The Jets may have led the NFL in something this season: selfish players.
Backup quarterback Greg McElroy said yesterday the team was hurt by a “corrupt mindset” in the locker room, with too many me-first attitudes.
Speaking to an Alabama radio station, McElroy said, “It’s the first time I’ve ever been around extremely selfish individuals.
“I think that’s maybe the nature of the NFL. But there were people within our locker room that didn’t care whether we won or lost as long as they had good games individually. And that’s the disappointing thing.
“And it’s going to take a lot to come together next year. I think the fact that we struggled at times this year really led to a really just corrupt mindset within the locker room.”
McElroy did not name individual players, nor was he asked to.
The rookie from Alabama, who missed the season due to a thumb injury, said coach Rex Ryan was right to boast about the Jets’ championship chances. But chemistry problems outweighed their ability.
“Quite frankly, if you go down the roster this year, there’s no reason we shouldn’t have made a Super Bowl run,” McElroy told Birmingham’s 97.3 The Zone. “The talent, top to bottom, is pretty remarkable.
“The disappointing thing is, the fact is, it doesn’t matter how much talent you have, if you don’t come together as a group, and just figure things out and kind of withstand the difficulties of the season, you’re never going to amount to anything.
“We had people that refused to buy in, and I don’t know if those people are going to be here next year.”
McElroy said one player shipped out during the season — wide receiver Derrick Mason — was the genesis of the problems on offense, which abandoned its “Ground and Pound’’ mentality.
“Early in the season, we had signed Derrick Mason and we had him for about the first five weeks, give or take,” McElroy said. “And we tried to go to … a three wide-receiver set, one tight end, one running back, and that’s just not the strength of what [Brian] Schottenheimer [the offensive coordinator] can call.
“After we kind of cut ties with that experiment . . . we were just kind of battling every week from there on out, and I think we never really got in much of a groove. We just never really had much of an offensive identity.”
Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum responded to McElroy’s claims on WFAN.
“I don’t think we have a corrupt locker room,” he said. “I know we have a lot of good people, and we’ve won a lot of games with Rex and this nucleus, and we’re going to get the problems fixed.”
* Jets safety Eric Smith underwent successful arthroscopic surgery yesterday to repair a torn meniscus in his knee. Smith played with the injury for the final five games of the season.
Additional reporting by Brian Costello