Has Todd Bowles Lost The Jets' Locker Room?
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So…maybe? It’s really hard to say.
Of all the quotes after yesterday, that last one from Mo Claiborne is by far the most alarming. He’s talking about his own team like they’re pretty much dead.
These guys are all elite athletes who are insanely competitive and for the most part struggle with defeat after spending most of their lives consistently finding success on football fields. To hear someone get in front of reporters and just kinda throw their hands up and be like “I’m not sure what the fuck just happened” is VERY BAD. That’s a poorly coached team. That’s a team that’s not preparing week to week the way they should be. That’s a team that doesn’t have a winning culture. I know it’s just a locker room quote, but when you couple that with the on-field product we’ve been seeing, it’s so fucking obvious this team is lost.
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It’s not even about the roster or play calling or any of that shit. This problem is so much bigger. I won’t sit here and say the Jets ever really had a winning culture, but whatever is going on right now is incredibly far from it. As for the roster? It’s not a Super Bowl roster, but you’re blind if you think there’s not some talent on this team. They should not be 3-7, even with a rookie QB.
The defense has guys like Jamal Adams running around making stops by himself, Avery Williamson doing the same, and at least a handful of other serviceable NFL defenders i.e Darron Lee, Leo Williams, Marcus Maye, Jordan Jenkins etc, etc. The problem is week after week they step on the field and play as if they’ve never seen the opposing offensive scheme before in their lives. Guys running wide open down the field and catching dimes from Matt fucking Barkley, who hasn’t taken an NFL snap in 2 years. We made Blake Bortles look good. We hosted Baker Mayfield’s coming out party. Brock Osweiler looked serviceable against this defense for God’s sake!
Todd Bowles is supposed to be a defensive guru and he continues to put a defense on the field that looks completely lost, despite having at least a league average amount of talent. It’s completely fucking unacceptable.
To circle back to my headline, it was obviously a joke. It doesn’t fucking matter if Todd Bowles has lost the locker room. Todd Bowles could wear the locker room around his waist like a belt, and it wouldn’t matter. Todd Bowles doesn’t know how to run an NFL team, and he should have been fired last night. He’s done nothing to prove otherwise. It’s a shame because I was starting to like him this year since he started using words to express his thoughts and emotions while talking to other humans. It’s really a shame.
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As of this morning, it doesn’t sound like the Jets are ready to move on from Bowles yet, which is really fucking stupid if you ask me. This quote from Cimini actually made me laugh…
The #1 objective should be to create a stable environment around Sam Darnold. Are you fucking kidding me Rich? What part of what happened yesterday makes you think “stability”? The fact that the team is consistently awful? Todd Bowles always making a face like someone just told him a secret? Jamal Adams being the only player who looks like he cares on the entire field?? Give me a break dude.
At this point in the season, the only thing I agree with Cimini about is that developing Sam Darnold should obviously be priority #1. I’m a firm believer that there’s no such thing as bad experience for an NFL QB. As soon as his foot heals he’ll be back out there and once that happens all we can do is watch and hope that he looks like he’s learning. We can hope some of the guys on the OL play better. We can hope Robby Anderson and Q get healthy and take some pressure off Darnold by, you know, getting open.
Defensively, it’s time we see how really cares and takes this shit seriously. Jamal Adams is excluded because we already know, but everyone else needs to step the fuck up. If you really want to have Todd Bowles back, the only way you can do that is by playing better, because if these guys don’t start playing better, they’ll be gone too.
I’m sorry for getting so emotional but I’m feeling emotional. Watching football is supposed to be fun. Yesterday wasn’t fun. As Jets fans, we need each other more than ever these days. We can’t start turning on each other because Todd Bowles doesn’t know how to watch game film or stop shallow crossing routes. We need to stick together.
**whispers**
Go Jets…