Jets Release Quinton Coples, a Former First-Round Pick

Photo Quinton Coples, left, exchanged some terse words with the Patriots' Tom Brady earlier this season. Credit Mark L. Baer/USA Today Sports, via Reuters FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — A day after losing for the fourth time in five games, the Jets cut one of their underachieving players, the 2012 first-round draft pick Quinton Coples.

Inherited by the new coach Todd Bowles, Coples, a defensive end miscast as an outside linebacker, proved an incongruous fit in the defensive scheme. As the rookie Lorenzo Mauldin overtook him on the depth chart, Coples had received fewer and fewer snaps over the last five games. His playing time bottomed out in the Jets’ sluggish 24-17 loss Sunday at Houston, where he…