While Jets head coach Todd Bowles is not the person who should have to answer for the club's recent personnel purge, he was subjected to a pressing line of questioning pertaining to the current state of affairs.
Why would the Jets be gutting veteran talent at nearly every position, but start an on-his-way-out veteran journeyman at quarterback in Josh McCown when there are two younger, developmental prospects on the bench?
"Even when you go to kindergarten, somebody's got to be the teacher," Bowles said Tuesday, via NJ.com.
At this point, humor is probably the only vehicle Bowles has left to help him navigate this offseason. Being an established coach when the organization decides to take a hard left turn into a youth movement is extraordinarily difficult. Bowles has to put a positive face on the most unenviable coaching situation in the National Football League. Not only will his assistants be strained with the task of developing their young talent with precious little practice time, but they will have to wrestle with decisions like the one they face at quarterback: Do they start a clearly behind-the-curve Christian Hackenberg or at least try to manufacture some wins with McCown?
"It's not going to be a total washout, like all freshmen coming into college," Bowles said. "But the majority of them are younger, and the other [veterans] can help in other ways. It's a fine line between choosing old and young, and picking which guys to -- or not to -- get rid of."
This is going to be a complicated, exhausting scenario that will only increase as the season begins and the losses mount. While the Jets deserve credit for recognizing the need to finally hit the reset button on their roster, they do so knowing full well how difficult it will be.
