NFL

Rex calls for Coples to step up his game

Skeptics had a field day last spring when the Jets moved Quinton Coples to rush outside linebacker.

Six games into his second season, the former first-round pick still isn’t doing much to quiet them.

Coples has been invisible far too often going into Sunday’s important home matchup with the Saints at MetLife Stadium, to the point at which even coach Rex Ryan is dialing back the praise he usually showers on his young players.

Asked about Coples’ play in six games since recovering from an ankle injury that sidelined him the first two contests, Ryan struggled to come up with a compliment.

“It’s a very bright future [for him], but that future has to be right now,” Ryan said. “So far, I think [Coples has] done a decent job there. But we think we can get better.”

The 4-4 Jets would prefer Coples get dramatically better as soon as Sunday, because matching up with the red-hot Drew Brees and New Orleans’ second-ranked passing attack looks like a nightmare on paper.

Ryan’s team certainly needs much more than Coples has provided so far.

Coples had just one sack and was credited by the coaches with a mere 15 tackles in the first half of the season, which marked a big dropoff in sacks even from the modest numbers (5¹/₂ sacks, 22 tackles) Coples posted in 16 games as the 16th overall pick out of North Carolina in 2012.

That lone sack this season was a big one, coming against Tom Brady two weeks ago as the Jets rallied for a 30-27 overtime win at home against the Patriots, but the Jets were expecting a lot more.

Coples is a reluctant interview, but he grudgingly admitted Friday that his second season “could be better.”

“It’s pretty good, though,” Coples said. “Slow and steady. I think it’s going well, overall.”

The Jets haven’t used Coples strictly as a linebacker this season, moving him back to the defensive line on occasion to mix things up. But he wasn’t helped by the season-ending knee injury suffered by reliable backup linebacker Antwan Barnes in the Week 5 victory at Atlanta.

Without Barnes’ playmaking, which enabled Coples to move around, Coples is now having to carry out more of the linebacker responsibilities instead of just attacking the backfield as an end.

To be fair to Coples, there was skepticism about the position switch for a reason.

Moving to rush linebacker from defensive end isn’t easy in a 3-4 because ends in that system are built more like defensive tackles in the more common 4-3 alignment — and that was certainly the case with the 6-foot-6, 284-pound Coples.

Coples isn’t exactly light on his feet, and it wasn’t as if he had erased the pre-draft knock on him as a rookie that he lacked intensity, gave up on too many plays and disappeared for unacceptably long stretches.

But if he’s unhappy with the move, Coples won’t admit it.

“Whatever it takes to help this team get better, I’m all for it,” he said. “I’m happy with my role, and my role is to help this team. It’s different [playing linebacker], but it’s capable of getting done.”

Nor does Coples appear concerned about skeptics already whispering “bust” now that he keeps being thoroughly upstaged in the Jets’ defense each week by sensational rookie end Sheldon Richardson.

Richardson is a serious candidate for NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, while Coples’ name is rarely heard.

“I’m not going to say the best is yet to come,” Coples said. “I take the game for what it is. You can judge me by whatever expectations you have, but I play football to have fun. If [underperforming] is how it’s been seen, that’s how it’s been seen. I haven’t paid any attention to what people think of me.”