When Jets coach Todd Bowles decided that Ryan Fitzpatrick was finished as the team’s starting quarterback, he didn’t tell Fitzpatrick first.
Instead, Bowles made the announcement to the media after Monday night’s loss to the Colts. Only after that did Bowles talk to Fitzpatrick about it.
“I’d been meaning to talk to him and I got tied up with a few things,” Bowles said of the failure to inform Fitzpatrick.
Some players might have responded to that by blasting their coach, but Fitzpatrick was measured in his comments to the media, which Bowles seemed to appreciate.
“I probably could’ve and he tried to cover for me,” Bowles said on Tuesday. “Like I said, I had a lot on my mind and got some things off my chest, and it kind of went over the wrong way. I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”
On the long list of things that have gone wrong for the Jets this year, a miscommunication on a quarterback change is not near the top. But it’s still not a good look: Bowles should have let Fitzpatrick know he was benched.