NY Jets: Team should stick with Geno Smith in 2016

Despite his struggles with the NY Jets, it’s in the best interest of the team to stick with Geno Smith heading into 2016.

One punch changed the season for the Jets. Thanks to IK Enemkpali, Geno Smith will never get the chance to prove his ultimate ability with a good team around him. Thankfully for the Jets, they have a viable backup quarterback in him that can step in at any notice.

Smith played well in his only appearance this season, albeit in a loss. With the offense around him, he can play well and win football games this time around.

In Rex Ryan’s final season as head coach of the Jets, he played the best he could given the limited coaching ability and talent around him. We now realized that Ryan is a bad head coach and that definitely hampered Smith for his first two seasons.

Everyone looked for negatives to run Smith out of town, including insinuating he was a turnover machine. However, when you compare his turnover numbers to some of the greats of all-time, they are better than them. Peyton Manning had 45 turnovers in his first two seasons, and Troy Aikman had 36 turnovers. In his first two season, Smith has 37 turnovers and everyone is ready to give up on him.

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Imagine if the franchise were ready to give up on those quarterbacks? We would have been deprived of two of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time.

The Jets would only save a little over $1M if they cut him this off-season. However, the fact that it would cost them $1.5M to keep him makes it a smart move to simply have him play out his original rookie contract.

Also, his contract is the second lowest among all backup quarterbacks in the NFL.

We also have a quarterback on our roster who started his career playing for five different teams. On those five teams, he was 33-55-1, while having a TD-INT ratio of 1.2-1. Yes, I am talking about Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Smith’s completion percentage went up, his touchdowns went up and his turnovers went down in his second season, and that’s as a young quarterback trying to learn to play in the NFL. As a veteran, in his third season as a starter, Fitzpatrick’s numbers dipped.

In fact, before Enemkapali punched him in the face and broke his jaw, Smith was going to be the Jets’ starting quarterback. So, Todd Bowles saw something in him during the preseason and during practice that made him think he could be what this team needed to win.

Plus Ryan Fitzpatrick is 33 years old. He ran with reckless abandon this season and has dealt with many injuries in his journeyman career. So, there might be a time the Jets need Smith next season in case Fitzpatrick has to miss any playing time.

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Ultimately, it won’t cost the Jets much to keep Smith. They will have continuity. That’s important if you want to build a championship team. Either way, it’s best the Jets keep him around as insurance as if last season proved anything, it’s that the smarter teams made key decisions with their backup quarterbacks that can step right in and take care of business.

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