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Turn On The Jets 12 Pack – Todd Bowles Year One Review Edition
By Joe Caporoso.
The Turn On The Jets 12 pack barrels on here in the early weeks of the New York Jets off-season. We will keep our coverage rolling through Championship Weekend, the Super Bowl, Super Bowl commercials and into combine/NFL Draft season. Stay with us. Today’s 12 Pack focuses on evaluating the performance of Todd Bowles in his rookie season as the New York Jets Head Coach.
In the New Jersey area this summer? Learn more about Muhammad Wilkerson’s upcoming 2016 camp right here!
1. Pro: Player Development – It has only been one year but it was an encouraging sign to see so many players either have a career year or play substantially better than they did in 2014. The range of players and positions this applied to was staggering. On the offensive line, James Carpenter played the best football of his career and Brian Winters went from unusable to a competent starter. At receiver, both Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker were much improved from 2014 and had seasons that belong in the discussion for their best ever. Ryan Fitzpatrick? Career year. Chris Ivory? Career year. Bilal Powell? Career year in limited time. Quincy Enunwa? He went from a practice squad player to a valuable asset at H-Back. Defensively, Calvin Pryor, Marcus Gilchrist, Marcus Williams and Buster Skrine all made notable strides from last season. Muhammad Wilkerson finished with a career high in sacks and David Harris had arguably his best season since 2010. Bowles and his staff showed an ability to find ways to get the best out of their players (with Decker moving to the slot and Enunwa moving to H-Back serving as prime examples).
2. Con: Game Management – This is a sore spot for many coaches in the NFL, particularly new ones and Bowles was not immune to it. There was too much inconsistency with clock management, timeout usage and deciding when to play aggressive and not to play aggressive. He also struggled with when and when not to use his challenges. The hope is that he learns from his year one mistakes and is not stubborn about improving an area of weakness in 2015. Poor game management factored into most of the Jets six losses this season.
3. Pro: Accountability – You can roll your eyes but bringing a measure of this back into the Jets locker room was much needed. Muhammad Wilkerson was late for a meeting? He is benched for a quarter. IK Enemkpali was cut immediately after punching Geno Smith. Quinton Coples wasn’t performing and got involved in an incident on a team plane? He is cut. Bobby April’s special teams were atrocious? He is fired after one season. Demario Davis is a below average starter? He loses his playing time to Erin Henderson. The list goes on but a big part of changing the culture around this organization after four straight seasons of not playing above .500 football was instilling a degree of accountability.
4. Con: Slow Starts – The Jets came out flat far too frequently, particularly in road games. Even in games they went on to win (Washington, Cleveland, Dallas, Giants), they dug themselves into a hole which they had to battle out of. This needs to be a focus area heading into next season as constantly battling back from early deficits is not a model for sustained success.
5. Pro: Second Half Adjustments – On the flip side, the Jets were one of the better 3rd quarter and 2nd half teams in the NFL. Bowles and his staff showed a good ability to adapt on the fly and dig themselves out of the slow starts mentioned in #4.
6. Con: Road Woes – The Jets only managed a 4-4 record in 2015 with one of those wins coming in London and another coming at MetLife Stadium against the Giants. Their three ugliest performances of the season all came in road losses: at Oakland, at Houston and at Buffalo. 6-2 at home is good enough but the Jets have to become a better than average team away from New Jersey if they want to regularly compete for a playoff spot.
7. Pro: Dealing With Adversity/Injuries – There is a misconception going around that the Jets were healthy and had no major incidents to deal with in Bowles’ rookie season. Beyond Sheldon Richardson getting suspended four games and arrested before the season started, the starting quarterback getting punched out in the locker room, and Quincy Enunwa’s mid-season four game suspension, the Jets had a myriad of missed games to deal with. Calvin Pryor, Darrelle Revis, Antonio Cromartie, Nick Mangold, Willie Colon, Bilal Powell, Marcus Williams and Richardson/Enunwa all missed multiple games. Chris Ivory and Eric Decker missed a game. The Jets were able to manage a six game win improvement and a 10-6 record despite that and not having a very deep roster yet.
8. Con: Division Woes – 3-3 isn’t good enough in the AFC East, particularly when you are out-coached twice by a mediocre staff led by a coach with a career record four games under .500. The good will from beating New England gets washed away by losing 22-17 twice to a crappy, underachieving 8-8 Bills team.
9. Pro: Staff Hires – This plays a little bit into #1 but Chan Gailey was a terrific hire for Offensive Coordinator. Kacey Rodgers led a top ten defense in his debut season as Defensive Coordinator. He missed with Bobby April on Special Teams but didn’t drag out the mistake and fired him after one year. Everything outlined in #1 also speaks well to the positional coaches.
10. Con: Sheldon Miss – The Sheldon Richardson at outside linebacker experiment/package did not work. Bowles should have got away from it earlier and look to move away from it entirely in 2016.
11. Pro: Media Management – Despite not being overly forthcoming with information, Bowles did a good job navigating the New York media in his rookie season. He comes off as earnest, sincere and even keeled. He navigated an ugly five game stretch in the middle of the season and was able to turn it around into a 5-1 finish.
12. Overall: It was an encouraging rookie season for Bowles, who showed plenty of potential to be a long term answer as the Head Coach with a six game win improvement from 2014. The only Jets coach with a greater win improvement was Bill Parcells with an eight game improvement in 1997. Hopefully, Bowles will continue to build on the positives he demonstrated while learning from the game management issues we saw in year one.
