After a short time away from the spotlight, Jets head coach Todd Bowles reappeared today at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis and took his turn fielding reporters' questions.
Some of Bowles' observations below came in his responses to questions from team and national media at the NFL podium while others were in a quick Q&A with newyorkjets.comsenior reporter Eric Allen after that session. Here are seven Todd Takeaways today at Lucas Oil Stadium:
On having room under the salary cap to attack free agency and holding the sixth overall pick of the April draft..."We're sitting pretty good, but we've got to pick the right guys. ... We have a young corps, obviously, that we built and we're trying to build around, so hopefully we can make the right decisions in free agency and the draft to help us going forward and make us a better team."
On having "multiple plans" in place with which to address the Jets' quarterback position..."You have to. It's free agency. Everybody's bidding for the same people. There's a lot of good quarterbacks in free agency, there's some good ones in the draft. We've just got to be smart about the things we're doing and follow our plan accordingly."
On the Jets' new offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates..."Just his take on the game overall, seeing everything from a different angle. ... He's always three plays ahead, he has a good understanding of that. He comes from a great football background with his dad. And it's just his feel for the game and understanding what to do at certain times."
On moving into year two with the team's two talented young safeties, Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye..."It was unusual but those guys earned it. The maturity with which they watched film and practiced, how hard they played, they earned it. I just look forward to them getting better from a mental standpoint and a vocal standpoint this year. ... If they become more vocal, which they will, and they come back with the same vigor they played with last year, I expect them to be better and help us out a lot."
On the release of veteran DL Muhammad Wilkerson today..."It was business. Obviously it was good for both sides. I have a lot of love for Mo. I wish him nothing but the best. We will talk later this week. He's got a lot of football ahead of him."
On what RB Matt Forte, who announced his retirement today, and LB David Harris, who announced his retirement last week, brought to the table..."Matt and David were very similar from a coaching standpoint. They were the guys that you want your guys to be like, in the locker room, on and off the field. Highly professional, highly motivated, great work ethic, did everything the right way, tough, smart, intelligent. Everything you want your players to be like and emulate, those two guys represented. Matt's going to be missed. Some guys have to step up. I hope they learned some things from him because he gave a lot and if you watched him, you could see a lot. So hopefully our guys learned some things from him going forward."
On the Jets' approach to re-signing some of their own free agents before they hit the open market..."We hope to keep some of the guys we've got targeted. Obviously we understand it's a business and everybody has their own self to look after. But we have plans in place, hopefully we get most of 'em back, and if not, we'll just replace them with other people."
