Arians: Jets'll get 'better' with Bowles at helm
Bruce Arians has known Todd Bowles for more than three decades, coaching him at Temple and later serving as his boss while head coach of the Cardinals.
Arians also was the Colts’ interim coach when Andrew Luck was a prized rookie in 2012, making him a good choice to work the broadcast booth this Sunday as an NFL analyst for CBS when the Jets meet the Colts at MetLife Stadium.
“It’s one of those ones where I’m impartial anyway, but there will be a lot of emotions for me on both sides hoping that they both do well,” Arians told The Post during a phone interview on Friday. “To be honest, I always thought I’d be working for Todd one day. I always saw him as a head coach.
“And I think he’s doing a great job there, especially now that he’s got a quarterback. He’s a great football mind, and I think they’re just going to get better and better. I think Jets fans should be ecstatic right now.”
Arians, 66, compiled a record of 49-30-1 as head coach of the Cardinals from 2013-17, with Bowles serving as his defensive coordinator until being hired as Jets head coach in January 2015.
“It’s probably one of the proudest things for me to watch him play and coach,” Arians said. “He was a great player, because he was really smart. He’s the same way as a coach. He’s a great teacher. He had success written all over him the whole time, just one of the brightest guys I’ve ever coached.”
Arians, who also was a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator during Peyton Manning’s days with the Colts, said he has been impressed by Sam Darnold’s first five NFL games, including last week’s blowout win over Denver that improved the Jets to 2-3.
“The young players they have are solid, and when you have that quarterback, that franchise quarterback, it’s just fun to go to practice every day,” Arians said. “I go back to when Peyton was a rookie, we were 3-13, but every day was fun because we were getting better. We saw ourselves getting better every day and learning from our mistakes and then you continue to add those pieces. It’s really fun to work and coach under those circumstances.
“And I really like Sam. I like the way he moves in the pocket and keeps his eyes down field. He’s not looking to run, he’s not looking to rush the throws, he just has a natural feel for it. That’s one of the hardest things when you’re teaching those guys. He can make every throw, that’s for sure. Sure, it’s gonna be a learning curve. He’s gonna have some great moments, he’s gonna have some bad moments. But the best thing is you look at him and his resiliency and how he handles those moments, good and bad. For a young guy, that, to me, has been very impressive.”
Arians knows a thing or two about rookie quarterbacks after working with Manning at the start of his career and later with Luck, who was drafted first overall out of Stanford in 2012. Arians won NFL Coach of the Year that season as an interim fill-in while Chuck Pagano was being treated for leukemia, leading the Colts to a 9-3 mark.
Luck missed all of last season because of shoulder surgery, but he has thrown for 829 yards and seven touchdowns over the past two weeks.
“He looks healthy again, and the game needs him,” Arians said. “He’s a tremendous talent and a great guy and I’m just so happy to see him back playing and at the level he’s accustomed to playing.”
Of course, Darnold only fell to the Jets at No.3 in the draft because the Giants chose running back Saquon Barkley one pick earlier. As much as he liked Darnold, and even with the Giants disintegrating at 1-5, it’s a move Arians still endorses.
“They obviously thought, and I think so too, that Eli [Manning] has got more years in him. I thought Saquon was the best player in the draft and the safest pick in the draft. So I thought it was a great move,” Arians said. “If you’d thought that [Manning] was done, that’d be different. Because if you draft [a quarterback], when is he going to play? But the Giants, I think their problems are still more with their offensive line than anything else.”