Going bust

Jets cut ties with former first-round pick LB Coples

Add Quinton Coples to the list of Jets firstround draft busts.

The team waived the fourthyear linebacker Monday after he played just five snaps in Sunday’s 2417 loss to the Texans.

“He just wasn’t playing. We weren’t playing him. He wasn’t getting any time,” coach Todd Bowles said, before sounding like Michael Corleone. “It’s just a business move. It was nothing personal.”

Coples was miscast as an outside linebacker, a position excoach Rex Ryan moved him to in 2013. The 16th overall pick in 2012, Coples finished his Jets career with 16.5 sacks, and none this year. By comparison, Chandler Jones, whom the Patriots picked five spots after Coples, has 34 sacks in his career.

The Jets picked up Coples’ fifthyear option for 2016 this spring, but that was only guaranteed for injury. That may have played a factor in the decision. Why risk Coples getting injured in practice and owing him $7.8 million next year if he is only playing a few plays a game?

Coples was at his best when playing on the defensive line, and may hook on with a team that plays a 43 defense. He played well at the end of the 2014 season when subbing for an injured Muhammad Wilkerson. He never made the adjustment to playing outside linebacker, a move the Jets made in 2013 after drafting Sheldon Richardson. Under Bowles, Coples has barely played.

“I think he was a better inside player than he was an outside player, but we’ve got a slew of guys inside, including drafting Leonard [Williams] in the first round,” Bowles said. “As an outside player, I thought he was OK, but we needed a little more speed on the field for the things we’re trying to do. He just caught up in that tweener status for us. That doesn’t mean he still can’t play. He just wasn’t a fit for us because of the depth we had inside.”

Bowles said cutting Coples was not meant as a message to the team.

“It’s not a factor of cutting a former firstround pick and trying to send a message,” he said. “We’re just trying to play good football players and we’re trying to play guys who want to play and guys that are ready to play. Along the way, whether we’re winning or losing, we’ve still got to make business decisions going forward. That was just one of them.” Bowles said the team has something in mind with the open roster spot, but would not divulge what that is.