No e see if eventful offseason pays off on field

The Todd Bowles era begins Sunday at MetLife Stadium with lofty expectations after an offseason of retooling and rebuilding an organization that had fallen into disrepair.

Jets owner Woody Johnson jettisoned coach Rex Ryan and general manager John Idzik after the disastrous 4-12 season in 2014, replacing them with Bowles and Mike Maccagnan and then throwing money around to bolster the roster, headlined by the return of Darrelle Revis. Now, Johnson gets to see if that was money well spent when the Jets open the season against the Browns in Bowles’ first game as head coach.

“We’ve got to play hard. We’ve got to be smart. Obviously, we’ve got to be tough,” Bowles said this week. “We’ve got to be mentally tough. We can’t wilt when something happens. We’ve got to be able to come back from adversity and understand and build trust each other as we go.”

The Jets had plenty of adversity in Bowles’ first few months on the job. Star defensive end Sheldon Richardson is suspended for the first four games after violating the league’s drug policy. Then, he was arrested in July for resisting arrest in a high-speed chase that featured drugs, a gun and a 12-year-old. But Richardson’s problems were not as disruptive as the Battle of Broken Jaw — when linebacker IK Enemkpali broke quarterback Geno Smith’s jaw with the punch heard ’round the NFL.

Those issues are behind the Jets now as they get to take the field. Richardson will be watching from home, Smith from the sideline. New quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick gets to show whether he should keep the job long-term, even when Smith returns.

“You just want to get off to a good start,” guard Willie Colon said. “You don’t want to lose your home opener. You want to get the morale going. You want everybody to be on the same page. At the end of the day, if we’re able to be successful with what we do up front it will set the tone for the rest of the game.”

Bowles cautioned the Jets are still a work in progress after an offseason of changes.

“Until we figure out who we are and we get good, you’ve got to win in the process of doing that,” Bowles said. “You don’t want to lose doing those things. You’re not going to be perfect and everything’s not going to click, but in the process of getting better you want to win games as you’re getting better.”