Jets captain Steve McLendon wasn’t going to put up with sloppy football ahead of Sunday’s game against the Dolphins.
The Jets were coming off a disappointing effort against the Bengals two Sundays ago in which they did nothing right. McLendon started to notice that their careless mistakes were carrying over into Friday’s practice, and so he delivered a strong message to wake them up.
“The coaches had to fuss too much and I couldn’t take it,” McLendon said, per ESPN. “I didn’t feel like guys were focused enough. Called ‘em up, got it together, had a good practice, same thing on Saturday and came out and won.”
The question is why did the Jets need a wake-up call in the first place? They were coming off a terrible loss to a winless football team and should’ve been motivated to bounce back, especially against a team that embarrassed them earlier in the season.
As for McLendon, he keeps proving every week why he is such a valuable teammate. He sets high standards not only for himself, but for the team as a whole. If he sees a player slacking off, he’ll call them out on it.
The Jets re-signed McLendon for another year for moments like this. His veteran presence rubs off well on the younger players. McLendon has been in the league long enough to know what it takes to win consistently and the Jets have yet to accomplish that.