Bernard Pierce needs to play if he wants to stay

Veteran running back Bernard Pierce might not be long for the Jets’ roster if he doesn’t get healthy.

That was the word from coach Todd Bowles on Saturday after the former Raven and Jaguar missed another practice because of a hamstring injury that has kept him sidelined most of training camp.

Pierce might be helped by the fact that starting running back Matt Forte also has been out all of camp with a hamstring problem of his own, leaving the Jets thin on proven depth at that spot aside from Bilal Powell.

But Bowles said Saturday that, essentially, Pierce can’t expect to make the club if he’s in the cold tub.

“As camp goes, it’s a problem if you’re in the training room and you just got here and you haven’t shown yourself,” Bowles said of Pierce, a thirdround pick out of Temple by the Ravens in 2012 who was signed last month. “But he has film on tape. Obviously, he can play.”

Bowles didn’t have much to offer in terms of a timetable for Forte, who watched Saturday’s practice from the sidelines without pads.

Second-year wide receiver Titus Davis surprised the Jets by retiring Saturday, and they filled his roster spot by claiming rookie wideout Chris King from the Falcons.

“[Davis] decided he didn’t want to play anymore,” Bowles said. “That’s what I was told. I didn’t see him before he left.”

King, a Duquesne product, already has been cut by the Cardinals and Falcons.

Ryan Fitzpatrick hasn’t had to worry about the dreaded “camp arm” so far, and he credits both his offseason contract stalemate and the NFL Players Association for that.

One of the union’s few victories in the 2011 labor fight was getting two-aday practices banned.

“My arm, surprisingly, has felt great the whole time,” Fitzpatrick said. “There’s no residual soreness. With the way camp is now, with just one practice a day, is a lot easier

physically for quarterbacks and their arms.”

Fitzpatrick said all the rest could prove beneficial as the season goes along.

Darrelle Revis likes what he sees and feels from his surgically repaired wrist through three full practices.

“The more I jam, the more I get reps on the field, it strengthens it even more,” Revis said.