Jets Veteran Addition Puts NYJ Teammates on Notice

Getty New York Jets punter Thomas Morstead spent the 2022 season with the Miami Dolphins.

Veteran leadership is key in all sports but it’s especially integral in football. With such a large roster, you need several members of the locker room to step up and lead the way if you’re going to battle through adversity and win a Super Bowl.

With Aaron Rodgers in 2023, that’s the ultimate goal for the New York Jets, but one veteran addition wants to make sure his NYJ teammates understand what an objective like that entails. 37-year-old NFL punter Thomas Morstead spoke with Sports Illustrated’s “Jets Country Podcast” on June 21, and he had a stern message on the 2023 season.

“Just because we’ve got one of the greatest quarterbacks ever [Rodgers] playing for the team doesn’t guarantee us anything,” Morstead voiced. “We’ve all got to go out and set the standard for ourselves and earn it. I think if everybody does that, in conjunction with the fact that we now have a phenomenal quarterback, we’ll have a chance at maximizing what we think we can do and be.”

It’s the right mentality to have, although fans should expect nothing less from a 14-year NFL pro and former Super Bowl champion (New Orleans Saints) that’s prepping for his 15th campaign in the league.

“I tried to not take that for granted in New Orleans,” Morstead told the podcast, having played alongside Drew Brees for many years. “There’s something different about being on a team that knows they have a chance if they handle all the business they need to handle.”

Jets’ Thomas Morstead Believes There Is ‘Legitimate Hope & Optimism’ With Aaron Rodgers in NY

Earlier in the spot with Sports Illustrated and Jets Country, Morstead relayed that the vibe is different around Florham Park this time around. After all, he was the team’s punter for seven games in 2021 — Robert Saleh’s inaugural season as NYJ head coach — before returning in 2023.

“I think there’s just a legitimate hope and optimism,” he noted. “We know we’re gonna have a chance this year.”

Much of that is due to Rodgers, and everything else that comes with the mere presence of a future Hall of Fame quarterback.

“When you have a guy that can take a game over, there’s really no situation you can be in where you don’t still have a chance [to win],” Morstead explained. “When there’s the reality of that, it allows guys to play free. It also adds a level of pressure and expectation for everybody to do their job.”

That heightened sense of pressure can cause a weak locker room to collapse, but Morstead is confident that Gang Green can handle the weight of those new expectations in 2023.

“You want to be scheduled for the primetime games,” he stated. “You want to have the expectations that you’re trying to be a top seed in your conference. I think it just adds to the level of importance that every piece matters because opportunities like this don’t come along very often.”

In the end, Morstead’s overall advice to his teammates was to “focus on the process,” because the “results [will] take care of themselves.”

Jets’ Aaron Rodgers Named as One of the ‘Most Intriguing’ Players in 2023

ESPN’s Dan Graziano put together a list of the “most intriguing NFL players for 2023” and of course, Rodgers was on it.

“The most intriguing player of the 2023 offseason obviously has to crack this list,” he wrote. “Things have reached previously unheard-of levels of hunky-dory around Rodgers and the Jets since the Packers traded him to New York. He has been at every practice, every meeting, every pro hockey and basketball game … and even the Tony Awards. Rodgers is the toast of New York at the moment, which is a really cool thing to be. But once the season starts and the games count, there’s a lot on the line for the 39-year-old Rodgers.”

“Legacy, for one thing,” Graziano continued. “Fair or unfair, quarterbacks who’ve won two Super Bowls occupy a different rung in the all-time hierarchy than those who’ve won only one. Winning with the Jets — a seemingly cursed franchise that hasn’t had a 4,000-yard passer since Joe Namath did it 16 years before Rodgers was born — would mean Rodgers did something like Peyton Manning did in Denver, or even (dare we say) Tom Brady did in Tampa. Falling short of the massive expectations that accompanied him to New York would leave a sour taste in everyone’s mouth (presumably, his included).”

“We haven’t even discussed the annual intrigue that comes at the end of Rodgers’ seasons these days,” the ESPN insider concluded. “Will he be one-and-done in New York? Is he planning to be there two years? Three? Exciting as everything is around Rodgers right now, the serious stuff starts in a couple of months.”