BOCA RATON, Fla. – Brandon Marshall is a great wide receiver. Todd Bowles does not think much of him as a general manager.
The Jets coach laughed when asked about Marshall’s public pleas for the team to keep free-agent quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.
“My son wants certain things too that his dad says no to,” Bowles said with a laugh. “It really doesn’t matter.”
Marshall has been very vocal with his desire for the Jets to re-sign Fitzpatrick, but Bowles said Marshall’s view plays no role in the team’s decision-making.
“Honestly, I love Brandon to death and he’s a good player,” Bowles said. “That’s all I can tell you. He doesn’t factor in making the decisions on this team.”
Bowles said he was caught off-guard when he learned that star cornerback Darrelle Revis would need wrist surgery last week. Revis injured the wrist early in the season, but never told the team.
“It surprised me. I didn’t know anything about it,” Bowles said. “He was never on the injury report. He never said anything. Guys play hurt. He played hurt. We knew nothing about it.”
Some have criticized Revis’ first season back with the Jets, but Bowles said Revis met his expectations.
“I thought he played very well,” he said.
With Antonio Cromartie gone, there is a question of who will start opposite Revis at the other cornerback spot. Bowles said it will be an open competition between the players on their roster. Bowles said Buster Skrine would probably get the first crack at being the starter since because played more than anyone last year.
Another possibility is Dee Milliner, the team’s oft-injured first-round pick from 2013. Bowles admitted he does not know exactly what he has in Milliner, who did not play a defensive snap last season after returning from injury midway through the year.
“He kept getting nicked up during the year, too, and missing a week or two here or there, so he never fully got healthy to really see [him] through the season,” Bowles said. “I’m hopeful that this spring he’ll come back healthy — and knock on wood that his injuries are over. Then we’ll see.”
Does Bowles think Milliner can be a good player if he’s healthy?
“I’ve never seen him healthy, so I don’t know,” Bowles said.
Bowles gave a telling answer about left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson, who could be cut by the team to clear salary cap space. Ferguson, who has been on the Jets since 2006, has a large $14.1 million cap charge. If the team cuts him, they get $9 million in cap savings.
Bowles was asked if Ferguson will be part of the team in 2016.
“Like [GM] Mike [Maccagnan] said, right now he’s on our team,” Bowles said. “Going forward, we’ll see how it goes. Right now, he’s on our team.”
Bowles said the Jets are not concerned about new running back Matt Forte being 30 years old, an age at which the performance of running backs typically falls off.
“We have this mythical number in our head that 30 is over the hill as a football player,” Bowles said. “That’s not necessarily true. It all depends on how you carry yourself and how you keep yourself in shape. There are a lot of guys who can do that, who can play well beyond the age of 30. It’s up to us as coaches to distinguish that, and he’s one of those guys.”