Playing Petty Will Relieve Pressure On Bowles

Yesterday was a tough game to watch. How did it get to this? After a promising 10 win season in 2015, the Jets are sitting at 3-6 and staring down the barrel of a horrible forgettable campaign. My question yesterday wasn't so much how it happened, but how we'd managed to win 3 games?

Yesterday was even worse than feared. Not only did we see Fitzpatrick struggle through another game, throwing a pick to a 300lb defensive lineman and then spraining his MCL. We saw two of our best players benched for the 1st quarter, reportedly for being late to a team meeting.

If you believe the report out of NJ.com today, both Sheldon Richardson and Muhammad Wilkerson make missing and being late to meetings a habit. Not exactly the kind of role models you want for Leonard Williams, a player who may end up being better than both of them. Do the Jets have any accountability? If true, does this show a lack of respect by the players for head coach Todd Bowles? I can't answer any of those without being in the facility, but it's a worrying sign. Especially when you consider how undisciplined the Jets were yesterday, and how it seemed as though many players were there to get shots in rather than play football.

We're in the second year of head coach Todd Bowles reign as Jets head coach and the team looks to be regressing. Some of it is just down to good players not playing well. Some of it is down to a lack of talent in certain areas. Some of it is down to ageing veterans who are hitting a steep decline in production. However some of it needs to rest squarely on the shoulders of the Head Coach.

There have been a number of miscommunications for the Jets, on both sides of the ball. Through the first few weeks of the season, you can expect that. However if it's still happening in week 9, then that's on coaching. In game adjustments seem to be non-existent, that's on coaching. Forte was running well, and then he heads to the sideline and we under utilise his replacement in Bilal Powell...that's on coaching.

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The more I see of Todd Bowles, the less I'm inclined to believe he has what it takes to be a head coach in this league.

When your season is being flushed down the toilet, you want a self aware coach. If we can't win this year (and we can't win this year, not with this team), you need to start figuring out how to win next year, and the year after, and the year after that. So I was amazed that Bowles quickly reiterated to the media following a crushing loss to a poor Dolphins team (we're just even worse) that Fitzpatrick is the QB going forward.

What purpose does that offer?

Fitzpatrick, the man who will be a 34 year old free agent after this year.

Fitzpatrick, a man who has captained this team to a 3-6 record this year.

Fitzpatrick, a man who is completing just over 55% of his passes this year.

Fitzpatrick, a man who has thrown 5 more interceptions than TD's this year.

This doesn't make any sense and Todd Bowles needs to be questioned about it. I understand that you have to sell tickets and you have to get people excited about the product that you're pushing. The NFL is a business, I think everyone who has been a fan of this league understands that. However this season is lost, and the way to build excitement among the fans is to insert Bryce Petty as your QB.

If Bowles continues to play Fitzpatrick, then the pressure will continue to mount on him, because we'll continue to lose games without moulding our future plans. If we play Bryce and he starts winning some games and playing well, brilliant! You get him some experience going into 2017. If we place Bryce and he's terrible and we continue to lose games, at least we know what we have, and we have some game tape on him to evaluate.

Please, please please Todd Bowles, make the decision that's best for you, best for the fans and best for the franchise. Give Bryce a chance, lets get a headstart on planning for 2017, as 2016 has been an absolute disaster.