The Jets brought quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick back for another year in hopes of building on last year’s 10-win momentum, but both he and the team have regressed badly.
And Fitzpatrick owned that, saying he was near the top of the list of things not going right for the 3-5 Jets despite a two-game winning streak.
“We’ve definitely played below expectations, especially speaking for the offense and myself. " Fitzpatrick said, via Daniel Popper of the New York Daily News. “There’s a lot of things that we need to do better if we’re going to continue this winning streak and continue to win games. But I think it’s been a huge disappointment.
“The biggest thing is I haven’t played well. I think that’s where it starts.”
Jets coach Todd Bowles was careful to point out that there were many other problems as well.
“He’s a quarterback, so any time it goes good or bad, the quarterback’s the focal point. But there’s a lot of reason why we haven’t played well in the first half of the season,” Bowles said. “It’s a guy here and a guy there. It’s not necessarily the quarterback at all.”
Of course, it doesn’t take a long look at the numbers to realize Fitzpatrick had a point. A year ago, he had 31 touchdowns, 15 interceptions and an 88.8 rating. This year, those numbers are seven, 11 and 68.8. And there’s also the anecdotal evidence that he was benched for Geno Smith, and only got his job back because Smith tore his ACL.
So it’s good that a Harvard man has accurately diagnosed the problem. We just hope he didn’t wait long for someone to argue with him.
