Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan said this week that he doesn't regret giving Ryan Fitzpatrick $12 million to be one of the NFL's worst quarterbacks this season. Of course, even if Maccagnan figured Fitzpatrick would regress from a career season in 2015, even the most skeptical among us wouldn't have the 12-year veteran playing this poorly.

Yet here we are.

Luckily, the Jets won't lose this week because they're on their bye, but when they return to work on Monday, the quarterback issues will remain hanging over the organization like a dark cloud. And there's no quick fix in sight.

Bryce Petty started in last Sunday's loss to the Rams, though there's no guarantee he'll be under center against the Patriots on November 27. The hold up?

According to the New York Daily News' Manish Mehta, second-year coach Todd Bowles is concerned that his team will officially check out on the 2016 season if he turns the offense over to the inexperienced Petty, who has thrown exactly 34 passes since the Jets drafted him in the fourth round in 2015.

This is where we point out that the Jets are 3-7, and there's little to gain from sticking with Fitzpatrick, who won't be back after the season. But it's more complicated than giving snaps to the young guy with an eye to the future. Mehta explains:

Eye witnesses in practice believe Petty is still so far behind Fitzpatrick and that Bowles would lose credibility with his players if he went with the inferior signal caller with six games left in the season. General manager Mike Maccagnan insisted this week that he'll consult with Bowles, but the head coach will make the ultimate decision on the starting quarterback. The general manager and head coach are on parallel tracks in Woody Johnson's power structure, so Maccagnan isn't in a position to deliver an edict (which is another problem for a different day).

So there's that dynamic at work.

"You'd like to see young players play, but you also want to make sure they're ready for that," Maccagnan explained. "It's a more complicated decision than some people realize."

"You think of different aspects when you decide on making a change, especially at that position, because it affects other players on the team, too," the GM added. "If you're trying to determine what gives you the best chance to be successful, but also if you're looking how players develop and progress, I think the point I would simply make is you just don't do it. You don't just wing it. ... It's not a decision you take lightly. You also want to make sure the player ... is ready to a degree to set them up for success."

Of course, the Jets also used a 2016 second-round pick on Christian Hackenberg (that pick has been an unpopular one from the moment it was announced), who is behind Petty on both the depth chart and his development into anything resembling an NFL quarterback.

"We also want to make sure we don't set a timetable in there to what he may eventually be," Maccagnan said. "Our goal is to develop him. If he can fulfill his potential, then, obviously, that's good for us. ...

"You're kind of looking at short term and long term at the same time. I don't necessarily think you're locked into just saying, 'Okay, let's just go with the young guy and see what happens.' At some point in time, we may decide to do that. You do want to set your players up for potential for success, too. It's obviously a very difficult position to play."

In related news: ESPN.com's Rich Cimini calls this the worst season by a Jets quarterback in the post-Joe Namath era. Namath, it's worth pointing out, last played for the Jets in 1976, six years before Fitzpatrick was born.