Ihedigbo: Jets can win multiple Super Bowls under Rex

James Ihedigbo can’t wait for “Beast Mode” time again.

The Jets' safety is spending the offseason much like the rest of his teammates, training without coaches' supervision as they wait for the lockout to be lifted. Ihedigbo is also waiting for the second coming of “Beast Mode,” the term he uses to describe the mentality of the Jets' top-notch secondary in 2010.

“Our mentality is that we hit you because in this game, it is you hit them or they’re going to hit you,” Ihedigbo told Metro. “That’s what ‘Beast Mode’ is and I know that whoever is back there with me in the secondary, that guy has my back and I’ve got his back.”

The phrase came around at the end of last season and became a bit of a rallying cry for a secondary unit that was hit with injuries and some spotty performances in the middle of the season. Come the playoffs, though, the beasts were the best, severely limiting the potent Colts passing offense in the AFC wild card round and one week later forcing the Patriots’ Tom Brady into one of the worst passing performances of his postseason career.

“I know it will pick up again this season where we left off,” Ihedigbo said.

The player known as “Digs” to his teammate is set to enter his fifth year in the league, the former undrafted safety out of UMass is a free-agent and cautiously eyeing his future. Despite the uncertainty of the labor situation, his desire is to remain in New York. While he won’t discuss whether players from other teams have reached out to him about joining their teams – Ihedigbo did spend some time training earlier during the lockout with members of the Houston Texans – he says that he has a New York state of mind.

“I really do love this team, I love the Jets and being with the Jets organization. [General manager] Mike Tannenbaum gave me a shot to join this team as a walk-on when I wasn’t drafted, Woody Johnson is a great owner and treats us all well. I love this team, we’re put in situations to succeed and do well and we can win Super Bowls here, I believe that” Ihedigbo said. “But I feel I’ve earned a reputation, I’ve earned a name around the league so far in my career and I need to cautiously weigh and see what’s best for me. I need to see what the Jets are thinking too.

“But I’d still love to be a Jet.”

Count the safety among those infatuated with coach Rex Ryan, too. While he hasn’t read Ryan’s new book, "Play Like You Mean It" – “I’ve just read the CliffsNotes version of it” Ihedigbo said laughing – he likes the bold talk from his head coach.

This includes the part where Ryan says that his Jets are “the big brother” of the crosstown rival Giants.

“Yeah, I’ve got no problem with that, no problem at all. I mean, look at the success over the past couple of years, we were minutes from the Super Bowl two straight years. Rex is just saying what we believe about ourselves,” Ihedigbo said. “I mean, look, we knocked Eli [Manning] out of the preseason game last year. We’re not a losing team anymore, we are no longer the little brother of the Giants or any other team and that’s how we look at ourselves. We feel we’ve earned that over the past few years, that we’re no longer in the shadows anymore.”

Ihedigbo talks about a new outlook for the Jets, a team he says that “believes we can always win.” For years if not decades, the Jets have been a beleaguered bunch, second-class citizens in the Meadowlands. "Beast Mode" has changed all that.

“We’ve proven it over the past two years that we’re not the little brother, we’re not the team to laugh at,” Ihedigbo said. “We don’t expect to lose, to be the team that people expect to be that same Jets team from years past.”