Career year

“The type of season that he’s been having and just his presence as a leader in the locker room and for our offense was huge, and to lose him, it definitely sucks,” Jermaine Kearse said.

ROUGH TIME: The Jets were never in Sunday’s embarrassing loss to the Broncos, so it’s hard to pinpoint specific plays or sequences that led to their downfall. They were outclassed from start to finish against the team that hadn’t won since Oct. 1.

Still, one perplexing decision from Todd Bowles required explanation. With 1:10 remaining in the first half, the Jets stopped the Broncos on third down, forcing Denver to kick a field goal. Instead of calling one of his three timeouts, though, Bowles let the Broncos wind the clock all the way down to 32 seconds, as Brandon McManus drained a 53-yarder to extend the lead to 13-0.

The Jets got the ball back on the ensuing kickoff. Bowles had McCown take a knee to end the half. Why not take the timeout before McManus’ kick and give the offense around a minute to drive into field-goal range?

“At the rate we were playing, we needed to go in and regroup,” Bowles said Monday on a conference call.

WHAT TO DO: Bowles said he, his staff and the front office are still deciding what do with wide receiver Jeremy Kerley, who is eligible to return from his fourgame PED suspension this week.

“He can technically be invited back this week,” Bowles said. “There’s still things we have to talk about, though.”