Fed-up Jets still pondering what to do with wayward DL

AFTER spending this past weekend at home while the Jets lost to the Saints in New Orleans — his latest punishment in a lengthy history of rules violations — defensive lineman Muhammad Wilkerson was at the team facility in Florham Park on Monday.

His future with the franchise this season, however, remains unclear.

Todd Bowles said he and the front office have yet to decide how they will handle Wilkerson for the rest of this year. The coach wouldn’t confirm if Wilkerson will play Sunday against the Chargers in the Jets’ last home game, or if he will play in the season finale at the Patriots on New Year’s Eve.

When asked if he expects Wilkerson to practice Wednesday when the Jets hold their first session of the week, Bowles said, “We'll see.”

“It’s an internal thing,” Bowles said. “We’re still working through some things, and we’ll go from there.”

Bowles benched Wilkerson for the Saints game after the former first-round pick was late to a meeting Friday. It was at least the second time this season Bowles punished Wilkerson for tardiness, and at least the fourth time in the past three seasons.

Wilkerson, who was also benched for nearly the entire first quarter of the Jets’ victory over the Chiefs on Dec. 3, is the highest-paid player on the team with a cap hit of $18 million. The Jets could cut Wilkerson before the third day of the new league year in March and save $11 million in cap space, while still incurring a dead-money charge of $9 million. A team source told the Daily News on Dec. 7 that Wilkerson is “gone” after this season

“We haven’t worked through everything yet,” Bowles said. “But we’ll work through them, and you guys will know when we make a decision.”

The issue, it seems, is whether Bowles, general manager Mike Maccagnan and the rest of the Jets’ decision-makers believe it’s worth it to play Wilkerson in the final two games of this season. If Wilkerson suffers a catastrophic injury, his 2018 base salary of $16.75 million becomes guaranteed.

Obviously, if the Jets are planning to move on from the 28-year-old in the offseason, they want to avoid that scenario, meaning it’s in their best interest to sit Wilkerson for the remainder of 2017.

The Jets were officially eliminated from playoff contention Sunday with their 3119 loss to the Saints.

“There will be a lot of people involved in this,” Bowles said of the impending decision.

As of his conference call Monday afternoon, Bowles said he hadn’t yet conversed with Wilkerson because he “was in meetings” all day. Wilkerson arrived at the facility Monday as if it were a normal day, according to Bowles, who defended Wilkerson’s leadership after the Chiefs game.

When asked if he planned to get Maccagnan and Wilkerson’s agent involved in the discussion, Bowles said, “internal means internal.”

Bowles was pressed on what “internal” means, and the coach replied, “Well, it’s not meant for you.”

“When we make a decision, we’ll let you guys know,” Bowles said. “That’s all I got to say about it.”

The Jets signed Wilkerson to a fiveyear, $86 million deal before the 2016 season, after the defensive lineman suffered a broken leg in the final game of 2015, a loss to the Bills that kept Gang Green out of the playoffs for a fifth straight year.

Wilkerson responded with a subpar campaign in 2016, as he battled through the lingering effects of offseason surgery to repair his leg. That underperformance has continued into 2017.

Wilkerson, a Linden, N.J. product, has just eight sacks in his last 31 games. He reached the Pro Bowl in 2015 with 12 sacks.

“I’m kind of through talking about Mo,” Bowles said Monday. “If you guys got anything else, I’ll answer. But I’ve said all I have to say about that situation.”