FLORHAM PARK -- Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan doesn't want to publicly attach a "playoffs or bust" mantra to this season.

Maccagnan likes how the offseason went, after the Jets finished 10-6 last year and barely missed the playoffs, which they last reached in 2010.

This season is the second for Maccagnan and coach Todd Bowles. And many observers believe the Jets -- built to win now, with a 33-year-old quarterback playing on a one-year, $12 million contract -- need to make the playoffs, in order for 2016 to be deemed successful.

Maybe Maccagnan privately feels the same way. But on Friday at training camp, he avoided a "playoffs or bust" statement that surely would have hung over the team all season, and put additional pressure on Bowles.

Maccagnan is a measured and cerebral guy, not given to impulsive or brash statements, so he understands how this sort of declaration would look.

"We're gunning for it," Maccagnan said of the playoffs. "That's our goal. Whether we achieve it or not, that's not the only benchmark we'll probably use to analyze how we're doing."

Maccagnan said the following would qualify as a successful Jets season: "To go out and be competitive and win as many games as we can win, and ideally get to the playoffs. Once you're in the playoffs, you don't know what can happen after that."

Could the season be a success if the Jets didn't make the playoffs?

"I think we'd have to go back and look, if we didn't make it, what was positive, what was something to build on going forward," Maccagnan said. "I don't know if I would necessarily say 'playoffs or bust.' I know everybody probably wants that quote. But we're just working one week at a time here."

As far as those other benchmarks Maccagnan referred to, he declined to offer specifics on them.

"We'll analyze the season at the end of the season," he said. "I'll keep those benchmarks internal."

Maccagnan made it clear that work remains, even as he enters Year 2 pleased with how this offseason unfolded.

"For where we want to be, we've made some improvements," he said. "But it's definitely a work in progress, and we feel that we're heading in the right direction. But we're probably not at the point where ... we still know we have more work to do. And we really have a lot of football to play, to find out really where we're at.

"We'll have to see how [the improvements] pan out, at the end of the day. From a year ago when we first came here, we're literally into the second year of this. We've done a lot of things. As the season unfolds, it'll sort of tell us where we're at, in terms of how much progress we've made.

"You never know what happens with injuries, but we feel we've done some things this offseason to hopefully make ourselves a more competitive team. We're kind of excited to see where we're at."

Darryl Slater may be reached at dslater@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DarrylSlater. Find NJ.com Jets on Facebook.