Jets' Morgan Moses has been playing with a Grade 2 MCL tear and other injuries
Jets offensive tackle Morgan Moses drops back to block during an NFL game against the Texans on Thursday at MetLife Stadium. Credit: AP/Cooper Neill
Morgan Moses is battling through a lot to make sure he’s on the field for the Jets.
The veteran right tackle revealed on Monday that he’s playing with a Grade 2 MCL tear, some meniscus damage and a small fracture in his knee.
Moses suffered the injury in Week 3 against New England and missed the next two games. But that was it. He has only gone through two full practices over the past four weeks, but he’s played every offensive snap in the last four games.
“You never want to feel like you let guys down,” Moses said on a Zoom call. “Everybody in this locker room is playing through something, whether it’s personal, whether it’s physical, emotional, whatever it is. That’s what football teams are great for because we band together. When I can’t give you 100 percent I know the guy right there beside me is going to give the extra 15 or whatever it is.”
The 33-year-old Moses has nothing to prove. But the camarederie he’s built with his teammates is important to him as is being someone they can rely on each game. He’s been rehabbing, getting treatment and doing everything possible to play, including getting his knee drained.
“Being a veteran guy you just always want to grace the field,” Moses said. “ You never know when it’s going to be your last time. I take that personally. But it’s been fun. It’s been fun with the guys. They’ve been picking me up. Everybody’s playing with something.”
Moses, acquired in a trade from the Ravens, has been the Jets’ most impactful offseason pickup on and off the field. He has not allowed a sack all season. He held Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt without one in Week 7.
Aaron Rodgers and other veteran players have spoken about what Moses means to this team as a leader. In Thursday night's 21-13 win over the Texans, Rodgers singled out Moses for what he said at halftime. The Jets scored 21 points in the second half.
The win snapped a five-game losing streak. It gave the Jets (3-6) hope that if they string together a couple of victories, they could be in the playoff mix in December. They play at Arizona (5-4) on Sunday against a hot Cardinals team that has won three in a row.
Moses said his message to the team was that the Jets were “stopping ourselves.” He said the offense met as a group, fixed some things and came out a different team.
“Guys getting together, not sitting in their lockers, not sitting in their position groups but getting together as an offense and saying, ‘Hey, look, this is what we’re going to go out there and do, this is the outcome we’re going to have,’” Moses said. “Anytime you can get the guys together and let them know, ‘Hey, it was nothing that they did to stop us, it was all self-inflicted wounds,’ you know that you correct a little bit of things, you tweak a little bit of things and you go out there and play football.”
Linebacker Quincy Williams credited Moses for keeping the team together “with everything falling down outside on us.” Williams referenced Moses saying “some very powerful things” at a player-led meeting earlier this season.
“He’s one of those players that you just got to listen to, bro,” Williams said. “You’ve got to soak it all up.”
Williams wasn’t aware how much Moses is enduring and going through to playeach week. He said that it should inspire everyone.
“The crazy thing is he never complained about it not one time,” Williams said. “Guys like that don’t really complain or talk about all the stuff they got going on just to step on the field and give us their all on Sundays, Mondays or whenever we need them.
“You got some people who are battling injuries now too. Just [knowing] like, ‘Hey man, Moses is doing this making sure he’s staying prepared and he’s sacrificing for the team,’ now I feel like I got to go harder. Me feeling healthy and things like that, he’s doing all this to get out there on the field, I owe him a little bit more, owe him another percentage. That’s kind of the mindset.”
Schedule change
The Jets’ Week 11 game against the Colts at MetLife Stadium on Nov. 17 has been moved from 8:20 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
