Taylor Bertolet had a chance to lock up the Jets kicking job. Instead, he left the door wide open for the team to bring in his replacement.
Bertolet missed three field goals, albeit all from long distance, while making two shorter field goals in the Jets’ 6-0 win over the Eagles in their preseason finale. Now the Jets have to decide whether there is a better option out there.
“I think I’ve got to do a better job,” Bertolet said. “We had some long field goals that I’m capable of hitting. I hit those long kicks nearly every day in practice. I’ve just got to do a better job out there.”
Bertolet missed from 49, 53 and 56 yards in the game. He made field goals of 23 and 39 yards. On three kickoffs, he had two touchbacks. The Jets signed Bertolet three weeks ago after Chandler Catanzaro retired. Bertolet has been up and down since his arrival.
Jets coach Adam Gase said he would feel fine if Bertolet were the team’s kicker in Week 1. He said part of the issue Thursday night on two of the missed field goals was players were late getting on the field.
Gase was asked what his confidence level is in Bertolet.
“Mine’s good,” Gase said. “Two of those I just saw guys running out late. You just can’t do that to the kicker. You can’t bust his rhythm like that.”
The Jets must trim their roster from 90 players to 53 by 4 p.m. Saturday. One big question is whether the Jets will keep two quarterbacks or three.
Sam Darnold and Trevor Siemian are locked in as their top two quarterbacks. After that it gets murky. Luke Falk went 13-of-18 for 91 yards Thursday night, throwing mostly short stuff. Davis Webb went 18-of-23 for 176 yards, but threw two interceptions and has thrown four this preseason.
“Davis had some good throws,” Gase said. “He wanted a couple of those back, but that’s what the preseason is for. You keep evaluating, keep working through in practice. We’ll see how this whole thing turns out when we go through our evaluations [Friday] and talk through everything.”
Gase said the Jets have not decided yet whether they will keep three quarterbacks.
It sounds as if RB Bilal Powell has a roster spot locked up. Elijah McGuire and Trenton Cannon are fighting for the fourth spot at the position.
“There’s a lot of trust there with Bilal, just going against him as many years as we have,” Gase said. “With the younger guys, we’ve still got to figure out how many we’re going to keep, what we’re kind of looking at there. We haven’t had those meetings. That’s what the next couple of days are for.”
CB Mark Myers (head) and WR Charone Peake (hamstring) left the game with injuries. … The Jets waived S Brandon Bryant before the game.



