NFL

‘Sky’s the limit’: Jets ended season full of confidence

The lasting image of the 2013 Jets season will be the video of Jets players swarming coach Rex Ryan in the locker room after owner Woody Johnson announced he was keeping Ryan as the Jets coach.

The moment encapsulated the feeling around the Jets as they closed out 2013 with a win over the Dolphins, winning three of their final four and ensuring Ryan would be back in the process. The Jets feel about as good as an 8-8 team that missed the playoffs can. Encouraging signs from Geno Smith down the stretch coupled with how hard the team played in the final month have them dreaming about what is possible in 2014.

“If we had five more games, it would be interesting, man,” veteran linebacker Calvin Pace said after Sunday’s game. “That being said, you win the last game and hopefully there’s some carryover into the offseason. Hopefully that goes into the preseason and you just keep moving forward. The sky’s the limit for this team.”

At Tuesday’s season-ending news conference Ryan and general manager John Idzik talked about how optimistic they are entering the offseason. If the Jets could win eight games this year with a roster that most thought was one of the worst in the league, they should be able to improve that win total and make the playoffs once they add some talent this offseason when they have plenty of cap space.

“There have been very encouraging signs, with not only Geno, but others on our roster,” Idzik said. “So, we’re not starting from ground zero. It’s really no comparison to years past. We look at it as 2014, everyone’s on an even keel, but we know what we’re starting with in this building. We know what we’ve got in that locker room and because we’ve got that kind of spirit, we’ve got talent in that locker room, we’ve got spirit in that locker room, we’ve got togetherness. Those are all signs of optimism that we’re on the ascent. They’re real signs and I think we saw it play out this season. We saw how we improved down the stretch of the season, how we played hard in games that mattered to us down the stretch. So, those are all real positive signs going into 2014.”

Ryan’s message to his team from the time they came together in training camp was that they might not be the most talented team, but they would outwork people and their togetherness would help them. Despite falling short of the playoffs, Ryan felt his team showed that.

“This is as close of a football team as I’ve ever been with and I’ve been with a lot of excellent teams, a lot of teams that cared for each other,” Ryan said. “You hear about the team that maybe (is) creating a family, a brotherhood if you will. I feel it with this team. A lot of it is what I see off the field, what I see outside of meetings. But I see how they practice, obviously, together (and) how they prepare in meetings together. I’d walk down and I’d see this, open the door and there’d be 20 guys watching the tape outside of the requirements, if you will. But they were close that way. I see the way they interact with each other.

“This team relied on each other. That’s what we’re so encouraged about because our whole is greater than the sum of our parts and we believe that because that kind of gives us an edge on maybe other teams. I feel it. I feel it with this entire organization. There’s trust in this organization with each other. There’s also accountability. I think that’s what I’m really encouraged about.”