February 27th...

...was the day I knew things were going to be different. I spent the day at Disneyland with my wife, daughter, and parents, the 4 people who know better than anyone how obsessed I am with this team. It was the start of free agency and I was desperately following the Bart Scott news. Needless to say, I was ecstatic. I remember exactly what I said:

"He WANTS to be a Jet. He's not just signing with the Jets, he WANTS to be here."

As all of you know, that was a rather significant thing. It's one thing for a guy to seek a fresh start with us. Players like Kris Jenkins and Vinny Testaverde wanted to come here after their teams had given up on them. We gave them new life. To have one of the top free agents actively WANT to sign here because he believed in the direction the team was headed? That was different. The last time I had felt that way, a guy named Curtis Martin was signing up to revitalize our franchise.

It happened again on Draft day. I saw Mark Sanchez picking up that phone on the TV, and I picked up mine. I called my mom's best friend, who was at his draft party. Again, I remember her words exactly:

"He's so excited. He's been telling everyone how badly he wanted to be a Jet."

One of the top 2 QB prospects in the draft, and he wasn't just happy to sign with the Jets. It was the one team out of 32 that he truly wanted to play for.

This team is different, and this franchise feels different. It's been an up and down year, and it's been easy to forget the feelings of promise that those two days brought, but we're seeing awfully early results. You can read it in the postgame quotes from players who have bought into this system and bought into this team. They LOVE being Jets and they truly believe they can win as Jets.

It hasn't been that long since last February, but feelings and expectations have changed several times since then. Right now? It's all coming full circle. I'm absolutely pumped for next week and for the future.