After six weeks of play, the New York Jets are .500. But more so than wins or losses, this team is fighting for their head coach Todd Bowles.

The New York Jets may not be ending their playoff drought this season. But something they are doing this season is fighting for their head coach Todd Bowles.

Before the season began, everyone left this team for dead. Many in the media labeled Bowles as a lame duck coach who was set to be executed after the inevitable disaster 2017 was supposed to be.

Except it hasn’t happened how people have projected. Instead of having one of the worst offenses in NFL history, the Jets have been fighting tooth and nail all season long for the respect of the league—and succeeding.

Any time a player would say, ‘we aren’t tanking,’ the media would reply, ‘aw, that’s cute.’ That was the narrative heading into this season. Now, it has changed in a variety of ways.

If the Jets coulda, woulda, shoulda pulled off the upset over the New England Patriots on Sunday, the narrative would be playoffs. Why wouldn’t it be?

For the Jets to have sole possession of first place this late in the season for the first time since 2010, why would the Jets entertain anything short of the postseason?

But, alas, due to one of the worst calls in NFL history, the Jets were robbed of the opportunity to see what could’ve happened down the stretch. Now where do the Jets stand?

They’ve got another four games until their bye in Week 11. Those games are as follows: at the Miami Dolphins, back-to-back home games against the Atlanta Falcons and Buffalo Bills before returning to the road to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

An interesting stretch, to say the least. The Dolphins suddenly have come back to life. The Falcons now look down. The Bills are still the Bills, while the Bucs are demonstrating their fair share of issues. This NFL season has been a mess so far. With that being said, this is going to truly be a week-to-week season.

So, push the playoffs aside. The Jets don’t need a miracle postseason run to save head coach Todd Bowles’ NFL life. From what they’ve shown so far this season, that’s enough to warrant Bowles’ safety.

Going into this season, this team was supposed to be blown out left and right. The team was supposed to quit on Bowles and he was supposed to be shown the door halfway through the season.

What this team showed Sunday is that the Jets aren’t going to be pushed around this season. This team has some grit and some wherewithal to fight in close games.

Well, they’re going to need all of that and then some if they’re going to compete against their difficult schedule the rest of the way.

In terms of his job security, a lot of things have changed. Christopher Johnson, Woody’s younger brother, has taken over the team and reiterated the message sent earlier this offseason that’s there’s no playoff mandate.

Instead, he’s opting for progress and development of young players, something we’ve definitely seen from the dynamic rookie duo at safety in Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye.

Bowles has checked off all the boxes we’ve expected and even some we didn’t. If Bowles maintains that momentum, he’ll enter the offseason with not only his job but ample cap space, premium draft selections and a bright future in Gotham.