Bryce Petty must conquer patience to excel in 2017

Most pressing for the New York Jets is a smart game manager who can remain healthy, is poised under pressure and accumulates points. Bryce Petty has a point to make amid the lingering quarterback competition by conquering patience in order to succeed.

Only a small portion of this is about quarterback Bryce Petty and his inability to play well as he started the back quarter of the games lost late last season. In a football season, one Sunday a quarterback is hot and then without warning, he’s not.

Granted his four games started last season didn’t set fire or even a small flame to stat sheets or scoreboards. Unfortunately, an injury is the culprit that stifled any opportunity of catching fire at MetLife Stadium.

As he stands, Petty is the man in the middle, with the push of a raw and un-weathered early second-round draft pick and the pull of the hungry, nomadic veteran refusing to sheath his lance. But the greatest thing Petty can conquer now—self. Of which, most important is health.

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Over four months removed from a January shoulder surgery, Petty is throwing footballs while keeping the May 23 start date for organized team activities and June minicamps in the back of his mind. Along with that, unfortunately since the beginning of free agency and into the draft, Petty has found himself amid a precariously unsettling frame of reference.

What he learns from the game of virtue

Fortunately, Petty, no stranger to the waiting game, accepts this critical part of the process. It’s his belief that it cultivates a hunger, a necessary appetite that is the driving force towards the coveted starting quarterback position.

Though a virtue, patience is also painfully acquired. Insightfully, Petty accepts;

“there’s a plan and a purpose for everything [and] patience is not always an easy thing for a quarterback [especially]—not being the guy.” (Zach Schonbrun/New York Times)

Hence, Petty’s petition to start against the Buffalo Bills on September 10 is predicated on his best possible argument as demonstrated through absorbing the playbook, enlightenment gained from film study, physical development and an increased performance that only comes from practice, practice and more practice.

Inescapably, it seems the Jets have been consistently wrong about which is the best starting quarterback on Sunday for several seasons. Their game day logic of taking the path of least resistance has been substantiated by only sacks, fumbles, interceptions and meltdowns.

Next: What to expect from Morris Claiborne in 2017 with the Jets

Conceivably, Petty could be ‘the guy’. Unfortunately, his argument becomes more arduous with two seemingly more healthy quarterbacks standing in his path. Every season has its twists and turns, and if Petty doesn’t start the first game, then there are 15 other with more probable starts.

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