NOW OR NEVER FOR BOWLES
Bowles trying to show ownership 3-5 Jets are making progress
When Jets CEO Christopher Johnson sat down with reporters in September, he reiterated his stance that there was no playoff mandate for Jets coach Todd Bowles. Johnson said he was looking for a different P word: progress.
“You can make advances that don’t show up in the win-loss record,” Johnson said during the second week of the season. “I’m not going to put a playoff mandate out there or a win-loss record mandate out there. I’m absolutely looking for the team to advance, but how to judge that, it’ll be obvious to you guys [reporters] and it’ll be obvious to me.”
Eight games into the 2018 season, the Jets are 3-5 — the same exact record as last year … and the year before. It feels like the Jets are spinning their wheels. If there is not clear improvement in the next two months, will Johnson fire Bowles or could he be seeing improvement that we are missing?
The Jets rank in the bottom half of the league in both total offense and total defense, as they did last year. They continue to commit costly penalties and have failed to string more than two wins together. Bowles’ game management continues to raise eyebrows, like declining a penalty in the third quarter in Sunday’s 24-10 loss to the Bears and punting down by two scores late in the fourth quarter.
In Bowles’ defense, he is playing with a roster that was not great to begin with and now has been decimated by injuries. Rookie Sam Darnold has had the ups and downs you would expect from a first-year quarterback, which has hindered the offense at times.
Bowles oddly praised his team after Sunday’s loss for staying together. It felt like a strange message after such a decisive loss, but perhaps Bowles saw things in his team that outsiders did not.
In a conference call with reporters Monday, Bowles said no one is satisfied with where the Jets are.
“At the halfway point right now, it’s very frustrating,” Bowles said. “We’ve got to put our heads down and we’ve got to correct this. We’ve got to come out and try to win some ballgames. The season’s not over, but halfway through at 3-5, you don’t like where you are. We dug ourselves this hole. We’ve got to dig ourselves out.”
That digging begins this week against the Dolphins in Miami. The Jets are taking some solace from the fact they have five divisional games left this season. They feel like there is still time to get back in the playoff race because of that.
For Bowles, improvement needs to come quickly. Johnson gave Bowles a two-year contract extension after last season through 2020, but that won’t mean much if he is upset with the way this season ends.
“I am not a patient man,” Johnson said in September. “But some things take some time. We might be surprised at how much time it takes and we might be surprised at how little time it takes. I wouldn’t ask the fans to be pa- tient. I’m hopeful. It can’t happen fast enough, it really can’t.”
The NFL coaches firing season began Monday, when the Browns dumped Hue Jackson. There is no indication the Jets would consider an in-season change. It seems highly unlikely since no one on the coaching staff has head-coaching experience and the Jets have not let any coach go during the season since Woody Johnson bought the team in 2000.
Bowles is now 23-33 in his four years as coach, a full 10 games below .500. Since 2016, he is 13-27, a dismal .333 winning percentage.
Bowles was asked Monday if he feels the Jets are improving.
“Anytime you don’t win ballgames you don’t see that in the record, but I feel like we’re closer from a chemistry standpoint and a camaraderie standpoint,” Bowles said. “We just have to make some plays.”
Christopher Johnson spoke highly of the 2017 season in September, when 5-11 was viewed as overachieving.
“We were a team to be reckoned with last year,” Johnson said. “I think we will be this year, too. Maybe more so. Last year, I think we were better than we were the year before. I think we’re going to be a better team this year, too.”
You wonder if Johnson still believes this two months later.