Geno Smith and his star-crossed career with the New York football franchise took another strange twist on Tuesday afternoon, when word came out that Smith was involved in a locker room altercation with back-up linebacker IK Enemkpali, in which the 2014 sixth round pick, slugged smith in the face during a fight in the locker room. Smith broke his jaw as a result, and will be out for 6-10 weeks, at least.
Reports say that coach Todd Bowles said the fracas broke out because of something that had "nothing to do with football" and was "very childish." What childish means in this situation is anyone's guess. And it is not known who started the fight. However, whatever Smith may have done or said to Enemkpali was enough for him to rear back and crack the quarterback in the face.
Enemkpali was released almost immediately.
To some Jets fans, they probably are ecstatic that Smith is out for such a long period of time. Smith did nothing to endear himself to Jets fans with his poor play the past two years, becoming one of the leagues worst quarterbacks.
That being said, the Jets now will have to rely on veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick as their starting quarterback for at least the first half of the season. While Fitzpatrick has seen some good moments in his career, he has been a mostly mediocre quarterback. He spent four years as the Buffalo Bills starting quarterback and never produced a winning season. His best season in Buffalo was in 2011 when he threw for 3,800 yards and 24 touchdowns, but he also threw 23 interceptions that year as well.
This is also the same Ryan Fitzpatrick who couldn't hold off Case Keenum and Ryan Mallett from taking the starting job from him in Houston last season. In other words, here is another hoe-hum quarterback under center for the Jets.
If Fitzpatrick falters, it could rush the debut of rookie Bryce Petty, whom the Jets were hoping would have a year to sit back and watch before ever getting a call to start. That might change now. Petty is coming out of the spread offense system from Baylor, and needs time to learn the in's and out's of an NFL offense.
There is even a rumor out there that the Jets would go after ... dare I say it .. Rex Grossman! (You can scream now.)
So in short, there are no good options here for the Jets, even if Smith was probably on his last legs as a Jets starting quarterback this season.
Also here is this tidbit, the injury might actually mean the end of the Geno Smith era in New York. If Fitzpatrick, or Petty, or whomever plays well for the team and the Jets are winning ball games there is no chance that Smith will get the starting job back. The only way Smith even gets consideration to be the starter at this point is if Fitzpatrick is really stinking it up for Gang Green.
It would be ironic in a way if this is indeed the end of the Smith era, because his time with the Jets started when Mark Sanchez was injured in a pre-season game and lost for the season. If Sanchez hadn't been injured, Smith probably never takes the field as the Jets starting quarterback.
Oh the irony, oh the Jets.
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