These players-only meetings can be cathartic and galvanize a team. They can also be a bunch of hot air that is long forgotten come Gameday.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and so The Post has learned the Jets pulled out the old players-meeting Hail Mary Wednesday at a time when their season is crumbling and their offense can be labeled Ail Mary. Or Ail Geno.
A pair of longtime Jets stood up to give heartfelt talks to their teammates.
“I think right now Rex, I think, physically said all he can say,” Willie Colon told The Post. “He’s passionate, he’s cried all his tears, he’s stomped, he’s raved. He’s done everything, I think, a coach physically can do.
“And so I think right now it’s on us. I think you can see it. I think the players know it — players win games, coaches coach.”
Asked who spoke, Colon said: “I keep that in house.”
Asked if he was one of the speakers, Colon said: “No. It was two guys that are vets, and they spoke from the heart.”
Longtime veterans D’Brickashaw Ferguson and David Harris were the speakers, The Post has learned.
“We’re all in this together,” Colon said. “It’s a matter of each guy stepping outside themselves looking at their craft and how they’re approaching their work and how they’re preparing. I think if you look at a lot of tape from these three losses, it’s just a lack of execution. It’s not a lack of will. It’s not a lack of fight, just guys being more detailed and having more hunger and desperation.
“And I think the two guys that spoke, talked about that … we shouldn’t blink or spread apart going through these times, if anything we got to grab onto each other tighter, and if you love your brother and if you love what you’re doing right now, you’re selfless, you have to give yourself up. And I think that’s what I took from it.”
Ferguson was the first draft choice of the Mike Tannenbaum-Eric Mangini Era eight years and 124 consecutive starts ago. Harris was the second-round pick a year later after Tannenbaum traded up in the first round for Darrelle Revis. So they were part of two AFC Championship Game losses. They were here for Brett Favre. They were here for “Hard Knocks.” They were here for Santonio Holmes in Miami. They were here for Plaxico Burress, here for Tim Tebow, here for the buttfumble. They have been here for this.
And they were there Wednesday for what Ryan termed “probably our best day of practice we’ve had offensively.”
He meant best practice of the season, for whatever that’s worth.
“Ball never hit the ground. … The timing, the tempo, everything … blitz pickup,” Ryan said.
Was this Geno Smith’s best practice of the year also?
“Absolutely,” Ryan said.
Smith, of course, is the quarterback of the draft class Ryan apparently believes will head to Canton together on roller skates.
“Very accurate with the football … everything was decisive, the ball was coming out, he was accurate with it, hit the open guy. … It was just a great practice,” Ryan said.
Smith: “I liked the way that we executed, I liked the tempo. I can tell guys definitely want to turn things around. We understand that we haven’t played well as of late, so we’re doing everything in our power to get that changed.”
Smith is the one who has to get it changed more than anyone.
“I can’t recall many times the ball hit the ground,” Smith said.
His benching had an impact on him.
“It does motivate me,” Smith said.
Ryan doesn’t care to address any short leash on Smith, and the rookie quarterback maintains he doesn’t concern himself with the prospect of one against the Raiders Sunday.
“I never play with those things on my mind, and Marty [Mornhinweg] doesn’t want me to,” Smith said. “He always expresses the confidence that he has in me, and he always expresses for me to be confident in my teammates and myself on the field. I just go out there and give it my all, and not worry about the consequences. Just go out there and play and have fun, and take care of the ball.”
And use those legs.
“There’s been some lanes here and there,” Smith said. “My mentality is always to be aggressive, and to be an aggressive thrower. I think I can make pretty much every throw. But there’s times where I need to just tuck the ball down and run the ball.”
And run through any rookie wall.
“As of late, I’ve been staying in the building later, trying to correct things,” Smith said. “ I haven’t hit any wall of any sort, and hopefully I don’t.”
Of late, it seems as if the wall has hit him.
“Honestly, as a competitor, I just hate losing, more than anything else,” Smith said. “On some of those games where we won, and I didn’t do so well, it was kind of easier to cope with some of my mistakes. But when you lose, it’s kind of harder to beat with. But it’s something that I’ve honestly learned that you just got to roll with the punches, and just get better from it.
“We got a lot of young guys on this team, especially on offense, so we just got to continue to get better and just move on, and use a lot of these tough stretches as motivation. It’s all about learning, and that’s something we’re doing as a whole.”
Winning would be better.