Todd Bowles on Jets’ QB battle: ‘We’ll go by practice every day’

Todd Bowles has a matter-of-fact perspective on the New York Jets’ quarterback situation.

He sees himself and the Jets’ other coaches evaluating the competitors daily before picking a starter from Josh McCown, Teddy Bridgewater and recently signed first-round draft pick Sam Darnold. “They’re battling it out and we just monitor it and we’ll go by practice every day and see what happens at the end of the preseason,” Bowles told Bruce Murray and Erik Coleman at the Jets’ training camp in Florham Park, N.J., Sunday, a day before Darnold agreed to a deal and report to camp.

‘(Teddy Bridgewater) has done everything in the spring, he’s done everything in the past two days and he’s continued to get better’

Bowles reported on Bridgewater’s “health looks fine.” Bridgewater has battled his way back from a severe knee injury when he was with the Minnesota Vikings. “He’s done everything in the spring, he’s done everything in the past two days and he’s continued to get better,” the coach said.

As Bowles enters his third season as the Jets’ coach, he has seen growth in himself. How much?

‘I think I understand my players more and they understand me a little more’

“You like to think you grow every year and you better grow every year, which (if you’re not) means you’re not learning nothing,” he said. “I think I understand my players more and they understand me a little more. But you learn things every single year. I think I’ve grown from that standpoint, from a game-management, from a personnel standpoint, from a player standpoint.”

Have there been times when he has looked back and said he would do things differently? “I’m not a big Monday morning quarterback,” Bowles said. “You learn from things differently, to do them differently, but I don’t look back and say shoulda, coulda, woulda.”