Jets’ Garrett Wilson didn’t know ‘what I was getting into’ with growing pains

Garrett Wilson will miss the playoffs for the fourth straight season, under his second head coach. 

“No one expected this,” Wilson said after the Jets’ 37-22 loss to the Cowboys. “This is my first time going through a full staff change, and I can’t say I knew what I was getting into as far as the growing pains that come with that. 

“I’m not gonna sit here and say this is what new coaches go through, new whatevers, new staffs, but I still have that faith that we’re gonna be better off for it. I feel like we are building something in that locker room leading up to Sundays every week. We’re not coming out winning the games on Sundays, which isn’t OK. But the foundation is there, and we’re gonna keep building upon this thing. 

“It’s just about executing when you need it most, that’s what this thing comes down to. This is about us as players being at our best when our best is required. And that’s gotta be the mindset. You don’t know what play it is that’s gonna turn that game around, so you gotta make all of ’em.” 

The 0-5 Jets make hardly any of them. 

“If my best reps are on Thursday, that doesn’t help us, in a way, if that makes sense,” Wilson said. “I gotta be at my best on Sunday, we gotta be at our best on Sunday, and it’s not a disconnect in what we’re coaching, what we’re preaching. The opportunities are there. We gotta, as players, be better at executing, doing what we’re asked to do and then maybe every now and then when that time comes, doing a little bit more to help your teammate out. 

“I don’t know when that’s gonna take shape, but it’s going to. We’re being coached the right way, and we’re going about it the right way during the week, but you have no chance on Sunday if you don’t prep during the week. … The process is there, we gotta be at our best on Sunday.” 

Wilson (six receptions, 71 yards, one touchdown) was a veritable afterthought for most of the afternoon.

Asked what Glenn’s message was afterward, the receiver said: “It’s 80 percent stuff that we’re gonna watch on film and be like, ‘Alright,’ but that [other] 20 percent is catastrophic. That’s not how you win games. It’s stuff that we’re preaching. Like I’ve sat up here and said week after week, it’s stuff that we’re preaching all week. And with that, it comes on the players to go out there and do it. 

“I take that upon myself, and other guys feel the same.” 

Teams at 0-5, past Jets teams, have fractured. 

“We’re gonna play with this thing through all 17 with the utmost faith and faith in your teammate, faith in your coaches, and see where that puts us,” Wilson said. 

“No one guaranteed us anything coming into this season. We gotta put our head down and keep working. We got a new staff, we’re being coached right, we’re being taught right, the scheme’s good, and it’s our job to go out there and keep these dudes around, man, for real.”