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Lichtenstein: Jets Making A Big Mistake Keeping Bowles In Place

By Steve Lichtenstein
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Sorting through the wreckage of a 48th consecutive lost Jets season, I am most concerned that this 5-11 step back is not merely a one-off situation.

Though owner Woody Johnson refused to speak with reporters following the Jets' 30-10 win over the vacationing Bills in Sunday's season finale, he allowed a spokesman to announce that both general manager Mike Maccagnan and head coach Todd Bowles will return in 2017.

I can see the reasoning for keeping Maccagnan. He was brought into a major rebuilding job two years ago and, though his stopgaps proved to have a shorter shelf life than fans expected, it does take longer to evaluate the players he drafted.

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As for Bowles, to quote WFAN's Joe Benigno, "He's got to go!" Axing five position coaches and not standing in the way of offensive coordinator Chan Gailey's retirement announcement on Tuesday is not enough.

Let's debunk some of the logic from those in the pro Bowles camp:

1.) "You can't fire a guy for one bad year!"

Of course you can.

Bowles lost the locker room this season. The players were admittedly divided and showed such disrespect for the coaching staff that they were tardy or blew off meetings and mailed in a handful of blowouts.

Some of the worst offenders may part ways with Gang Green this offseason, but you don't just get that respect back by showing up the following season.

And, to set the record straight, 2015 was NOT a successful season. With that schedule, facing only a select few competent quarterbacks, that team should have made the playoffs. But the Jets didn't, and Bowles was as big a culprit as anyone for the 22-17 debacle in last year's regular season finale in Buffalo that kept them out, albeit with a surprising 10-6 record.

The general unpreparedness, the failure to adjust to how the banged-up Bills controlled the ball in the middle quarters when the Jets had the wind, and, most egregiously, the misusage of running back Chris Ivory -- that was all on Bowles.

2.) "This was only his second year! Give him another year to develop!"

This is really the only plausible argument for keeping Bowles. That is, if you really believe he will develop into the next great head coach. Except, what has he shown you to suggest that it will happen?

Bowles' rookie mistakes were no longer mere irritants in Year 2. He looked clueless.

He showed no signs that he will improve in his basic game management skills, such as understanding the value of timeouts. Adjustments? Nah, the game plans were set in stone.

Like his predecessor, recently-ousted Bills coach Rex Ryan, Bowles seemingly outsourced the offensive side of the game to his coordinator (Gailey), which made him too aggressive in the passing game and too conservative in his decisions to give up the ball so he could rely on his overrated defense to get it back.

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I'm not too worried that the Jets will be passing up the next Don Shula by firing Bowles. Aside from Pete Carroll, who was let go after only one season, no other Jets head coach on their lengthy list has ever accomplished anything of significance in the NFL in their post-Jets careers. And no, Bill Belichick doesn't count. He skipped town.

3.) "Firing Bowles would disrupt continuity!"

Some folks have already paid with their jobs for this season's abhorrence. There will be at least a half dozen new voices on the practice field in 2017.

With a new coordinator, the offensive players will already be stepping back to square one. Whoever replaces Gailey will have a different culture, from his personality to his schemes. I see no reason why young quarterbacks Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg won't be returning. They will be more affected by a change in coordinator as compared with a change at the top of the coaching staff.

I would suspect that defensive coordinator Kacy Rodgers and special teams coordinator Brant Boyer are also being evaluated, and not too kindly given the sad state of their respective group's performances this season.

The defense was supposed to be elite; the Jets instead allowed the third-most points (409) in the NFL this season, with the third-most 40-plus yard pass plays (13), thanks to their poor pass rush (27 sacks, fourth-lowest in the league) and routine blown coverages in the secondary.

The special teams were a disaster on every front -- coverages, returns, blocked kicks. I thought it was brutal last year -- it cost them several games this season.

So now we're in agreement that the team needs a new way of thinking on offense, defense and special teams. A little under half the position coaches were jettisoned for their ineptitude. But the head coach gets to stay?

He's not going to do it, but Johnson should let Maccagnan choose the next head coach to enable a more normal power structure. Coaches usually have to earn the right to be on par or supersede the general manager. It never made any sense that both Bowles and Maccagnan each report directly to Johnson.

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Not that Johnson would know any better. He never professed a great grasp of how this business works and is probably now more focused on joining President-Elect Donald Trump's team than figuring out how to fix his own.

Firing Bowles should have been a no-brainer. The Jets too often act as if they don't have one.

For a FAN's perspective of the Nets, Jets and the NHL, follow Steve on Twitter @SteveLichtenst1

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