Even Bryce Petty wasn’t very impressed with Bryce Petty during the Jets first couple OTA practices.

Taking part in the first “team drills” of the season, the second-year quarterback was downright dreadful at times during the workouts open to the media. He missed throws high, low, left and right. He made poor decisions, many of which led to turnovers.

Actually, dreadful may not be strong enough a word.

But that was all before Wednesday. See, on Wednesday, while things weren’t perfect, they were. . . better.

“I really feel like the last couple days I’ve come on strong,” Petty said by his locker.

Taken by the Jets in the fourth round of last year’s draft, Petty was then, and still is now, viewed as a project player. From an athletic, work ethic and maturity standpoint, he’s got everything a franchise could ever want in a quarterback.

But mentally? He’s just not there yet.

Coming from an offense in Baylor that didn’t ask much from a quarterback regarding read progression, Petty needed to learn how to play quarterback before the Jets could expect him to play quarterback. His rookie season was largely focused on watching and observing, while this year is much more doing.

With Ryan Fitzpatrick still unsigned, Petty is the Jets second-string quarterback behind Geno Smith. As a result, he’s getting every rep with the second-team. Early in OTAs, that didn’t appear to be a good thing as Petty struggled quite a bit.

This week, though, things have taken a turn for the better.

“I was struggling with certain types of looks as the defense started to put some things in there,” Petty said. “Really since last Thursday, I’ve gotten a couple of practices where, aside from a few inconsistencies, I feel pretty good.

“I think I’m getting comfortable, one day at a time, getting better, getting in there and seeing things.”

Again, Wednesday wasn’t perfect, but it was a good indication Petty is progressing, rather than regressing. The quarterback made several throws that earned not only the praise of the coaching staff, but quite a few butt-taps from his teammates.

On one throw, Petty hit tight end Wes Saxton perfect in stride –splitting three defenders in zone coverage– just before Saxton went out of bounds. A series or two later, Petty put a perfect ball in the hands of wideout Jalin Marshall in the corner of the end zone. Although the wideout dropped it, the pass was still there.

It’s little plays like that that are occurring more during these offseason workouts. And as they pop up more often, the negative plays are slowly disappearing.

“Mentally, [he’s progressing],” Jets coach Todd Bowles said earlier this month. “We still got to see more and to see it in training camp, but again, he’s been in the system for a year, so he’s a little bit more comfortable this year than he was last year.”

 

 

The biggest thing for Petty right now, more than anything else, is to continue to show he belongs. If Fitzpatrick comes back, the quarterback meeting starts to get a bit crowded.

Fitzpatrick upon his return will be the Jets starter, followed by Smith as his backup and then Petty as third string. But behind Petty? This year’s second-round pick Christian Hackenberg.

The Jets have made it known they aren’t against keeping four quarterbacks, but that situation still seems unlikely. If the team wants Smith as the backup, odds are Petty becomes the odd man out.

But at least right now, that’s not on the quarterback’s mind. In fact, he’s not focusing on beating out Geno in a hypothetical, what-if positional battle. Instead, he wants to learn from him.

“We’re pushing each other,” Petty said, “day in and day out. Every time we come in here he knows what I’m gonna give, and I know what he’s going to give.

“We just gotta keep pushing each other and making each other better.”

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Connor Hughes covers the Jets and is the managing editor of Jets Wire.He can be reached on Twitter (@Connor_J_Hughes), or via email (chughes@usatoday.com)