Keidel: Jets' Decision To Start Fitz Reeks Of The Same Old Dysfunction
By Jason Keidel
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It seems everyone knows the Jets are a wreck.
Except the Jets.
Exhibit A, B, and C are folded around the quarterback. At the risk of redundancy, the Jets are on a Homeric journey, a 40-year saga to replace Joe Namath.
Their latest answer? Start Ryan Fitzpatrick this Sunday.
If it weren't the Jets you'd say we were joshing. But the Jets don't jest. To twist Al Davis's mantra, they just lose, baby.
When the Jets gave the inevitable nod to Bryce Petty, thus forever benching Fitzpatrick, we were all, for a transitory moment, on the same football page. It's quite rare that the Jets, media, and masses are simpatico.
MORE: Boomer & Carton: Fitz Gets The Nod, Craig Calls For Bowles' Job
But Fitzpatrick's play was too awful to justify his place as the starting quarterback. We finally agreed on something. And since Christian Hackenburg is reportedly unprepared for the whiplash speed and mathematical complexity of NFL defenses, Petty was the only reasonable choice to replace Fitzpatrick.
So Petty plays one game, and is now benched. No, Petty didn't light up the league in his debut. His lone TD pass against the Rams was literally thrown by another player. But he comported himself well enough to warrant another start.
Im not sure what the Jets expected from Petty, but for a neophyte there was nothing to suggest the lights or lightning speed were too much for him. Petty throws a nice ball, and seems humble and hungry enough to play quarterback in the NFL.
But he has to be given a chance.
On Tuesday morning, Boomer Esiason breezed down memory lane, pointing to Gang Green's co-tenants at MetLife Stadium. About a dozen years ago, the Giants rolled out a new quarterback, who struggled mightily his first few contests, including a game in which he had a microscopic QBR that hovered around zero.
You've likely heard of the young man, who's now a two-time Super Bowl MVP and whose ticket to Canton has long been laminated.
No, I'm not comparing Bryce Petty to Eli Manning. But the principle applies. While NFL players are absurdly strong and tall and talented, they are still human, made of the same matter in the muscle between the ears.
Meaning, the Jets must take a stand on their quarterback, signal-caller, and co-chairman of the club (along with the head coach). Petty can't prepare or play to his full potential unless he knows the club has his back. And you don't get a QB's back by playing musical chairs at the position.
If you can look the least bit objectively at this, the move makes no sense. What do the Jets gain by benching Petty? By playing Fitzpatrick? It all suggests that the brass has splintered, from the GM to the HC. While the great teams, even the good teams, stand in absolute unity, speaking with a monolithic message, the woeful teams -- and the Jets clearly qualify -- are always confused at the top.
Todd Bowles has taken ample heat this season. But what is he working with? Last year was coated in faerie dust. Fitzpatrick played out of his mind. Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker smashed club records for combined touchdowns. Chris Ivory ran at times like a Ferrari. And Gang Green shocked Gotham with a 10-6 record.
So, of course, media blowhards, like yours truly, saw the Jets soaring into January this year. Most of my friends are lifelong Jets devotees. And none of them were half as excited as I was. I wondered why. Now I don't.
Fitzpatrick has returned to the form that made him an NFL gypsy. Decker is injured. Ivory is gone. It feels like the Jets haven't had a tight end since Jerome Barkum. And not even Marshall is immune to the corporate and gridiron dysfunction that swirls around the Meadowlands. Gang Green has turned gangrenous.
It's more than abject cynicism, the self-imposed agony of sports fandom, or a haunting sense that the Jets will find a way to cut the sweetest canvas. It's simply in their nature to implode, to, in today's high-tech parlance, self-delete.
It starts at the top. And the Jets' totem pole is currently headless. If not clueless.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
