New York Jets: Geno Smith will Not Play a Meaningful Down

Geno Smith starting again for the New York Jets is a moot point. It’s not going to happen.

The New York Jets are in an interesting pickle regarding the quarterback situation. Ryan Fitzpatrick is back after a long holdout but not exactly playing the way he did in 2015. Nine interceptions in the last two games is about as bad as a quarterback can play. The Jets have playoff aspirations, yet sit at the bottom of the AFC East with a 1-3 record.

There has been a lot of talk this week regarding the much-maligned backup quarterback, Geno Smith. He was slated to be the starter before Fitzpatrick signed his contract. Many believe that it is time for him to take over. Luis Tirado at the Jet Press believes that the Jets would be delusional to start Fitzpatrick again this week.

I am here to tell you that it’s a moot point. Write it down. Barring an injury, Geno Smith will not play a meaningful down for the Jets again. If he was going to, he would have already.

Let’s take a look at a brief timeline for Geno over the last two years.

It started last year when the Todd Bowles/Mike Maccagnan regime entered the picture. They had no connection with Smith, they didn’t draft him. They acquired Ryan Fitzpatrick, but we all know the story from there. Going into camp, Geno was the starter. As they headed into game one of the preseason, he was the starter.

Then came the punch. A $600 debt led to Geno with a broken jaw and Fitzpatrick thrown into the starting role. At the time, Bowles made it clear his feelings on the situation, via NFL.com:

There is a message there. The message is that they were never convinced by Geno to start with. Conventional wisdom is that players don’t lose their job to an injury. The starter is that player that you trusted. He hasn’t changed because he fell to an injury.

Unless you didn’t believe in that player to begin with.

I understand that he was the starter during training camp. That fact means nothing to me. It’s easy to be the big star when you haven’t played a game yet. Once Fitzpatrick hit the field, it was over for Smith. Come on. Remember last year? Geno was ahead of schedule with his rehab. If he was the clear starter, he would have gotten his job back. He didn’t. That tells us a lot.

Sep 1, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; New York Jets quarterback Geno Smith throws the ball prior to the game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Don’t forget, ladies and gentlemen, that Smith got into a game last year. Fitzpatrick broke a finger on his hand against the Raiders and Geno played a decent game. He went 27-of-42 for 265 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. Better, right?

Well, they were so “impressed” by his performance, that late in the game, they brought Ryan Fitzpatrick back in! They felt that late in the game, the team would be better off with an injured quarterback than Geno Smith. Think about it.

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Fast forward to 2016, and the contract negotiations with Fitzpatrick. Remember how often that we heard they were “comfortable” with Geno? How they were ready to move on? Well, if that were the case, the negotiations would have been shut down. They would have told Fitzpatrick to take his demands elsewhere, and that it was over.

You don’t negotiate until the 11th hour with a “journeyman” quarterback unless you believe this player is essential to your team’s success. If the Jets’ brass believed Geno Smith could quarterback this team, he would have been doing so since Week 1.

Let’s move past that and talk about the last couple of weeks. Against the Kansas City Chiefs, the game was within two scores until late in the fourth quarter. Fitzpatrick threw four interceptions before the pick six that put the game out of reach. Surely the Jets needed a spark that would have come from a quarterback change, right?

Nope. No change. In fact, following that game, head coach Todd Bowles stated Fitzpatrick would be the starter in Week 4. This was immediately following the game. The guy had just thrown six interceptions and he still gave the Jets the best chance to win.

Now we have the performance against the Seahawks. The “Fitzmagic” throws three more interceptions, and the Jets fall to 1-3. That makes nine over two weeks. Is it time to make a move now? Look at what Todd Bowles had to say immediately following the Seahawks’ game regarding his confidence in Fitzpatrick (via team press release):

The same level of confidence? Right now, Ryan Fitzpatrick is a turnover machine. It would be human nature for his confidence to waiver, even a little bit. He’s not playing well, his confidence has to be down a bit.

Unless you know that you don’t have a better alternative. It’s not always a good thing to move to the backup. You make a change if you believe that the alternative can provide a spark. It Todd Bowles believed that, Geno Smith would be starting this week. What do we expect him to say? “Yes, my confidence is down on Fitzpatrick, but the other guy stinks so we’ll go with what we have.”

He obviously can’t say that. But it is clear he believes it. The guy has thrown nine interceptions in two games, and the most fourth quarter interceptions of anyone since the start of 2015.

Geno Smith can’t even beat that. He’s not playing  meaningful down for the Green and White ever again unless Ryan Fitzpatrick suffers an injury.

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