Relentless Bryce has earned a shot
He is an endearing nuisance, a relentless annoyance and a guy who evidently just hasn’t gotten the hint. This was supposed to be the Summer of Hack, an evaluation process dedicated to the second-year, second-round signal caller. Bryce Petty should have been an afterthought, a third wheel in this summer-long Jets quarterback competition.
The ends justified the means: Petty getting practice-rep scraps took a backseat to what really mattered to the organization: Developing Christian Hackenberg.
Petty, a third-year fourth-round pick pushed to the margin, was supposed to quietly go away. Thanks for playing, kid. Here are your parting gifts.
Petty was too busy studying his new playbook to read the memo.
If Mike Maccagnan and Todd Bowles are truly running a meritocracy, then Petty — not Hackenberg — should be the No. 2 quarterback for the season opener in Buffalo on Sept. 10.
Bowles hasn’t made any proclamations about which signal caller will back up Josh McCown, but Petty has clearly out-played Hackenberg this summer. For all the chatter about Hackenberg’s deliberate learning curve, some have forgotten that the other young quarterback is also adapting to a new offense. Petty has earned the backup gig. “I think he’s handled this offense extremely well,” quarterbacks coach Jeremy Bates said. “He’s taking what they give him. He’s understanding the West Coast offense every day better and better. He’s taking completions and short ones and checking the ball down when appropriate.”
Under normal circumstances, the fight for the No. 2 job barely causes a ripple. For this team at this time, however, it’s sort of a big deal. Veteran Josh McCown will not be the seasonlong starter. He’s a valued albeit temporary solution.
Bowles’ admission that “you have to win obviously” to hold on to the starting quarterback job coupled with McCown’s inability to stay healthy in the twilight of his career make it more likely than not that the No. 2 guy will get his chance sooner than later.
Bowles wouldn’t definitively say that his current quarterback trio will even be on the Week 1 roster, but it would make little sense to part ways with Petty, who didn’t play in the preseason finale against the Eagles Thursday night due to a MCL sprain suffered last week, given his progress this offseason.
Petty had the second-best passer rating under pressure (133.3) in the league through three preseason games, according to Pro Football Focus. He completed 66.7 percent of his passes to Hackenberg’s 61.5 entering the fourth preseason game. Petty had more touchdown passes, fewer turnovers and a far better passer rating (106.8 to 65.1) than Hackenberg too.
He has exhibited the same toughness, fortitude and gumption that we witnessed a year ago when he was supposed to be the fourth man on the totem pole behind Ryan Fitzpatrick, Geno Smith and Hackenberg. He was supposed to go away last year too, but he didn’t. He ultimately started four games. Petty downplayed the lack of practice reps and opportunity to play this preseason with the starters even though he’s earned that right.
“It’s all about your opportunities,” Petty said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s first-team, second-team, third-team. Every time you get in there you’re putting something on tape. For me, it’s growing within that. I think the reps, whichever group they were, were important, just as important as first-team or second-team. It’s all about making strides and being better today than we were yesterday.” The Jets offered incongruous thoughts to explain away their preseason playing time plan for their quarterbacks. On one hand, they downplayed McCown’s lack of preseason reps (one series) by pointing to his familiarity with the West Coast offense. On the other hand, they pointed to Petty’s starts last season — in a different offensive scheme, mind you — as reason to give Hackenberg a pair of starts in the preseason.
“We weren’t looking at it any other way except (to) give Christian some time to start,” Bates said. “Bryce had his opportunities last year. Just to get the feel of it. Running out of the tunnel and starting is a different experience. So, we just wanted to keep it kind of level as far as their experiences, their moments.”
There’s certainly value in preparing a young quarterback to start a game, but it’s obvious that this new regime simply didn’t think that Petty was starter material after the Jets lost all four games with him under center (in a different scheme) last season.
There are fair concerns about Petty’s ability to firmly grasp John Morton’s offense. Such a wordy, complex system requires top-notch play retention. My understanding is that Petty is still working on the finer points of it all.
“This is a West Coast system that for me was in a sense a bucket list item,” Petty said. “You know you always kind of hear about, from a quarterback standpoint, the West Coast as being one of the tougher systems to learn. I’m striving every day to master that system…. I’m just excited about my growth in this system and what Coach Morton really wants from us at the quarterback position and just being better from the pre-snap, getting the play in, and post-snap, Pseeing the play through and executing it.” etty and Hackenberg will both play in the regular season (as long as one of them doesn’t get traded or cut this weekend), but Petty deserves first crack.
“It’s a challenging position being a backup quarterback, because you don’t get as many reps, of course, during the season,” Bates said. “So, you got to be mentally strong.”
Petty has proven to be just that. Going away was never an option.