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Does it really matter?
The Buffalo Bills are going to start Josh Allen at quarterback on Sunday against the Jets.
This shouldn’t even move the line one way or another.
He’s an athlete playing quarterback. He can run and has a howitzer for an arm, but he’s not accurate and isn’t good at reading defenses.
The Jets got their butts kicked by his backup last year, Matt Barkley, in a humiliating loss for Gang Green at MetLife Stadium. A league source told me that losing that game was what sealed Todd Bowles fate as Jets coach. He was fired once the 2018 season concluded.
Barkley doesn’t have Allen’s natural gifts as a far as size, arm strength and running ability, but reads defenses better and is more accurate.
So I wouldn’t make a big deal about Allen starting. He’s average at best, and honestly if the Bills had a better QB, they probably would have beat the New England Patriots last Saturday. Their defense played well, but they just didn’t get enough from the QB position . . .
Remember that blockbuster from Bleacher Report last week where they quoted an unnamed Jets player claiming that Adam Gase lost the locker room and “no one respects Gase.”
How is that looking now after the Jets beat Pittsburgh 16-10 on Sunday?
True the Steelers have QB issues with Ben Roethlisberger out and not having capable backups signal-callers on their roster, but still, Jets played very hard and beat a team with a playoff spot on the line.
Look, I’m not a special-pleader for Adam Gase, but I’m telling your right now, of all the problems he has, losing the locker room isn’t one of them.
And for a player to say about his teammates, “No one respects Gase,” is pretty absurd considering what we saw on Sunday.
Like I said on Monday, it sounds like a player with an ax to grind with the coach about playing time or maybe something else, like a fine.
I’m not going to sit here right now and say Gase is the long-term answer for the Jets as coach. I think next season will be telling. If the team is bad next year, he’s likely gone.
But this “lost the locker room” narrative just isn’t a thing . . .
It should not be a surprise that Jets wide receiver Demaryius Thomas missed the last two games and likely the season-finale in Buffalo with a hamstring injury. When the Jets traded a sixth-round pick to New England for him on September 10, he arrived at One Jets Drive with a hamstring problem, and he’s been in and out of the lineup with it all season. It is what it is. He’s done some good things for them when able to play, but the Jets acquired an injured player – there is no way around it . . .
Jets rookie cornerback Bless Austin was benched after giving up a touchdown pass late in the first half of the team’s win over Pittsburgh.
That is fine. It’s good to run a meritocracy.
But these kind of moves can’t just apply to fringe-players, but bigger names as well.
If a player isn’t setting the edge properly against the run, he should be subjected to the same treatment, don’t you think?
Don’t pick and chose who you are tough with.
December 24, 2019
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