New York Jets: Todd Bowles must show he is worth keeping

There are 15 games left in the 2017 season, and New York Jets coach Todd Bowles had better start proving his worth.

There is a lot of auditioning for 2018 going on for the New York Jets this season. It is a rebuilding year and the team is trying to figure out who is best to keep around for next year. The biggest question surrounds the quarterback position. Is Christian Hackenberg and/or Bryce Petty worthy of returning in 2018? Do they have to depend upon the class of 2018? This and many other questions have to be answered, all over the roster.

One audition not to lose sight of, however, is the audition at head coach. Make no mistake about it, Todd Bowles is auditioning for his job in 2018 and is not a lock to pass that audition. Granted, it will be tough to judge Bowles with this team, as we have talked about recently. However he is judged, Bowles is going to have to show the Jets brass that he is worth keeping. Otherwise, he is going to be out the door.

The way things went last week, he is going to have to start learning from his mistakes. He didn’t do himself any favors, especially at the end of that game.

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Every Jets fan will tell you about Bowles and his game management issues. Well, we all saw them rear their ugly head last week against the Bills. You know what I mean, Jets Nation.

I’m talking about the decision to punt the ball away with four minutes to go and down by nine points. Now like I said during the week, if you are in favor of the tank you can’t be upset if Bowles makes bad decisions. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that he made a bad decision. He very much did.

First, take a look at his defense of the move (per Rich Cimini of ESPN):

"“We thought we could get field position and we had three timeouts,” Bowles said. “We thought we could stop them and get the ball back.”"

That really shows that he had no pulse for what was going on in that game. Even if he had confidence that the defense was going to hold, how could he have confidence that the offense could get down the field quickly? What evidence did he have of it from any point in the game? To call the offense sluggish would have been an understatement during that game.

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That offense was going to score nine points in four minutes? Come on coach, get a grip. Have some sort of a feel for your football team.

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The bigger problem is the fact that he doesn’t learn from his mistakes. Todd Bowles made mistakes in the game management department in his first two years as the coach. They continued last week. Being a good head coach is about progressing. The best ones learn from their mistakes and get better. Look at Bill Belichick, for example. He learned from his mistakes with the Cleveland Browns and used that growth to do what he is doing right now.

Bowles better start growing or we will be looking for a new coach. Again.

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