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Todd Bowles escaped the midseason ax, but his future in New York looks grim
Rey Del Rio/Getty Images

Todd Bowles escaped the midseason ax, but his future in New York looks grim

It’s been another dreary year for football in New York. With seven weeks remaining in the regular season, both the Jets and Giants already know they’re playing for draft position and future jobs. But while Big Blue has been a washout from the start in 2018, the Jets at least began the season with a spark of hope.

The Jets opened with a lopsided prime-time win in Detroit in which rookie quarterback Sam Darnold looked sharp, minus a pick-six on his first career passing attempt. Consecutive wins in Weeks 5 and 6 got New York to 3-3 and a shot at respectability. Unfortunately, the bright spots in 2018 have been separated by long stretches of losing, and the Jets have dropped four in a row, including Sunday’s laugher of a loss at home to lowly Buffalo.

Handing the Browns their first victory since 2016 (Week 3) would certainly be a sore spot for any team, yet it can’t even be counted as the worst Jets setback of this season. The 41-10 defeat to the Bills on Sunday is easily the nadir to date. Facing a journeyman quarterback in Matt Barkley, who had been signed by Buffalo less than two weeks prior, the Jets had nearly nothing to show for themselves until garbage time. New York didn’t get on the board until the end of the first half, kicking a field goal to the sarcastic cheers of the home crowd to barely interrupt what was until then a 31-0 Buffalo onslaught.

There have been few silver linings during this recent skid amid allegations that players are quitting on the team. In their four-game losing streak, the Jets haven’t scored more than 20 points a game and have given up more than 35 twice. This was always expected to be a rebuilding year for the Jets. The problem is that the longer the season goes on, the less progress is evident.

Since that encouraging Week 1 win, Darnold has put together a good performance here and there but otherwise has mostly struggled. That isn’t necessarily an indictment of the coaching staff on its own. Even in an era where it’s not unheard of for rookie quarterbacks to excel out of the gate, a fair amount of adjustment is still to be expected. Besides, the New York offense is hardly teeming with top-flight talent surrounding the young QB. There are a few solid veterans in that receiving corps but no one for a defense to game-plan around. It doesn’t help that offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates has failed to compensate with creative ways to overcome these shortcomings.

The offensive problems, while not great, would likely have been excusable given that Todd Bowles has a background as a defensive coach. Safety Jamal Adams came to Bowles' defense late on Sunday, saying the defense’s problems couldn’t be neatly pinned on the head coach. The problem is, save for 2015, Bowles’ first season in New York, when an outmatched roster overachieved to 10 wins, the Jets defense has been middling to bad during his tenure. Some of that is to be blamed on general manager Mike Maccagnan. Sure enough, questions are being floated about his future, almost four years into the job. His failures to land quality players in the middle rounds would be an albatross for any coach.

The more inflammatory members of New York media did their New York media thing in the wake of the Bills loss, calling for Bowles’ head. It’s hardly a departure from popular fan sentiment, for what it’s worth.

Headed into their bye week, it would have been the optimal time for the Jets to make a midseason change — if they were going to make one. On Monday, the Jets declared they opted not to fire Bowles, indicating that barring some kind of mammoth meltdown or disaster, he will at least close out the 2018 season.

Bowles did himself a favor, in a way, by not having a staff full of former head coaches. The Cleveland Browns were comfortable firing Hue Jackson midseason because, among other reasons, they had multiple coordinators with head coaching experience. The Jets have no such luck. Promoting Bates would be silly, as not only has he done a less-than-stellar job running the offense, but he also serves as quarterbacks coach, meaning Darnold’s development would be sidetracked through the remainder of his rookie season.

Is there any chance Bowles could be back? It’s remote, but it would require winning out — or close to it. That’s no easy task, given how the team has played, not to mention the road that lies ahead. The Jets have a difficult stretch to close out 2018, with five of their last six games against teams currently .500 or better, including both meetings with (at least putative) rival New England. Firing Bowles now would accomplish little more than being a PR move, but those do have some value when trying to establish a winning culture. Technically Bowles has a chance to roam the New York sideline beyond this season — it’s just an infinitesimal one.

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