In one of his last media encounters for a while, TE Jeremy Ruckert went full geeky Long Islander with his head gear, wearing a "classic" New York Islanders “Fish Sticks” cap depicting the 1990s cartoonish fisherman logo that, at the time, reminded a lot of people of the mascot of a well-known seafood company.

Ruckert, a native of Lindenhurst in Suffolk County grew up in a family of Jets fans, and obviously also of the NHL team that won four consecutive Stanley Cup titles in the early 1980s, years before he was born. Though he decamped for college at Ohio State, Ruckert is a Jets guy through and through, as he said as his teammates dispersed to places far and wide. What's Ruckert's approach to the offseason? Well, he's staying put.

"Stick around here, be in the [Atlantic Health Jets Training Center] building a lot, talk to the guys, reach out to them, see what they need," he said. "And keep trying to build this, this culture from the inside out, talk to the guys that are going to be here, see who wants to be here, see who doesn't. A lot of it goes into other than just being in the building during the season. You build these relationships in the offseason, and whether it's going out to where people are training and training with them, or getting a group of guys to go together, I think that's going to be a priority for me this offseason. Get the group to be a little bit closer, and really buy into what AG [HC Aaron Glenn] is trying to set up for us and be one of those steppingstones for that."

As he prepares for his fifth season with the Green & White, Ruckert, who recently signed a contract extension, has emerged as one of the team's young foundational players who is only now coming into his own. After the Jets drafted Mason Taylor in the second round out of LSU in last year's draft, it was assumed Ruckert, 25, would have a more limited role. It worked out to be more of the opposite.

Statistically, Ruckert had the best season of his NFL career, playing in all 17 games with career highs in targets (29), receptions (23) and receiving yards (179; 7.9 per catch), with a TD and 8 grabs for first downs, while also taking 49% of the snaps on offense, another career high. Taylor missed the final four games and ended the season on injured reserve because of a neck injury. But the rookie led the team in receptions (44) and receiving yards (369).

"He's a man that I think we've had a number of conversations about from a really offseason program into training camp, and I think I'm one of the coaches that's as hard on Ruck as anybody," Glenn said after the team re-signed Ruckert in mid-December. "And the reason is, man, there's so much meat on the bone with him improving, and he's improved so much from the start of training camp up to now. He's tough, he's physical, he's versatile. He's one of those guys that we can put in the fullback position. Obviously, he can play at the tight end position. You can flex him out. And he's one of those guys that in the run and pass game, he's been pretty valuable for us. Obviously, there's some tight ends that focus on the passing game, some tight ends focusing on being a blocker. He's one of those guys that can do both. So that's a true value for us in a system that we're trying to build here."

Ruckert has bought into Glenn's vision of the Jets' future, and though he shares the disappointment about the past season, he's said he committed to being part of the solution.

"This is the most confidence I've had since I've been here of this thing getting flipped," he said. "I know it's easy to say that, but I feel we've got the right pieces. We've got the right people in leadership and I'm excited to be a part of it. We're not going to take this offseason lightly. There's things that we need to fix. We need to fix it now, and we're 100 percent bought into that.