New York Jets Players to Watch This Week: Bryce Petty

We’ve all heard the expression…”things can change in a New York Minute”.

Well in 2015, that expression is a spot on analysis of the New York Jets preseason and, quite honestly, the regular season as well.

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Even before the Geno Smith – IK Enemkpali locker room incident, the 2015 preseason was going to be crucial for ALL of the Jets quarterbacks.

The Jets wanted to use this time to determine the quarterback of the present AND of the future. Now, with “Broken Jaw-gate” resulting in Geno Smith being out for extended time, the future may be sooner rather than later for Bryce Petty.

He is definitely a player to watch this week against the Atlanta Falcons.

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The recent signing of Matt Flynn notwithstanding, there is a significant chance that on week 1 of the regular season, Petty will be one play away from being under center in regular season games. Should he be called upon to step in and play, the expectations that the Jets coaches and players have for this season will not change. This is a team that fully expects to win games…period!

Because of this, look for Petty to get the lion’s share of the reps at QB this week against Atlanta.

Flynn cannot be expected to be ready to run the offense after two practices.

But leaving Matt Flynn aside, there is a larger issue at stake. Geno Smith has taken a tremendous hit to his reputation. As bad as that is for Geno, the more pertinent concern is that he won’t be able to play for the first month of the season. Because of this, Jets management, fans, and the team desperately WANT Petty to step up win the backup QB job.

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He will be given every opportunity.

Last week against the Lions, there is no need to mince words, Petty was awful.

He was 10-18 through the air for 50 yards, with one sack taken. While those are paltry numbers to say the least, the most disturbing stat of the game was that he “led” the offense to 5 three-and-outs.

That’s not going to get it done.

It’s so important that Petty shows improvement in this upcoming game against the Falcons. He doesn’t have to throw for 250 yards and three touchdowns. However, the coaching staff will be looking to see if Petty can run the offense efficiently and sustain drives. He simply wasn’t able to do that last week against the Lions.

That can be chalked up to nerves, his first time in an NFL game, and just flat-out not being ready. But now that the Geno Smith era seems to be on life support, the coaches and fans want to see something from Petty…and they want to see it now.

This puts a lot more pressure on Petty, so it will be interesting to see how he responds.

Should Petty show some semblance of progress in the system, and even (stop the presses) lead the Jets to a score…that will go a long way in relaxing Jets nation for this season and for the future.

It all comes to a head on Friday night against the Falcons. It’s your turn Bryce! We’ll all be watching.

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