The New York Jets don’t want Geno Smith doing anything while he recovers from his fractured jaw. And that includes playing catch, and especially telling everyone about it.
Basically, that’s the thing Smith did wrong. By posting a picture of himself smiling, shirtless, with a football in his hand, telling the world that he’s shaking the injury off and already having fun with friends.
But with the Jets still viewing him as the future of the franchise in a way (this season is the last change most likely), they don’t want their investment of millions, that’s already injured, picking up something else while doing something that has nothing to do with the team.
He shouldn’t be doing it right now. He just got surgery. The doctors said he couldn’t do anything physical. You don’t want it infected. It’s not disappointing. It’s just something you don’t want to do, and we addressed it. We handled that internally. We had that discussion.
It wasn’t head coach Todd Bowles who spoke with Smith, who was called up to the team’s facilities for something of a reprimand. He had a sit down with general manager Mike Maccagnan.
At the moment, Smith isn’t showing up for practice or any team activities. He reportedly left without watching practice or even socializing with some of his teammates. Some of them said they didn’t even see him when he was there. Right now, the Jets are having Smith show up for checkups, that’s it.
Smith, breaking his jaw after getting punched in the face by former teammate I.K. Enemkpali (released after the incident), will be out for at least six more weeks, but could be for longer, his absence reaching midway through the regular season.