JETS STARTERS COULD PLAY IN PRESEASON FINALE
NEWYORK » It could be allhands on deck for the New York Jets’ preseason finale.
Coach Todd Bowles said all of his healthy players could be available to play against the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night — and that includes quarterbacks Josh McCown, Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg.
Bowles wouldn’t reveal his plans for the game, but he also didn’t rule out playing all three quarterbacks.
“Football is football,” Bowles said during a conference call. “It doesn’t matter who we play. Everybody is available to play. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the quarterback, the punter, the snapper, and I’ll play them as I see fit.”
On Monday, the coach announced that McCown would be the Jets’ starter in Week 1 at Buffalo on Sept. 10. Many teams typically rest their starters in the final preseason game to protect them from injuries while giving roster- bubble players a chance tomake one last impression. But Bowles left open the possibility that he could have some of his top players see some action.
“We need to do some things, so we’ll work on them,” Bowles said. “If I decide to play or not play them, that will be my decision.”
McCown has played only the opening series of the preseason, leading New York to a touchdown against Tennessee. It would be unusual for a team to have its starting quarterback get such little work in the preseason. But Bowles and quarterbacks coach Jeremy Bates cited the 38- year- old McCown’s NFL experience and extensive snaps in offseason workouts and the beginning of training camp as reasons to feel confident that he’ll be ready for the season opener.
“I don’t think of anything as far as Josh playing,” Bowles said of the risk- reward factor of possibly playing McCown. “I think of it as a team standpoint. If the team needs to work on something, we work on it. It doesn’t matter whether it’s for Thursday, whether it’s next week, whether it’s two weeks from now, it doesn’t matter. If we need to work on stuff, we work on it.”