New York Jets' 1st-Time Head Coach Todd Bowles Keeps Cards Close to His Vest

After seven months and 13 days, four weeks of training camp and two preseason games, we still don't know what Todd Bowles' New York Jets will look like.

The first-time head coach has a long track record as an NFL player, assistant and coordinator—but his skipper's hat was earned as the lieutenant to larger-than-life Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians, and the one thing we know about Bowles is that he's not Arians.

Bowles has had to deal with as much turmoil as any rookie head coach in recent memory, and maybe more. Throughout it all, Bowles has been terse and resolute. The hard-nosed defender and creative, aggressive coordinator has brooked no nonsense. It all fits together, except...well, except there's been an awful lot of nonsense since the Jets finally got on the field.

Save the Patriots, there may not have been a team in the NFL more reflective of its coach than the Jets were of Ryan: Boisterous, aggressive, physical and colorful, with a defense-first (and -second and sometimes -third) mindset.

Seth Wenig/Associated Press

Ryan was so obviously a good coach, and so thoroughly identified with everything that was right and good about the Jets. Ryan told Andrea Kremer on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, as Newsday captured, there was "no question" owner Woody Johnson wanted to keep him on through a second organizational house-cleaning.

Despite Ryan's insistence the media would not allow Johnson to do such a thing—though billionaires rarely run their businesses at the beck and call of football scribes—the reality is it was time for a change. Enter Bowles.

"To say we want to go 8-8 or 6-10 and win one more game than we did last year is a loser's mentality," he told Bob Glauber of Newsday. "That's not my job. My job is to win and try to get a Super Bowl back to the city. That's what we shoot for every year, regardless if you have the skill or talent to do that or not."

On defense, Bowles quickly received that talent: The return of Darrelle Revis and Antonio Cromartie, the addition of Buster Skrine and the drafting of Leonard Williams gave the Jets the best 3-4 defensive line and the best cornerback depth chart in football.

All Bowles needed to do, it seemed, was work his magic with young safety Calvin Pryor and the pass rush, and the Jets would have a top-five, maybe top-three defense.

Then things started to go wrong.

Word got out that Sheldon Richardson, already suspended four games for violating the league's substance abuse policy, had gone on a stranger-than-fiction bender that involved street racing, a luxury car, a semiautomatic weapon, marijuana and child endangerment. Despite somehow facing nothing but misdemeanors for his actions, it created a PR nightmare for Bowles.

As Rich Cimini wrote for ESPN.com, Bowles handled the crisis with the "aplomb of a veteran coach," standing tall and answering 22 straight questions about the incident with wisdom and poise.

"We can win without him," Bowles said, expressing what the veteran reporter characterized as a proper amount of disappointment, compassion and displeasure.

When reserve linebacker IK Enemkpali punched out quarterback Geno Smith, breaking Smith's jaw in two places and ending his bid to establish himself as the Jets' starter, Bowles did the right thing: He immediately cut Enemkpali and sided with his quarterback—but he did not give Smith a pass for the incident.

"It was tit for tat, he said/she said, high school stuff that they could have handled better than they handled it," Bowles told Darryl Slater of NJ Advance Media. Then, having given the final word, he imposed a gag order on the subject. Brandon Marshall told NFL Media's Rich Eisen, per Eisen's colleague Andrew Siciliano, any Jets player who so much as talked about the incident would be running laps.

Once the Jets finally took the field, it seemed Bowles would finally be in his element, giving us a taste of what his Jets would be all about. That first taste was awfully sour.

Against the Detroit Lions, the much-hyped Jets defense was shredded by Golden Tate and Ameer Abdullah. The offense went into prevent mode, with a flurry of tight end and fullback checkdowns going nowhere against Detroit. The Jets looked uninspired and uncoordinated. They lost 23-3.

"I'm not concerned," Bowles told Dom Cosentino of NJ Advance Media. "It's the first preseason game." What about reports tackle Muhammad Wilkerson's tweaked hamstring would keep him out of the second game? Bowles was still unflappable.

"I’ve seen progress," Bowles said, per Brian Costello of the New York Post. "He’s getting the necessary help and he’s getting better." 

Peter Morgan/Associated Press

Things weren't much better that game, at least not when it was starters against starters. Offensive coordinator Chan Gailey opened up the playbook for Ryan Fitzpatrick a little more, but Fitzpatrick didn't go downfield much—and the Jets offense didn't even get on the board until there were just eight minutes left before halftime.

Worryingly, the disorganization from Week 1 didn't just continue; it got worse. The Jets racked up 17 penalties amid more blown communications, wrong personnel groupings and the like. The unflappable Bowles finally started to flap.

"You ain’t going to win no ballgames having 17 penalties," Bowles told Costello. "Effort was great, penalties were terrible. That was way more than imagined. We got better in some areas. We got worse there. We’ve got to clean that up."

Now, with the all-important third preseason game looming—against the crosstown rival Giants, no less—Bowles is in the surprising position of having to prove he has as firm a grip on the tiller when it comes to football as he does with off-field concerns.

So far, it's seemed as though Bowles simply isn't showing all his cards. He's one of the NFL's most creative, flexible defensive architects, and the Jets defense has been rather vanilla over the first two preseason games. But the problems aren't just with the scheme; they're with communication, coordination and fundamental execution.

If this is how Bowles' Jets run a stripped-down defense, how will they solve their problems by digging into more exotic looks and multiple sets? Perhaps the worst—and best—element in all of this is the Jets' apparent lack of effort.

Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

Players we know are dominant, like Revis, have been quiet in these first two weeks. The Jets are showing little fire and less production. Is this because Bowles is intentionally turning down the heat in these games, running at three-quarters tempo? Or is it because Bowles can't get these players to play as hard for him as they played for Ryan?

Bowles said it himself after the Lions loss: "If this was the third preseason game," he told Cosentino, "we'd be a little bit concerned [with the sloppiness]. But we've got a lot of work to do."

The Jets' third preseason game is Saturday, and the Giants will be giving them no quarter. Bowles had better get the sloppiness corrected—and he'd better have a schematic ace up his sleeve. If the Jets defense can't slow down Eli Manning, and Fitzpatrick can't go downfield against the Giants, aiming for 8-8 might be a winner's mentality after all.