Look, as Jets fans, we’re born skeptical. And if you’re not born that way then it’s ingrained in you from a very early age.

So I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit perturbed when I discovered that Brett Favre was named an offensive captain. I mean, be honest, at first it feels like the team just elected him because they felt forced to defer to the big name and star power.

However, when you get right down to it, and think about the situation, and more importantly the locker room, it’s not the case. This is a team that elected the mercurial and sometimes-moody Laveranues Coles as captain last year and while there’s been changes, the team’s core leadership is intact – Coles, Kerry Rhodes, and Shaun Ellis. So when I began to reconsider my thoughts and look over with this with a more careful eye, I came to one very important and probably obvious idea to those of you who have followed this team for quite some time:

Brett Favre has the locker room.

Let that sink in, because it’s huge.

If Favre has the locker room, he has rallied the troops around him and that will be absolutely crucial as the team moves through the early stages of the season with Favre having a less-than-perfect grasp of the playbook. They could have voted last year’s captain Laveranues Coles again, or for running back Thomas Jones, center Nick Mangold (although two OL captains would be odd) or for Jerricho Cotchery, but instead they chose Favre—a man who only three weeks ago was a man without a team.

For any of you that have played on sports teams on any level, you understand the honor it means to be voted a captain and how important that decision is for the team. It means the team trusts and respects that player and is willing to follow that player the extra mile into battle, in the trenches. The defense will play for him, the line will block for him, and the receivers will make the extra effort on cuts and routes for him.

Now, for those of you that say, “Well they’re professional athletes, they’re going to block, going to run routes, and the defense is going to do their jobs.” Not true. Teams are built and killed on chemistry and when you add such a major presence as Favre to a locker room, those issues are dangerously in question. That so soon after joining the team, his teammates trust Favre enough to name him captain, coupled with Favre’s comments about “having a ball” as a member of the Green and White, has to have Jets fans excited.

What this means is simple, this team believes in Brett. Now, maybe not every single player on the roster is on board, but the majority is, and likely the key players are–Ellis, Rhodes, Coles, Faneca, Mangold, Harris. We already know this team believes in Mangini; as evidenced by last year when this team played hard each and every game despite being out-manned and sometimes horribly out-matched. But besides all the offseason acquisitions, the coaching staff upgrades, and the development of younger players, add to that a big-time QB who has the trust of his team both in the locker room and on the field, and this could make for a very interesting season for Jets fans.

I’m still not changing my prediction of a 9-7 season with a +/- of two, but I’m much less skeptical today than I was three weeks ago.

And as a Jets fan, that’s saying something.

(EDIT: Special cookie to the Jets fan that can name the last time all the team’s captains on one side of the ball were not on team the year before.)

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