Now healthy again, the Jets have built their Aaron Rodgers-less identity around Hall, who has quickly reminded everyone just how dynamic he is and just how much he lifts the offense as a whole.
Hall has 66 carries this year for 426 yards and two touchdowns, averaging an NFL-best (among qualified players) 6.5 yards-per-carry.
Can he make the difference in the Jets avoiding last year’s fate?
“I think I bring the mentality that not only helps myself, but helps the guys on our team out,” Hall said. “They see me walk out there and have that mindset that I’m the best player whenever I’m on the field. Those guys see that, they believe in me, they know I believe in them. I want to be one of those guys that grabs everybody and turns everybody up and makes everybody play a little bit better.”