If there’s no change in the situation for both Ryan Fitzpatrick and Geno Smith, the New York Jets are going to start rookie quarterback Bryce Petty in their next game.
Both Fitzpatrick and Smith are listed as injured at the moment after not avoiding hits in the loss to the Raiders this weekend. Todd Bowles, the head coach, suddenly experiencing what it’s like to lose two games in a row (Patriots the week before that), blames them both for not sliding when they needed to.
In both cases, they both should’ve slid. I’ll say that again. It’s competition, and these guys, in the heat of the battle, it’s hard to slide. But you’ve got to be smarter than that for the good of the team. You can’t fault the competitiveness. We just have to be a lot smarter.
For Fitzpatrick it’s a torn ligament in his non-throwing arm, as he went off on a 12-yard run when all options were covered. He was tackled by the never ending Charles Woodson, and his thumb got caught on Woodson as the two went down. Smith, who came on for Fitzpatrick, got injured on a dumb move, not dumb luck. At the end of a 29-yard run, instead of going out of bounds, he took on cornerback David Amerson who delivered a big hit on Smith. He’s suffering from a bruised left shoulder, and it’s something of a mystery how it wasn’t dislocated.
So if both aren’t good to go by the time the Jets have to face the Jaguars in five days, it’ll be former Baylor star Bryce Petty who gets the chance behind center. Petty has only played in the preseason. For Baylor, he threw for 8195 yards, 60 touchdowns and 7 interceptions in four years, although he was a starter in the final two, winning the Big 12 offensive player of the year in 2013.