New York Jets star linebacker C.J. Mosley is back on the field and he’s playing like he hasn’t missed a beat.
Not only that, the team leader is at the heart of a defense that has looked downright scary for opposing offenses in training camp and preseason so far. Despite a slight positional change in 2021, Mosley is ready to show the league that he’s still the same player he was in Baltimore.
“I’m tired of seeing the same highlights for the past two years,” the linebacker told reporters back at the start of training camp. We’ve seen fiery comments from Mosley all summer, including the expletive-filled reminder that he yelled from the sidelines of the Green & White scrimmage.
“Don’t forget that I’m a mother ******* dog,” he said, quoted by beat reporter DJ Bien-Aime. One thing’s for sure, Mosley certainly seems motivated to live up to his five-year $85 million contract from 2019.
After the first preseason game against the New York Giants, Mosley had a new message for the NFL during a post-game press conference, and this one really resonated with the fanbase.
“I’ll go back to one of my quotes when I first got here, people sleeping on the Jets, and if people come with that same mentality they’re going to get their a** blown out, and that’s 100%, no matter [if we’re] at MetLife or anywhere else.”
The warning was clear, this is no longer the same old Jets franchise. This team doesn’t take snaps off and this team has no quit, no matter who they’re up against.
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Mosley Looks Refreshed
Forget rust, the veteran looks five years younger in camp from his lean weight to his dangerous quickness on the field. On the first down of the Giants opener, quarterback Mike Glennon floated a ball deep over the middle for Darius Slayton. Mosley was all over it, tipping the ball out of the wide receiver’s path and nearly sparking an immediate turnover for Gang Green.
It was the exact same linebacker we all remembered, the man who can read an offense and cover better than most at his position around the league.
Mosley described the Jets defense: “We’re fast, that’s one thing I can say [about the new defense]. Explosive, D-line is going to get after it, especially once we get teams in second and long, third and long, even third and short. We’re going to [have] our defensive line trying to get after the opponent’s quarterback, but I think we’re going to be a defense that’s going to make you try and throw over the top and make you try to run the ball on us because if you don’t it’s going to be a long day for your quarterbacks.”
When asked if anything felt off so far, he responded; “As far as timing, I don’t think so, but just as far as being a better football player, you always want to find something you can work on whether it’s communication [or an onfield adjustment].”
Mosley also explained that Robert Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich’s system is “player-friendly,” because it’s simple and freeing for whatever skillset each athlete can bring to the table. These linebackers will be leaned on heavily in the Cover-3 variation, but the veteran thinks his unit is up to the challenge so long as they all “hold each other accountable every day.”
“You can never take this game for granted,” Mosley stated after admitting that he missed it, “anytime you step on the field, you want to try and give it your all [and] take advantage of every opportunity that you can get.”
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One Jets Drive Feature on Mosley
In episode one of One Jets Drive, Mosley told the audience that he’s hoping for a “fresh start” after the pandemic and his injury.
His father Clinton Mosley explained that his son feels as though he let Jets nation down more than anyone. He said: “As crazy as this is going to sound, we feel like we cheated the fans more than us because C.J. is a player and he loves his team, he’s a team-oriented player. He loves family man [and] the Jets [were] his family. What happens when you get separated from your family, man? It hurts… he’s hurting more because he wants to give them everything that they deserve, and we are going to give it to them, I promise you that.”
Clinton Mosley was the star of the little featurette, and he gave a sneak-peek behind the curtain of his son’s year off from football — if you can call it that.
The linebacker turned his entire basement into a full-on training center, removing all the television screens and electronics to make sure there were no distractions. His father told the production that he would spend 23 hours out of the day down there a lot of the time, including sleep, treatment and workouts.
As for Mosley’s message to anyone joining the Jets, it’s simple. “What’s your why?” He told the camera, continuing; “We got to find what motivates each other because every dog is going to have their day, somebody is going to get down, somebody is going to be tired in the game or at practice, but if your brother next to you knows why you’re here doing things, they can remind you of that and keep you going, so I think this camp is going to be about ‘what’s our why’ as a team.”
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Jets Linebacker C.J. Mosley Has a Bold Warning for the Rest of the NFL