C.J. Mosley not yet ready to return, but he's having fun watching Jets play from the sideline
Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley speaks with the media after practice during training camp at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center in Florham Park, N.J. on Aug. 2. Credit: James Escher
When C.J. Mosley injured his toe in Sunday’s game in Nashville and had to watch most of the tense contest from the sideline, it could have been a very difficult moment for him. Mosley is an every-down veteran linebacker who acts as the nerve-center and the drumbeat for the defense, the quarterback for his unit, not just making plays but making sure everyone else is in the right place to make theirs. Being out of the action was no place for him to do any of that.
Maybe it was because the Jets won. Perhaps it was because the defense came up with four huge goal-to-go stops to secure the victory. But Mosley had a very different take on his non-participatory perspective than folks might expect.
“It was actually kind of fun to watch,” he told Newsday this week.
That didn’t mean he wanted his sideline perch to be permanent, or even last longer than it already had. He fought hard to be back for Thursday night’s home opener against the Patriots, working to reduce the swelling and pain in the toe to the point where he could play. He did not take part in either of the team’s two practices this week to see if he could make it back on a short week that caps the diabolical start of this schedule.
Ultimately he was ruled inactive.
That, of course, is less fun for him.
With Mosley out the Jets turned to Jamien Sherwood, the fourth-year linebacker, to run the huddle and the defense. Sherwood replaced Mosley in Nashville, too, and recorded nine tackles including one for as loss of yardage.
“We’re super comfortable with Jamien,” coach Robert Saleh said. “He's done a phenomenal job developing as a professional football player. Full confidence in him to call the defense, make the checks that need to be made. He's got elite mental speed and elite communication skills, so not worried about him playing ball at all.”
Mosley had missed only one other game with the Jets since he needed groin surgery in 2019 and then opted out of the 2020 season during the pandemic. Of his 51 starts between his return from the COVID year and Sunday in Nashville he’d played every defensive snap in 42 of those games and at least 82 percent in all of them.
In other words, not being on the field is pretty rare for him. Which may have been why Mosley enjoyed his brief opportunity to spectate in Week 2.
“Obviously when I’m out there I am pretty much a player-coach so I’m giving the calls to myself, coming to the sideline, adjusting to what I see,” he said of his typical routine. “But (on Sunday) I’m watching our defense, watching our linebackers ball out. They played well, they set good edges, obviously they are going to play hard all the time. I got back out there (from the training room) and I saw (Brandin) Echols’s interception.”
He also said it was fascinating for him to watch Aaron Rodgers.
“Not only did I get to watch our offense out there,” he said, “it was cool watching our offense watch our defense when we were out there. I never get to see that. Seeing Aaron so in-tune to our defense, screaming out plays they were running on the other side. From the outside looking in, it was a bunch of motivation.”
Wait, Rodgers was yelling to the defense what the Titans were going to do?
“Yeah,” Mosley said with a short laugh. “Calling out plays, cheering us on, asking for the stops. He’s watching the game just like how we watch it when the offense is out there. That was cool to see.”
Mosley said he was disappointed at potentially missing this first Jets-Patriots game without Bill Belichick part of either sideline since 1995 when he was head coach of the Browns. Since he joined the Jets in 1996 he has been part of either the Jets or Patriots staffs for 58 straight meetings between the franchises, including two in the playoffs.
Belichick may be gone, but Mosley did say it’s still his team and new coach Jerod Mayo has kept a lot of the same principles that helped the Patriots become the most dominant team of this century.
“The play style is still there,” Mosley said. “They are going to run the ball, they are going to be physical. Some of the scheme is different but the philosophy is still the same. Coach Mayo, he’s cut from the same cloth (as Belichick), that old-school style of football, the Patriot Way. It might look different but at the end of the day they’re gonna have their Patriots style of football. It’s physical, execution, and when it’s time for situations we have to be on point.”
Mosley’s time now will be dedicated toward getting his toe in good enough shape to play in the Jets’ next game next Sunday when they host the Broncos. He described the injury to Newsday as “a bone bruise and a sprain” but not, he was relieved to add, the dreaded turf toe that can sideline players for weeks or even months.
“They didn’t say it,” he noted of that diagnosis. “I’ve never had it but this is probably the closest thing to it without saying it.”
There might, too, be some extended benefit to having a 32-year-old player take a brief breather like this during a campaign that the Jets hope might extend beyond the 17 regular-season games.
“It’s a long season,” Mosley said of playing soon against the risk of making the injury worse.
Long, yes, but so far, even despite the rather painful injury, pretty fun too.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.