Jets' season-ending win at Patriots doesn't erase team's issues, but it does start 2024 on right foot

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- C.J. Mosley hadn’t thought about it in a while. Now that he was, the smile spread across the Jet captain’s face.

It was Robert Saleh’s first year as head coach. The Patriots saw an opportunity to send a message to a rebuilding team ... and did. They built their lead, then proceeded to rub it in. A 41-point thumping highlighted by deep shots with the game decided late in the fourth quarter. They wanted to embarrass New York. Mission accomplished.

Now, the Jets finally got their revenge.

Back at Gillette Stadium. In Bill Belichick’s potential final game as Patriots head coach. Final score: Jets 17, New England 3.

“It did make it that much sweeter,” Mosley said.

There will be time to analyze whether or not New England gets the last laugh. The Patriots very well might. Losing to the Jets positions New England to select No. 3 in the NFL Draft, with the Commanders losing 38-10 to the Cowboys and locking Washington into No. 2. There, the Patriots will likely find one of three quarterbacks (Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels).

The Jets started New England’s last historic run when they knocked Drew Bledsoe out and inserted Tom Brady to the starting lineup. Now they might have handed them another quarterbacking hopeful to run the AFC East the next 10, 15 years.

That, though, is a problem for another day. For now, the Jets are enjoying this -- every second of this.

“We all know what we have,” Saleh said. “We all know how close we are.”

The Jets deserve some credit for making what they did out of this season. Their perceived Super Bowl hopes died four plays into the season when Aaron Rodgers shook his head toward the sideline and sat back down to the MetLife turf. They could have caved and checked out -- looked entirely toward the future when their quarterback would return.

It was not pretty this year, but this Jets team did not quit. Not after losing Rodgers -- nor after the myriad others at a multitude of positions that, at times, had coaches turning to the scrap heap to field an offensive line.

They finished 7-10. They beat playoff teams in the Bills, Eagles and Texans. They saw legitimate progress from young offensive stars Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson. Their defense remained elite thanks in part to players like Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams, but the emergence of Bryce Huff, Jermaine Johnson and Quincy Williams took the group to another level.

And, maybe the accomplishment that will make Woody Johnson the most happy: They snapped an eight-year losing streak to New England. They beat the coach who didn’t want them in potentially his final game on the Patriots sideline.

“It feels great,” Gardner said. “A true blessing. Things like that, it's the little things that matter. That's a part of history.”

This victory doesn’t erase the Jets' problems -- specifically on offense. They not only need Rodgers back, but insurance in case this was the beginning of the breakdown of his 40-year-old body. The offensive line needs a borderline complete rebuild -- a new left and right tackle, starting caliber right tackle depth (Alijah Vera-Tucker is coming off a torn achilles), and potentially a left guard if they cut Laken Tomlinson.

They also need a weapon opposite Garrett Wilson because that player, very clearly, is not Allen Lazard -- a healthy scratch on Sunday because the Jets wanted to activate an extra returner (yes, really). There are also very real concerns with coordinator Nathaniel Hackett.

It’s hard to fix all that in one year. The Jets have to if they want to be legitimate Super Bowl contenders. Rodgers’ absence in 2023 exposed foundational flaws. They would have been better with him, yes, but not as good as they felt they were entering the year.

The Jets realize this. GM Joe Douglas, the architect of this team, will say as much when he meets the media on Monday. They’ll address it when they can -- free agency, the draft. They can’t do anything about that today.

Which is why the Jets took to Gillette Stadium with a goal -- the calendar turned to 2024, and they wanted to leave their problems of 2023 right there. This was the beginning of a new year and era of Jets football. They wanted to start it on the right foot.

And they did.

“We’ve faced a lot of adversity, and to finish the season strong, start 2024 with a win, it’s always special,” Saleh said. “Starting 2024 was the most important thing for us, starting it strong with a win.”