By Joe Caporoso.
The Turn On The Jets 12 pack barrels on here in the early weeks of the New York Jets off-season. We will keep our coverage rolling through Championship Weekend, the Super Bowl, Super Bowl commercials and into combine/NFL Draft season. Stay with us. Today’s 12 Pack focuses on evaluating the performance of Todd Bowles in his rookie season as the New York Jets Head Coach.
In the New Jersey area this summer? Learn more about Muhammad Wilkerson’s upcoming 2016 camp right here!
1. Pro: Player Development – It has only been one year but it was an encouraging sign to see so many players either have a career year or play substantially better than they did in 2014. The range of players and positions this applied to was staggering. On the offensive line, James Carpenter played the best football of his career and Brian Winters went from unusable to a competent starter. At receiver, both Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker were much improved from 2014 and had seasons that belong in the discussion for their best ever. Ryan Fitzpatrick? Career year. Chris Ivory? Career year. Bilal Powell? Career year in limited time. Quincy Enunwa? He went from a practice squad player to a valuable asset at H-Back. Defensively, Calvin Pryor, Marcus Gilchrist, Marcus Williams and Buster Skrine all made notable strides from last season. Muhammad Wilkerson finished with a career high in sacks and David Harris had arguably his best season since 2010. Bowles and his staff showed an ability to find ways to get the best out of their players (with Decker moving to the slot and Enunwa moving to H-Back serving as prime examples).
2. Con: Game Management – This is a sore spot for many coaches in the NFL, particularly new ones and Bowles was not immune to it. There was too much inconsistency with clock management, timeout usage and deciding when to play aggressive and not to play aggressive. He also struggled with when and when not to use his challenges. The hope is that he learns from his year one mistakes and is not stubborn about improving an area of weakness in 2015. Poor game management factored into most of the Jets six losses this season.
3. Pro: Accountability – You can roll your eyes but bringing a measure of this back into the Jets locker room was much needed. Muhammad Wilkerson was late for a meeting? He is benched for a quarter. IK Enemkpali was cut immediately after punching Geno Smith. Quinton Coples wasn’t performing and got involved in an incident on a team plane? He is cut. Bobby April’s special teams were atrocious? He is fired after one season. Demario Davis is a below average starter? He loses his playing time to Erin Henderson. The list goes on but a big part of changing the culture around this organization after four straight seasons of not playing above .500 football was instilling a degree of accountability.
4. Con: Slow Starts – The Jets came out flat far too frequently, particularly in road games. Even in games they went on to win (Washington, Cleveland, Dallas, Giants), they dug themselves into a hole which they had to battle out of. This needs to be a focus area heading into next season as constantly battling back from early deficits is not a model for sustained success.
5. Pro: Second Half Adjustments – On the flip side, the Jets were one of the better 3rd quarter and 2nd half teams in the NFL. Bowles and his staff showed a good ability to adapt on the fly and dig themselves out of the slow starts mentioned in #4.
6. Con: Road Woes – The Jets only managed a 4-4 record in 2015 with one of those wins coming in London and another coming at MetLife Stadium against the Giants. Their three ugliest performances of the season all came in road losses: at Oakland, at Houston and at Buffalo. 6-2 at home is good enough but the Jets have to become a better than average team away from New Jersey if they want to regularly compete for a playoff spot.
7. Pro: Dealing With Adversity/Injuries – There is a misconception going around that the Jets were healthy and had no major incidents to deal with in Bowles’ rookie season. Beyond Sheldon Richardson getting suspended four games and arrested before the season started, the starting quarterback getting punched out in the locker room, and Quincy Enunwa’s mid-season four game suspension, the Jets had a myriad of missed games to deal with. Calvin Pryor, Darrelle Revis, Antonio Cromartie, Nick Mangold, Willie Colon, Bilal Powell, Marcus Williams and Richardson/Enunwa all missed multiple games. Chris Ivory and Eric Decker missed a game. The Jets were able to manage a six game win improvement and a 10-6 record despite that and not having a very deep roster yet.
8. Con: Division Woes – 3-3 isn’t good enough in the AFC East, particularly when you are out-coached twice by a mediocre staff led by a coach with a career record four games under .500. The good will from beating New England gets washed away by losing 22-17 twice to a crappy, underachieving 8-8 Bills team.
9. Pro: Staff Hires – This plays a little bit into #1 but Chan Gailey was a terrific hire for Offensive Coordinator. Kacey Rodgers led a top ten defense in his debut season as Defensive Coordinator. He missed with Bobby April on Special Teams but didn’t drag out the mistake and fired him after one year. Everything outlined in #1 also speaks well to the positional coaches.
10. Con: Sheldon Miss – The Sheldon Richardson at outside linebacker experiment/package did not work. Bowles should have got away from it earlier and look to move away from it entirely in 2016.
11. Pro: Media Management – Despite not being overly forthcoming with information, Bowles did a good job navigating the New York media in his rookie season. He comes off as earnest, sincere and even keeled. He navigated an ugly five game stretch in the middle of the season and was able to turn it around into a 5-1 finish.
12. Overall: It was an encouraging rookie season for Bowles, who showed plenty of potential to be a long term answer as the Head Coach with a six game win improvement from 2014. The only Jets coach with a greater win improvement was Bill Parcells with an eight game improvement in 1997. Hopefully, Bowles will continue to build on the positives he demonstrated while learning from the game management issues we saw in year one.
