No one outside of the Jets organization is going to give the team a shot to win this weekend against the Chiefs in Kansas City.
The Chiefs are the defending Super Bowl champions and one of the favorites to win it again this year. The Jets are 0-7.
Still, the Jets players don’t want to hear they have no chance.
“Every time you line up to play, you have a chance to win,” Jets guard Greg Van Roten said. “It doesn’t matter what your record is or who you’re playing against. You’ve still got to play the game and make the plays and try your best. I don’t think anybody is going to shy away from this opportunity. I’m looking forward to playing quote-unquote the best.”
Van Roten said his teammates should embrace the challenge this week.
“We have a great test this week to see what we’re made of. Our record is what it is,” Van Roten said. “That’s who we are right now. We have a chance to go play a really good team at home. They won the Super Bowl last year. If you can’t get excited about that. If you can’t find a way to get up for that game, then there’s something wrong with you.”
The game against the Chiefs will be a reunion with RB Le’Veon Bell, who signed with the Chiefs two weeks ago when the Jets released him. Bell and coach Adam Gase had a rocky relationship, something that will be a storyline this week. Gase is not worried about Bell being out to make the Jets look bad.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that he’s going to be worried about just winning a game, period,” Gase said. “That’s what most players are worried about, they’re worried about, ‘Hey what do I got to do this week to help my team win,’ so I’m sure that’s what he’s going to be worried about doing. We got a lot of guys to worry about on that side of the ball against them.”
Gase would not commit to having offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains call the plays again this week, but he sounded like he was leaning that way. Loggains did well in the first half against the Bills and the Jets led 10-0. But his magic touch vanished in the second half when the team gained just 4 yards.
“As far as the play-calling goes, there’s a lot of things that I liked about last week, the way that we did things from everything from game planning, to meetings, to how we did practice,” Gase said. “We’re still kind of working through some of the overall details of how we want to go about this week.”
DE Kyle Phillips suffered a season-ending ankle injury that will require surgery. … OLB Jordan Jenkins has a rib injury, but Gase said he is hopeful he can play. WR Breshad Perriman is in the concussion protocol after a vicious hit from Bills safety Micah Hyde on Sunday. … Gase said they were evaluating WR Jamison Crowder (groin) and kicker Sam Ficken (groin) on Monday to see if they can practice and play this week.