WHILE WE’RE YOUNG ...
Coaches, players aren’t thinking tank, even if Jets brass are
NFL teams across the country are reporting to training camp this week with optimism in plentiful supply.
Then, there are the Jets, for whom optimism is harder to find than frontrow seats to “Hamilton.”
Though talk of playoffs and, in some cases, Super Bowl floats, is flowing at this time of year, the Jets seem to be on a collision course with the No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft as they report to training camp Friday.
The Jets have undergone a massive makeover this offseason, dumping their high-priced veterans in favor of a youth movement. It is a move that has been applauded by a fan base sick of mediocrity and eager to embrace rebuilding.
The problem is, the draft is nine months away. There is going to be a lot of bad football between now and then. The Jets have questions at coach and quarterback — the two most important positions in football. Their roster has more green than Jeff Bezos and more question marks than a week’s worth of final exams.
That does not mean the coaches and players are walking into the 2017 season expecting to lose. They have been clear all offseason that the talk of tanking does not apply to them. They are entering this season like every other team, with one goal in mind — as unrealistic as that might seem to everyone on the outside.
“Our ultimate goal is to get to the Super Bowl,” coach Todd Bowles said this spring. “Obviously, we have to take steps. We have a lot of guys we have to get acclimated chemistrywise right away, but our goal is to win regardless of whether we have younger guys or older guys. Our goal is to win, so progress for me is being a lot better than last year and getting to the playoffs and getting to the Super Bowl. That’s the ultimate progress.
“There is progress and steps between that — obviously we want to win a lot more games than last year and we want to go to the playoffs, and that’s what we’re coaching and striving to do [is] to go to the playoffs, so that’s my goal.”
Bowles is one of the biggest ques-
tion marks about this team. He enters his third season at the helm with a 15-17 record. He has two years left on his contract, meaning the Jets owner — whether that is Woody Johnson or his brother Christopher — will face a decision after this season whether to extend Bowles, fire him or let him coach out the final season of his deal.
Bowles will face plenty of challenges this season. His first is to figure out who his quarterback will be. Veteran Josh McCown will compete with youngsters Christian Hackenberg and Bryce Petty for the starting job. The smart money is on McCown opening the season as the starter with Hackenberg taking over at some point during the year, but training camp and the preseason could change that thinking.
Bowles will address the media on Saturday for the first time at training camp. He might give a better idea then of how the practice reps will be divided among the three quarterbacks and also provide an update on when he hopes to make a decision.
“I have a point in my head, but they have to distinguish themselves as well,” Bowles said in the spring. “You can have a point down the line — I can say Week 3 [of the preseason], and somebody might do it in Week 2, or you’ll start to see it develop and you’ll have a pretty good idea. At least I will.”
The 2017 Jets season begins with players reporting Friday and taking the field Saturday for the first practice of camp.
Expectations are as low as they have been in 40 years. Can the Jets shock the world?
The Jets claimed RB/KR Marcus Murphy off waivers Thursday, a day after the Saints waived the 2015 seventh-round pick. They cut RB Brandon Wilds to make room on the roster. Murphy is another return man to compete for those spots. They claimed kick returner Lucky Whitehead off waivers Wednesday.