Mike White, 1.6
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How are you feeling?
It’s a disappointing, but it’s a part of football. Injuries happen and you just have to kind of deal with it.
Brian Costello, New York Post: Is it tough because you kind of thought you had an opportunity here in the beginning of the year?
Yeah, definitely. It is tough, but like I said, such is life. It won’t be the first time and it’s not going to be the last time that adversity will it, but I’m really proud of what I put on film and what I was able to do with my opportunity and wouldn’t change much, tried to give it a go and what happened, happened.
Dennis Waszak, Associated Press: Robert (Saleh) said it was from the Hail Mary hit in Seattle. Did it bother you like this right after that?
I mean at the time in the game, like yeah, I could feel it, but again, like I told you guys after Seattle, I’m not going to lean on that as an excuse. Like I told you guys, everyone in this locker room deserves a certain standard of quarterback play, and just got to be better, got to be better for my teammates and learn from it and make sure it doesn’t happen again, but yeah, I think waking up on Monday, day after the game, that’s when I was like ‘Oh, okay this feels different,’ rested on Monday, rested on Tuesday, Wednesday was a walkthrough, so I was like alright, let me get moving, kind of toss the ball around, see how it feels. Didn’t feel the greatest, but it was a walkthrough, so I was able to get through the practice, and then yesterday having a full practice, went out there and threw and just said yeah, just can’t do what I want to be able to do out there with it and guys don’t deserve that, they deserve someone that can go out and play full, so Joe (Flacco)’s rolling.
Dennis Waszak, Associated Press: Is this something that just needs rest in the offseason?
Yeah, that’s what they explained to me when it first happened. Just because there’s only so much you can do for broken bones besides drink milk and all that good stuff, so yeah, I’ll definitely be drinking my milk and taking my calcium pills and all that good stuff, but yeah, it’s unfortunately kind of one of those deals, just rest and time.
Brian Costello, New York Post: How many broken ribs do you have?
So, there was technically a total of five, but they said one looked like an old one, which I don’t understand that, but they’re smarter than me, so yeah, a total of five I guess you could say.
Dan Leberfeld, Jets Confidential: Does it make it tougher this game that it’s South Florida?
Oh, 100 percent. I had everybody and their brother and sister and cousin’s coming to the game, but I mean they’re still going to come and say what’s up and support the team, but yeah, it would’ve been really fun to be able to go home and play in a stadium that I grew up going to games, watching the Dolphins. Shoot, back when the Marlins even played in that stadium, it was Joe Robbie and pro player. Yeah, I grew up going to games there, so yeah it is tough, but what can you do.
Brian Costello, New York Post: Mike, how do you feel about your future now, you’re facing free agency?
Yeah, shoot. I don’t know, I guess we’ll wait and see. If any of you guys got a crystal ball, let me know.
Brian Costello, New York Post: (Follow Up) What are you hoping for?
I mean I love it here. I mean I love the guys, I love the staff, I love the offense. I love, I mean shoot, my kids have basically been growing up and raised in Florham Park, so I really like it here. Now whatever happens, happens, but I know that I do enjoy it here and I enjoy playing with these guys in this locker room, and I would love to be back.
Brian Costello, New York Post: Do you feel like you’ve shown enough that you deserve a shot to be the starting quarterback?
I do. I do think like I’ve told you guys probably from the first time I talked to you last year, I do have an immense amount of confidence in myself, and I do view myself as a starter in this League. Now whether that happens here or not, we’ll wait and see, that’s not up to me, but like I told you guys earlier, I am proud of what I’ve put on film, and I thought I did a lot of good things. Now, was I perfect by any means? No, we still went 1/6 or whatever it was in the red zone in Minnesota, and that can’t happen. Felt like we could’ve scored more points in Buffalo, but overall body of work, I am proud of what I was able to accomplish.
Brian Costello, New York Post: With the way the offense has struggled, the question after Sunday’s game has been about Mike LaFleur’s future. What do you think about the job LaFleur has done in the two years he’s been with you?
Now, call me biased, but LaFleur’s done wonders for my career, from a selfish standpoint and I work really well with him and I believe in him, and I think the guys in the locker room believe in him too. It’s just, it’s year two in a system with a lot of shuffling around at different positions, and some injuries to tough players. Now I understand this isn’t an excuse League and it’s a results-based League, but no, I think me personally I believe in LaFleur and I think he’s a very smart, talented guy and play-caller and it’s just whatever happens on that end happens, obviously that’s above all of our pay grades, but I just know from my standpoint, I owe a lot to him for him believing in me and giving me my first shot at starting, and again this year, so I might be biased in that aspect, but that’s kind of how I feel about it.
Dan Leberfeld, Jets Confidential: What were you trying to accomplish on that drive at the end of the first half, on the one-yard line with 45 seconds left?
To be honest with you, I don’t know. You’re going to have to ask the coaches. I executed the play call that’s in my helmet, and we go out. I do know one thing, we needed to get the ball out of the goal line because, one, we didn’t want them to end up with the ball. I can’t remember if they had any timeouts or not, but anytime the ball is on the one-yard line, you’re like, ‘Alright, let me get out of here because safeties or something bad can happen.’ I think we got a couple of explosive plays. We got the first down, and we’ve scored with little time before, so we were like, why not try to get some momentum knowing, we were getting the ball back in the second half and see if we could get maybe a quick, cheap three points and try to lap them in the second half.
Dan Leberfeld, Jets Confidential: (Follow Up) Was that first play, perhaps, close to being a pick-six?
No, I don’t believe so.
Dan Leberfeld, Jets Confidential: (Follow Up) How frustrating is it as far as earning power? If you had gone out down the stretch, it’s out of your control now that you’re a free agent? How frustrating is that?
It’s definitely frustrating, but like I said, you can’t go down that rabbit hole because you’re going to get frustrated, you’re going to get pissed off. It’s out of my control. I didn’t go out there and break my ribs on purpose. It happened, so you just got to deal with it, learn from it, move on from it, and hopefully you come out better for it.
Dan Leberfeld, Jets Confidential: (Follow Up) Did you break another rib at the end of the half?
No, I’m talking about Buffalo.
Dan Leberfeld, Jets Confidential: (Follow Up) When you got injured again on the Darrell Taylor hit, did you break another rib?
No, I don’t think so.
Andy Vasquez, NJ Advance Media: You talked about last season how it was tough going through the offseason. Emotionally, does it change the way this happened? Last year, it was kind of like you got sat down. This year, it wasn’t in your control. How do you think it will be for you emotionally this offseason?
That definitely helps. I don’t know. My emotions going into the offseason is that I’m proud of what I was able to do when I got my opportunity. We’ll see where the chips fall type thing. I told you guys from the get-go, and I will try to keep that same thing. It’s not a week-to-week thing because we don’t have any more games, but take it day-by-day and enjoy my family, enjoy the time off, get back in the gym and work on that stuff and just be ready to roll whenever we start back up.
Dan Leberfeld, Jets Confidential: Have they expressed interest in bringing you back?
We don’t talk about that type of stuff during the season, and I will leave that to my agent and Joe D. (Douglas) and them. It’s been business as usual, trying to figure out how to beat the Dolphins.
Laura Albanese, Newsday: When you hear five broken ribs, do you hesitate going back out there?
No, I never hesitated at one point. Doctors cleared me. They’re way smarter at that type of stuff than I am, especially at the time when we were in a real playoff hunt. I was going to go out there no matter what.