A Sad Day For The Jets

Last season, despite a hard-earned 10-6 record, the New York Jets missed the playoffs.

Now, at 3-9 and following an unforgivable performance in a 41-10 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, they’ve been eliminated from playoff contention. They seem committed to eliminating themselves from playing as well (and certainly from playing well).

Ryan Fitzpatrick, who set a club record for touchdown passes in the 2015 season, is surely done as their quarterback. Jets coach Todd Bowles announced after the Monday night beating (at home!!!) that Bryce Petty would start the remaining games. This, of course, has pundits referring to the situation as Petty and the Jets, which suggests the pundits are old (look it up in your Elton John catalog).

The Jets have had an uneven relationship with their quarterbacks for about as long as any of those pundits can remember. They gave a basket of draft picks to move up and select Mark Sanchez fifth overall, and he’s gone. Fitzpatrick? He held out this season, expecting to get paid after last year. Geno Smith? Likely gone as well. And the Jets drafted Christian Hackenberg in the second round and he has yet to throw a pass.

Petty replaced Fitzpatrick to no avail against the Colts and Bowles then revealed that Petty was going to be the answer down the stretch no matter what the outcome.

“The plan was for us to start him the last four games anyway, so we just started a half early,” Bowles said. “We could have won 45-0, he was going to start the last four games. … That’s the slot we have penciled for him, that’s a good time to take a look at him.”

This is an organization that needs to take a good look at itself, much more than at Petty. This will be the sixth straight season without a playoff berth and the fifth in six years without a winning record.

Jets? No, model airplanes. Unfortunately, the model is how to get everything wrong.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman