Both the Jets and Giants are officially playing out the end of the string on Sunday, their season finales to bring a close to a 2024 season that was realistically over weeks ago in terms of playoff viability.
We know what it looks like for playoff teams, and teams fighting for a spot, in Week 18 (or Week 17 until a few years ago), but what’s it like knowing all you’re playing for is pride, and when the final whistle blows after 60 minutes, you’re headed home for the winter, especially for a team like the Jets who know they’ll have a whole new regime when they come back in the spring?
“The season’s been long over, we don’t know what the future holds, we don't know who the coach is gonna be, we don't know who the GM's gonna be, we don't know how involved the owner is going to be,” Jerry Recco said of this year’s Jets. “There's so many question marks, and you have guys talking about tapping out the other day in Buffalo. What is this week in practice like?”
“Oh, these guys are done, they’re over it. I think after the loss in Buffalo, you had DJ Reed talking about, ‘hey man, I'm done here, I'm gonna explore free agency,’ and Sauce said pretty much in layman’s terms he’s seen guys checking out, and there’s already been speculation a lot of these guys are saying this is gonna be a new locker room, so they’re ready to get on with it,” Willie Colon, who saw a few seasons end without any reward, replied.
“Even Aaron Rodgers has kind of said it and not said it, like, ‘hey, guys will be evaluated accordingly from what they're able to do on tape these last couple of weeks,’ and on top of that, how they move around the building. It’s a somber time for a lot of these guys.”
Even with an extra playoff spot in each conference now, only two spots are truly up for grabs, with Atlanta and Tampa Bay vying for the NFC South title and Miami, Cincinnati, and Denver trying to grab the final AFC spot – so that’s five teams fighting for their lives, a dozen playing for either seeding or as a scrimmage for the postseason, and then 15 who, like the Giants and Jets, are contractually obligated to show up and complete the schedule.
“I’ve been on both sides; with the Steelers, I what it is to go to the playoffs. Once you get in, there's a new sense of energy, like a surge that comes across the team where you feel more focused and dialed in, because you know you're one and done if you do not win the game,” Willie said. “On the other side of that, when you're cleaning out your locker, you're saying goodbye to people who you may never see again, so the conversations are somber. It’s not a good feeling, and once you walk out and you get in your car, not knowing what next year looks like, especially if you're a bubble guy like I was towards the back end of my career, it’s a weird feeling.”
“It has to be, because the journey starts essentially in what, March, basically, and you're with this group of men, and then all of a sudden it just ends,” Jerry replied. “There’s so much that you don’t know about the future, so it’s got to be a strange time.”
Take listen to the entire segment above as Willie goes in-depth on what the end of the season looks like for players in several different situations!