There have been unsung heroes on every Jets team, and if this 2023 version is to end the franchise’s 12-year playoff drought, it will need more than a few good men to help any Flight 23 ascent.
And Robert Saleh has them.
And every winning team needs more than a few unsung heroes. Joe Namath will wax poetic about John Schmitt, his undrafted center out of Hofstra who played Super Bowl III while battling pneumonia.
You can ask Bill Parcells about Jim Burt, his undrafted tough guy Giants nose tackle out of the University of Miami who has a Super Bowl XXI ring. Return man Phil McConkey was the unsung hero of the 1986 NFC Championship 17-0 win over Washington when the swirling winds at Giants Stadium made catching any ball an adventure.
Wayne Chrebet, a more recent pride of Hofstra, caught 75 passes for 1,083 yards and eight touchdowns opposite Keyshawn Johnson during the Parcells Jets run to the 1998 AFC Championship game.
Ask Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning whether he could have imagined Victor Cruz salsaing in the end zone in Super Bowl XLVI.
Kurt Warner … Nick Foles … Jeff Hostetler … on and on it goes.
The 2023 Jets are loaded with star power, starting of course with Aaron Rodgers, and Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall. If your stars shine you will always have a chance — as long as they are supplemented by unsung heroes who emerge from the shadows.
I could name 10 unsung heroes on the 2023 Jets, but I’ll limit the list to five. Quincy Williams is more of a “sung” hero as a Pro Bowl candidate:
1. Bryce Huff
Sign him, Joe Douglas. Do not let this kid get away. He was listed as a DE/LB when the Jets signed him as an undrafted free agent out of Memphis in May 2020.
Now? Bryce Huff is Saleh’s best pass rusher. He has made Carl Lawson expendable, and remember that Lawson was signed to a three-year, $45M contract in 2021 free agency. Huff plays much bigger than his 6-foot-1 ¹/₂, 254 pounds. He has over the last two seasons generated a league-best 25.7 percent pressure rate, according to NextGenStats. And he is not a liability against the run. And he’ll only be 26 next April. Sign him!
2. Bryce Hall
He’s tall and lanky but wasn’t a first-round draft choice and no one calls him Sauce. But he more than answered the bell when D.J. Reed (concussion) missed the Denver game and again when Reed and Gardner (concussion) missed the Eagles game. Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich asked Hall to speak at the Saturday night meeting, and his 39-yard scoop-and-score TD sealed the deal against the Broncos.
Hall, a fifth-round draft choice out of Virginia, was a starter in 2021 prior to the arrival of Gardner and Reed but did not record any interceptions. A high-character, selfless man of faith, Hall said: “Everything happens for a reason.”
3. Xavier Gipson
Aaron Rodgers couldn’t help but notice him in preseason, possibly because he reminded him of a young Randall Cobb. A 5-9 undrafted rookie free agent out of Stephen F. Austin, Gipson’s explosiveness returning kicks opened eyes and his development as a receiver made Mecole Hardman expendable. The football world became aware of him thanks to his 65-yard overtime walk-off punt return on opening night against the Bills.
Gipson has proven to be so much more than fellow undrafted rookie free agent receiver Jason Brownlee’s “Hard Knocks” table-tennis adversary. Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett needs to turn him loose after the bye as the slot receiver who Cobb can mentor.
4. Tony Adams
Another undrafted free agent out of Illinois who made current Giants safety Jason Pinnock expendable before the 2022 season. Veteran Adrian Amos was signed to a one-year, $4M contract after Chuck Clark, who cost a seventh-round pick, suffered a torn ACL in OTAs. Amos, who started every game the previous four seasons in Green Bay and registered 103 tackles in 2022, was expected to be the complement to safety Jordan Whitehead.
Adams refused to let him grab the job, and he justified the faith the coaches have showed in him by sealing the upset over the Eagles with that dramatic return of a Jalen Hurts interception. The kid is a baller. “I think he’s going to be a fixture here for a while,” Saleh said.
5. Thomas Morstead
He averaged 46.4 yards and pinned opponents inside their own 20-yard line 28 times with two touchbacks in 2022. He has been an upgrade over 2020 sixth-round pick Braden Mann. It was his 49-yard punt to the 8-yard line that led to a safety against the Chiefs and his 54-yard punt to the 6-yard line that led to a safety in Denver. The big game won’t scare Morstead — he perfectly executed the second-half onside kickoff for Sean Payton in the Saints’ Super Bowl XLIV win.
If the Jets are to make a playoff run out of the bye without Rodgers, Saleh’s unsung heroes will not be the Jets’ Achilles’ heel.