Now former players are piling on to Todd Bowles.
The embattled Jets coach, expected to be fired at season’s end, was the subject of seven-time Pro Bowl cornerback and former team captain Darrelle Revis’ less-than-flattering tales on a WFAN appearance on Tuesday.
Revis, who retired after an 11-season career this past summer, pointed to the Jets’ final game of the 2015 season, a win-and-you’re-in scenario for the 10-5 Jets. The players, according to Revis, weren’t ready for the matchup with former coach Rex Ryan’s Bills and the ensuing 22-17 loss cost them a playoff spot.
“I feel we came out and we felt that we had the game already won,” Revis said. “And you’re dealing with Rex Ryan on the other end, who I know during that whole week of preparation, I know he got his guys, his players, revved up to spoil our playoff run.”
Revis was certainly among those not fired up that day as he was torched by Bill star receiver Sammy Watkins for 11 catches and 136 yards. The leadup to that Bills game may turn out to be the high point of Bowles’ Jets tenure as a pair of 5-11 seasons have followed and this year’s 3-6 team seems destined for a similar fate.
Revis played under Ryan from 2009-2012, and then spent 2015-16 with Bowles in his return to New York after a season apiece with Tampa Bay and New England. It was clear which staff he preferred.
“I don’t know if we had much of a player-coach type of relationship as I did with Rex Ryan and his coaching staff,” Revis said. “Rex Ryan and his coaching staff were amazing in terms of most of the guys who were on the staff played professionally or had a ton of coaching experience, and they wanted you to engage with them about how you felt about certain things with the scheme, how is the game plan this week and they would try to put us in the best position to make plays, and I think that’s why we were so successful under Rex.”
Count Ryan among those with a similar emotion to his former charge’s, with the coach-turned-ESPN analyst recently ripping the Jets’ front office — and maybe angling for a return to the MetLife Stadium sidelines himself.
“They’re gonna blow it up and they’re going to get it right,” he said on “Get Up” last week. “Bring someone in who understands the community, who gets that kind of passion, can relate to the fan base and all that, and never, ever have a performance like that again.”
