Todd Bowles proves he can't manage a quarterback controversy
After all of the issues with veteran quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and having both of his replacements get injured, head coach, Todd Bowles has officially proved he can’t handle a quarterback controversy with the New York Jets.
The New York Jets have had quarterback problems all season long, and they just keep getting worse. After an injury to quarterback, Bryce Petty, Todd Bowles has officially proved he can’t fix these issues at this position.
It all started at the beginning of the offseason when veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick‘s one-year contract ended. He wanted more money, and the Jets organization didn’t know if he was worth it. However, he eventually ended up signing a contract… right before the preseason. This meant he had no offseason training.
Then Bowles decided to keep all four of the quarterbacks he had on the roster. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but he didn’t want to train these guys enough. Now, he has three undertrained players, and one guy with no offseason.
All of us fans had a feeling that Fitzpatrick’s lack of offseason training would prove costly, but since he had a good year in 2015, we didn’t want to believe it. Unfortunately, our feeling was correct.
After six mediocre performances, Bowles finally makes the decision to go with his other experienced man, Geno Smith. Smith showed promise in Week 7 against the Baltimore Ravens, but he couldn’t finish. The man with no starting reps until Week 7 ended up tearing his ACL in the second quarter.
Good news is Fitzpatrick showed promise when he replaced Smith, which gave us (the fans) hope for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, once Fitz started doing well, Bowles kept refusing to train his other two quarterbacks. And Fitzpatrick ended up struggling again.
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Week 10 comes along, and Bowles would again make the decision to bench Fitzpatrick. This time, he goes with the young gun in Petty. Unheralded, and under-trained, Petty fails, losing to the Los Angeles Rams, 9-6. Oh no! Sound the alarm! Put in Fitz again!
Fitzpatrick would come back for two games, and prove once again that he can’t get the job done. Back to Petty. The still under-trained quarterback comes back to start against the San Francisco 49ers and wins! He doesn’t look great, but he wins.
This looks good. Bowles might work with his young talent. He would give Petty another week as the starter, which meant he gets work with the starters in practice. However, three weeks of training was not enough to beat the Jets’ division rivals, the Miami Dolphins. They would lose 34-13, and Petty would get hurt.
Now, if Petty’s injury is serious, it’ll probably be Fitzpatrick again. This means their rookie quarterback, Christian Hackenberg will stay under-trained. With all of these problems, Bowles has officially proven he can’t handle a quarterback controversy as a head coach. He needs to work this out. And if not, he needs to work somewhere else.
