Besides talent, there is another element necessary for the New York Jets to win
“Gentlemen, you don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone.”
The movie Miracle captures the task of legendary 1980 U.S. Olympic Team coach Herb Brooks. He makes this bald declaration to his ragtag group of college kids. They are tasked with the impossible: overcoming the invincible Russians to stand up not only for country pride but also for the free world itself in the midst of the Cold War.
In that case, Brooks challenged his players to outwork an opponent they could not outplay. His imperative to them was to work just a little bit harder and a little bit more intentionally every single moment. This was the team that pulled off one of the greatest upsets in the history of sports.
The New York Jets are not in nearly such a predicament. Robert Saleh has the luxury of enough talent to win. But there is still a crucial word from Brooks’ statement that applies now as then: you don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone.
Deliberate practice
Behavioral researchers have done studies about whether innate talent is superior to consistent effort and practice. It may be popular to tell struggling youngsters that effort is more important than talent, but is it, really?
The available data indicates that the answer is a resounding yes. Starting with Benjamin Bloom’s work in 1985, it has been shown that in a wide range of disciplines, including sports, childhood IQ and most physical or innate performative attributes have little correlation with ultimate success. Instead, the world’s elite share the quality of practice.
Not just any practice will do, though: Swedish psychologist K. Anders Ericsson coined the term deliberate practice to refer to the systematic, directed, and focused practice that goes out of the comfort zone in a measured way. He explained, “Consistently and overwhelmingly, the evidence showed that experts are always made, not born.” The way to get there is very specific. NFL practices are designed along those lines.
This is the way that experts attain their craft, but it is also how they retain it. Paying attention to the little things and building chemistry aren’t optional. The Jets must put in that systematic effort. That’s what Aaron Rodgers told them when he saw some slacking around ball security early in OTAs: intentionality is critical. There are no shortcuts to excellence.
The perfect example of this attitude is Sauce Gardner. As a rookie, he had the Buffalo Bills game-planning against him specifically because they know how prepared he is. Stefon Diggs beat Gardner on a stutter-and-go in their first one-on-one matchup. The play was designed because Gardner knew that Diggs had not run a vertical route out of that particular alignment the entire season. The Bills knew that Gardner would be aware of it, as he is a film junkie.
The thing people need to understand about the catch Diggs got vs Sauce is that this is literally the FIRST TIME all season that Diggs didn't run a speed out off motion vs an off corner.
Sauce was squared up based on film study and Bills threw a counter punch. It happens. 🤷♂️ https://t.co/0wcbnKZCEd pic.twitter.com/VfkYgQLVch
— Brett Kollmann (@BrettKollmann) November 8, 2022
An opponent scheming specifically to play with an uber-prepared rookie is a testament to said player’s commitment to excellence. Gardner is not just preternaturally talented; he augments that with constant practice and preparation, taking nothing for granted.
This is what “All gas, no brake” truly means.
There is no “I” in team
Another Brooks line from the movie: “The name on the front is more important than the name on the back.”
Along with the commitment to excellence must come the commitment to the team over the individual. That has been the Jets’ aim since Saleh took over in 2021; they endeavor to draft high-character, team-first players. They never seemed seriously linked to Kayvon Thibodeaux in 2022, which caused speculation that they were not sold on his character. Instead, they touted the players they did draft—especially Gardner, Garrett Wilson, Jermaine Johnson, and Breece Hall, the team’s top four picks.
This is why one of my first articles on Jet X was about how the Jets dodged a bullet by not trading for Tyreek Hill. This is the predicament they found themselves in with Elijah Moore last year and have seen hints of from Mekhi Becton. There is no “I” in “team”; any player who believes so is a detriment to the unit.
There have been many NFL units over the years that were worse than the sum of their parts. Nathaniel Hackett would know, as his 2022 Broncos outfit fell apart amid whispers about Russell Wilson’s me-first behavior. The Jets watched Bill Belichick build a well-oiled machine in New England by going to the opposite extreme, but that is not Saleh’s way.
Rather, the Jets’ coach wants his players to have the freedom to express their unique personalities. Rodgers stated that he likes the latitude afforded the locker room. Still, the flip side of that has sometimes been a lack of accountability. At this point, if it’s all about the character, that character should be paying off.
Even the mutiny against Zach Wilson last season casts much of the Jets’ team in a somewhat negative light. Being unable to keep team things in-house, despite Joe Douglas’ clear preference to consistently do so, is what keeps the media circus going in a place like New York. In 2023, if adversity comes, the locker room must be strong as a unit rather than fragmenting into casts of egos, cliques, and personal stats.
Rodgers is here to win a championship. So is Duane Brown. These veterans know what it’s all about. The rest of the team must follow.
The little things that aren’t really so little often make a huge difference in the war of attrition that is the NFL season. Focus. Commitment. Team. These must be given more than lip service for the Jets to reach their ultimate goal.
