Kellen Winslow, right, counted his team out of the playoffs prematurely.
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Kellen Winslow admitted Thursday he made the same mistake his head coach made around this time five years ago in that he didn’t know that the Jets were still alive (albeit barely) for a playoff spot. That confusion led to his recent tweet that caused quite a stir among Jets fans.
A couple days ago, Winslow tweeted his friend, former NFL wide receiver Donte Stallworth. In the tweet, the Jets tight end wrote his prediction for how the playoffs will shake out: “I got the pats vs broncos in AFC championship game and Panthers vs Seahawks in NFC championship.”
Bad grammar aside, that Winslow excluded his current team from that prediction made waves and led to questions about his commitment to the team.
In 2009, in his first year as Jets head coach, Rex Ryan infamously told his team following a loss they were eliminated from the playoffs. The Jets won their last two games to earn a wild-card spot en route to the AFC Championship game.
“I said that — it was just mathematically wrong. My bad on that,” Winslow said. “I thought we were out of it. I was just tweeting Donte Stallworth and it wasn’t really a big deal. You guys kind of made it a big deal. But I’m a big fan of the game, also I’ve played against him. I just thought we were out of it. We’re not. We’re still alive.”
When asked, Winslow wouldn’t say if the Jets were a playoff team, saying the team was taking things one day at a time.
The tweet wasn’t the only rough go for Winslow recently.
Following the Jets’ loss on Sunday, Winslow lashed out at his teammates as he questioned their sharpness in practice. Whether in response to Winslow’s comments or not, Ryan has praised the offense the past two days for their strong practices. On Wednesday he also poked fun of Winslow for his practice remarks.
“I have to clean up his comments, but other than that, he’s a pretty dependable guy,” Ryan said.
When asked about his comments after the last game, Winslow sidestepped his statements.
“I don’t know, that’s old. We’re on to the next thing, we’re talking about the Raiders now,” Winslow said. “That’s not positive, you know what I mean? Let’s move on from that. We’re worried about the Raiders.”
Metro asked Winslow if the offense has looked better in practice this week and he cited the unit was “more efficient” this week than in the past.
Follow Jets beat writer Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer.
