It's no surprise that Harrison Phillips was the recipient of this year's Dennis Byrd Award as the most inspirational Jet. His words of wisdom are a joy to listen to, be you player, reporter or fan.

Phillips framed his remarks Monday as he and his teammates were heading for parts known and unknown after the end of the Jets' 2025 season with an apt comment about time and longevity, or lack thereof, in his chosen profession. He knows he's the unusual cat in this pack, having already completed three times the amount of experience an average NFL player gets before he hangs up his pads for the last time.

"As an older player that has less football in front of him than behind him — I'm in Year 9 now, I don't know if I'm playing 18, but God, that would be so great — when a season finishes like this, it's very frustrating," Phillips said. "I told the young players here the league average is you're going to play three seasons. This is Year 1, 33 percent of your career was this. You need to understand the urgency that this offseason takes.

"I know it's been a hard year and you've got to rest, you want to recover, but when you show back up here in April, that's the biggest jump you're going to have made in your whole career, so make sure it's the biggest jump you can. Because eventually they're going to lock you in a box: 'Hey, he's a special teamer, he's a backup, he's a four-phase guy, he's a starter, he's a three-down player, he's a franchise player.' And those boxes they put you in happen really early in your career."

Although he understands the diehard Green & White fans' frustrations as well at 10 straight losing seasons and 15 without a playoff game, he advises a similar approach to the one he gave to the young dudes on the team: One year at a time.

"I understand the emotions they have with the organization," he said. "As difficult as it may be, because we're all scarred from past traumas, and I know how much this means to the fans, you can't just say to them, 'Hey, go to a blank slate.' But you need to say, 'I believe in the head coach, I believe in the general manager, I believe in the people they've put in place, and this was Year 1.'

"I can get your frustrations. But for us new people to this organization, it's our first year and you've got to give us some grace for right now. ... There was so much stuff we had to figure out. Give us the next eight months of an offseason and let us go out there and try to put our best foot forward next season and let's see what the results show."

Phillips, who calls himself "on optimist and a growth-mindset person," has an interesting approach to his new team's long-term future.

"I've never believed you try to win the Super Bowl this year," he said. "You go try to win the Super Bowl five years in a row. It's never this is the year, all eggs in one basket, because if you don't do it, you've then screwed yourself. So the goal is we need to win the next five Super Bowls. And if you come up four short, you're still really freakin' happy. So I think that's the offseason approach you have to take."

And that's the short-term approach he expects to see at the start of head coach Aaron Glenn's next Jets offseason program, which will be his first, since he arrived in trade from Minnesota in late August.

"I think AG has a side of him that when there's so much negative going on, you have to be positive," he said. "Then in the offseason, there's not so much negative going on, everybody's good, everybody's going to win the Super Bowl, we've got new signings, new draft picks. Now you can come with a little bit more of an iron fist and say this is what our standard is.

"Just from my conversations with some of the older players on the team and some of the guys that hope to be here like I hope to be here, this offseason it's going to be clear from Day 1 that this is the standard. I'll call myself out first, I'll have them circle me on the film. But everybody comes in here new, they're going to say, 'Damn, that's how they do things here.' "

So because this burly Nebraskan, a younger version of "the sage of Omaha" by way of Stanford, is paying at least some attention to the clock and the calendar, he had a gentle request. He could have been making it to the Green & White faithful,. but it was directed at his new and old teammates for the offseason, preseason and regular season that awaits:

"As an older player who, I'm hopeful I can be here and be part of the long-term plan for the next three, four years ... I need you now."