Antonio Cromartie has been the bright spot on a New York Jets team that's trapped in the AFC East basement.
Cromartie is playing at a level with the NFL's best cover corners this season, and he has taken more of a leadership role since Darrelle Revis was lost for the season. Maybe that's why Cromartie's still preaching hope, saying the postseason remains a certain destiny for the 3-5 Jets.
"The Jets will make the playoffs this year," Cromartie told NFL Network's "NFL AM" on Thursday. "We believe in each other, we believe in what Coach (Rex) Ryan and his staff is putting us to schemes and stuff, so we definitely are going to make the playoffs this year."
Stranger things have happened in this society, but Ryan's boys have suffered too many injuries and self-inflicted wounds to be taken seriously in the AFC.
A bigger concern for this team is playing consistently from week to week. The Jets followed strong (but losing) efforts to the Houston Texans and New England Patriots by going ghost protocol against the Miami Dolphins two Sundays ago. The Jets were embarrassed in that game before fading into their bye week.
An ill time, indeed, for more postseason proclamations from members of this dysfunctional Jets family.
UPDATE: Ryan stood behind his cornerback's bold statement Thursday when he addressed the media.
"I feel as an entire football team that we should all feel like that," Ryan said, via Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. "And I think we do feel like that."
"That's really how we feel. That's our mentality. Whether you like it or not, that's our mentality."
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.
