Jets WR Brandon Marshall: Geno Smith 'did nothing wrong'

By foxsports
Published

Nothing good has come from Geno Smith getting sucker punched by teammate IK Enemkpali. The New York Jets lost their starting quarterback and a contributor on defense in Enemkpali, and players have taken the sides of both guys.

An eyewitness at the scene said Smith "deserved" to be punched, while former teammate Brady Quinn said he wasn't surprised at all that Smith was in an altercation. On the other hand, one of Smith's newest teammates has come to his defense. Wide receiver Brandon Marshall said he saw what happened and Smith "did nothing wrong."

"I was sitting right there and I would say this without going into too many details because we’ve already moved past it: Geno Smith did nothing wrong," Marshall said on FOX TV, per Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. "He did nothing wrong. … And that’s all I’m going to say about that because we have to move forward and I don’t want to be a distraction to our team, but Geno Smith did everything the right way."

At the very least, it has to make Smith somewhat happy that a veteran guy like Marshall -- who witnessed the incident -- is taking his side. Especially after Smith has come under some criticism for his lack of leadership and maturity.

When asked about why his fellow teammates weren't defending their quarterback, Marshall attributed it to his age, while still calling him a leader.

"Because he’s young," Marshall said. "He’s 24. It hasn’t been his team. He’s been in and out of the lineup the last couple years. There’s been a lot of question marks. But I don’t care about the past. I care about what he’s done this offseason and OTAs and in camp and leading up to that day. To me, he’s been a leader. He’s getting better at it. It wasn’t his team. He had to earn that and he still has to continue to earn that."

Marshall seems genuinely disappointed by the incident, mainly because of the potential he saw in Smith. As his roommate during spring practices, Marshall became close with his quarterback, making the loss even tougher. He'll now go forward with Ryan Fitzpatrick as his quarterback for the time being as Smith will be out for at least six to 10 weeks.

(h/t New York Daily News)