The New York Jets are not expected to make a head coaching change before the end of the 2018 season, but that does not mean Todd Bowles has a chance of sticking around with the team next year.
Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports that it is “a foregone conclusion” that Bowles and the Jets will part ways following the season. The team’s current ownership group, the Johnson family, has not fired a coach in the middle of a season since buying the Jets in 2000, and they believe dismissing Bowles now could potentially do more harm than good.
Despite their 3-7 record, there have not been indications that Bowles has lost the locker room. Sunday’s 41-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills was as embarrassing as it gets, but Mehta notes that there are still Jets players — particularly the young ones — that still believe in Bowles. The Johnsons also don’t want to make a major change like firing Bowles or offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates in the middle of rookie quarterback Sam Darnold’s first year in the NFL.
Former Jets coach Rex Ryan unloaded on Bowles and the team on Monday, and one of his biggest complaints was how the coaching staff has handled Darnold. Bowles signed an extension last year that runs through 2020, but it is a virtually certainty that he will not be around to see it through.
