FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The NFL gave Todd Bowles a parting gift. Bowles, who will be fired after Sunday’s season finale with the Patriots, was fined $25,000 by the league for criticizing the officiating in the Jets’ 44-38 overtime loss to the Packers last week.
Last week, the Jets were penalized 16 times for a franchise-record 172 yards. After the game, Bowles said it felt like the Jets were playing two opponents — the Packers and the officials.
Bowles was not the only member of the Jets fined by the league. Defensive end Leonard Williams was fined a total of $43,449 for the game. Williams was thrown out in the second quarter for throwing a punch at Packers tackle Bryan Bulaga. He was fined $23,395 for that play — $10,026 for unnecessary roughness and $13,369 for unsportsmanlike conduct. He also was fined $20,054 for a hit on the quarterback.
Running back Trenton Cannon was fined $26,739 for unnecessary roughness for his hit on Packers punt returner Tramon Williams. Safety Darryl Roberts also was fined $26,739 for unnecessary roughness for his hit of Packers receiver Equanimeous St. Brown in the fourth quarter.
The Jets’ injury list is quite long as they enter their final game of the season Sunday. The list of players who have not missed a snap this year is much shorter.
Only left tackle Kelvin Beachum and right guard Brian Winters have played every down for the Jets this season, all 945 offensive snaps (by an unofficial tally). On defense, Jamal Adams missed one of the 1,053 snaps the Jets defense has taken.
For Beachum, playing every snap is a major point of pride. He tore the ACL in his left knee as a member of the Steelers in 2015. There were questions of how he would come back from that. Now, he has one game left to play the entire season.
“I take a lot of pride in it,” Beachum said. “Any time as a player you can play every snap in every game, I think that’s an accomplishment in itself. I don’t think fans really understand how hard that it is. To do it over multiple years, I’ve got a lot of appreciation for.”Beachum has nearly played every snap for two years. He missed one snap in 2017 when the officials said he had too much Vaseline on his arms and he had to go to the sideline to wipe it off.
“It’s a special thing,” Beachum said. “I’ve still got a long ways to go. Gotta finish this game out. Hopefully for years to come I can put a little streak together and keep rolling.”
One of the big storylines of training camp was Beachum and Winters missing time with injuries. Beachum had an injured foot and Winters had a back issue. That led to speculation about how the Jets offensive line would play. Now, those two have not missed any time.
The Jets placed CB Morris Claiborne, WR Quincy Enunwa and LB Kevin Pierre-Louis on injured reserve Saturday. All three had already been ruled out of Sunday’s game. They signed DB Brandon Bryant, WR J.J. Jones and DL Destiny Vaeao to the active roster.