If you peeled the paint in the meeting rooms at the Jets’ training center, you could trace all of the recent attempts by Jets coaches to establish an identity and culture for the team.
When you peeled back the first layer, you would find Todd Bowles’ slogan of “One Team, One Goal.”
Keep digging a little and there would be “Play Like A Jet,” from the Rex Ryan era.
Now, you’re almost down to the Sheetrock.
But first, you’d find Eric Mangini’s old “Core Jets Values — Trust, Communication, Focus, Finish” that was painted when the Jets first moved to Florham Park in 2008.
Each of those sayings and slogans sounded good at the time, but all of them ended up being hollow words in the end.
That is the challenge facing Adam Gase as he takes over the Jets. This has been a franchise without a true identity for too long. The 41-year-old coach must find a way to do what his predecessors did not — establish a winning culture.
Gase is coming here without any catchy phrases.
Instead, Gase is counting on the coaching staff he put together and some veteran players to teach a team that has experienced mostly losing how to win.
Most of the holdovers from the Bowles era have only known losing. The team went 14-34 over the past three years. There are only six players left from the 2015 team that went 10-6. No one on the Jets roster has ever played in a playoff game with the team, the playoff drought sitting at eight seasons.
Gase had to import some experienced winners.
“It started with a lot of the guys we brought in in free agency,” Gase said. “I think that is a big thing. There are some good examples. C.J. [Mosley], Le’Veon [Bell] has been to the playoffs every year except one, I think. There’s playoff experience that came through free agency.”
The Jets gave Mosley a five-year, $85 million contract partially because he is a great linebacker. But the other part is they hope he can bring a little bit of the Ravens with him north to New Jersey. Teams like the Ravens, the Steelers and the Patriots have expectations and standards that are passed on from veterans to young players. There is an understanding of what it takes to play for those teams.
The Jets?
They seem to change identities every two years.
Mosley got to learn from Terrell Suggs in Baltimore, who learned from Ed Reed, who learned from Ray Lewis.
“It starts before you step on the field,” Mosley said. “When you say building a winning culture, you have to talk about it, you have to express it and you definitely have to believe it.”
Mosley said when the defense gathered for the first time in April to begin the spring program, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams did not install any plays for the first three days.
“Coach Williams only talked about our culture, our mindset and how we were going to have an attitude stepping onto the field,” Mosley said. “I think as far as a defensive standpoint that got us going from the beginning.”
Leonard Williams has never seen a playoff game as a Jet but he was here for the 10-6 season as a rookie in 2015. Since then, he has lived through the misery of the last three seasons.
“I’m definitely sick of losing,” Williams said. “I had success my first year here and I thought things were going to turn around. We’ve been losing a lot since then. I try not to harp on the past, but at the same time I’ve been on talented teams before that didn’t have much success. The thing I love about this team right now is we have a lot of talent, but there’s a lot of unity and competition. It feels like we’re a team right now.”
Ultimately, the only way to truly have a winning culture is to win games. That is the challenge. But before the Jets take the field, Gase can lay the groundwork. Gase said he senses these players are ready to win.
“You can tell by the way they work that whatever’s been going on, they’re done with that,” Gase said. “They want a different experience.”
That should be more powerful than any other words he could paint on the walls.





