Eric Decker gambled on himself last offseason.
After four immensely successful years with the Denver Broncos, a tenure that saw Decker's catches and yards increase each season, and was capped off by an appearance in Super Bowl XLVIII, he decided to test the waters in free agency and was eventually signed to a very lucrative contract by Rex Ryan's New York Jets.
Now, 12 games into his New York Jets career, with the team 2-10 and in fourth place in the AFC East --while the Peyton Manning-led Broncos are 9-3 and in first place in the AFC West-- Decker admits that things have not gone as well as he'd hoped they would when he signed in the offseason.
"It's hard, it's tough," Decker said, per Jane McManus of ESPNNewYork.com. "You can say 'what if,' you can analyze every game, but we haven't done enough. We haven't given ourselves enough breaks to win a football game. Like today, we play well but we got beat, period. It's been really hard, the stretch of losing so many games."
Even Decker's wife, Jessie James, has chimed in on her husband's struggles this season.
"He's been, I don't want to say depressed, but he's been depressed," James said in an interview on The Todd Show on WPLJ in New York, per Josh Katzowitz of CBSSports.com.
After the Jets latest loss, a 16-13 affair in which Decker caught two passes and the Jets seemingly attempted to operate an NFL offense with as little help from their quarterback as possible, Decker was asked about what he thinks has gone wrong this season.
"For me, I've got to get better at what I do. That's all I can control. I'm going to try to be the best teammate that I can be and the best receiver I can be. And if you're OK with losing and you go home and you're fine with losing, there's something wrong inside of you. This game you only get so many years to play and I would enjoy getting another shot of making a run and having that success. I'm not saying we're far off at all; we've just got to execute better."
But he remained steadfast in his assertion that he wouldn't change his decision to sign with the Jets, no matter the final outcome of this season.
"I don't second-guess my choice at all," Decker said. "The New York Jets wanted me to come here and Denver didn't. So I was excited about coming here and I wouldn't have done anything differently."
