

Eric Decker is entering the third of a five-year contract he signed with the New York Jets, and it’s the year he thinks the club can finally attain their ultimate goal. Title/Alt Text “If you don’t have the goal to be a championship team, then we’re starting off on the wrong foot,” Decker said when being honored at the Jefferson Awards Foundation. “I believe that we’re capable of doing it. I think we’re very close.

“If we can jell like that and be consistent and add a couple pieces that maybe we are missing. Again, it’s all about if you stay healthy, if you make a run at the right time. That’s the bottom line. So I think we can be a championship team.”

The Jets vastly improved from their 4-12 outing in 2014, which saw the departure of Rex Ryan and John Idzik, improving to a 10-6 standing and earning a victory over New England that set up an opportunity to play in the postseason for the first time in five seasons.

But Decker admitted he was still brewing about the way the Jets’ season ended.

“I think I’m still bitter, to be honest,” he said of the team’s failure to qualify for the playoffs with a win over Buffalo. The Jets lost, 22-14.

“It was hard watching the Super Bowl for a while. And then toward the end I just started to root for Peyton [Manning] and be happy for some of my friends that are still out there. It was just a hard way to go out. And to think about how we’re kind of jelling and coming together at the end, not to have a chance to make a run was tough.”

He finished the season with 1,027 yards on 80 receptions for 12 touchdowns as one half of the most productive receiving tandem in the game. Along with Brandon Marshall, Decker helped bring down some longstanding Jets records.

The Jets are hoping they can repeat that formula next season and improve upon their already impressing stature in the AFC behind one of the most suffocating defenses in the league. They’re hoping they can keep their offense together with their forthcoming free agency negotiations and with their No. 2o selection in the draft.

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