Bowles Insists The Rookies Need To Grow Up As Devin Smith Struggles Again

Devin Smith has not had a good season. That may be the understatement of the year, but for the second week in a row, he made a costly error that may have altered the course of the game. Last week, the Jets rookie receiver muffed a kick, resulting in a TD. This week he dropped a sure TD. I've called for patience with the rookie, but it seems as though Todd Bowles patience is running out.

"Our rookies have to stop being rookies," said Todd Bowles, who was really referring to only one rookie. "They need to grow up. They get paid like everybody else and they've got to start acting like they're not in college anymore."

You're right about that Todd, these guys do get paid like everyone else and their job is to perform. Devin has been in and out of the team all year, through injuries and well, just being a rookie. I don't think we can judge him based on this sample size, but at the same time, he's doing nothing to suggest he can play in this league.

He was known as one of the best deep ball threats in all of college football. He tracked the deep ball as well as anyone. However with the Jets he's been anything but reliable. He drops easy catches, he ducks out of oncoming contact, playing scared is playing slow, and you can't play slow in the NFL.

Listen, I'm not going to jump on Smith. He's a young man who's not performing. I'm sure he's a great individual, a great person. He doesn't want to be playing badly, no athlete does, but right now he's hurting the team.

It's been tough," Smith said of his rookie season. "I know my time is coming. I'm going to keep working hard. When that day comes, everybody will know."