Strange response. Many FO's handle manually better than CP's.
I was thinking that the a/c was not being flown using automatics. Employing automation relatively quickly is good practice in a busy TMA like that of JFK. It reduces the workload on the non-handling pilot. And at night, it removes the risk of somatogravic illusions and the like, which have caused accidents on jets not so long back.(Gulf Air 320, Flash B737, etc)