And so the circus begins! Only weeks away from NFL football and the Jets starting QB gets sucker punched in the locker room. Smith suffered a broken jaw and will miss 6-10 weeks, but LB Enemkpali, a sixthround pick in 2014, lost much more and was released immediately by the team.
These fights happen in training camp every year so not to much of a change of pace. It seems Coach Bowles just wasn’t happy with the way this event went down.
“It was nothing to do with football. … It was very childish,” coach Todd Bowles said. “He got coldcocked … sucker punched, whatever you want to call it, in the jaw. He’s got a broken jaw, a fractured jaw.” “The team knows it. It’s something we don’t tolerate, something we can’t stand,” Bowles said. “You don’t walk up to a man and punch him in the face.”
Now that Enemkpali has been released the tone has been set. Bowles players now know, if they didn’t before, this behavior will not be tolerated and soon this negative attention will be no more under the Bowles Regime.
Now the Jets must choose between savy veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick or Rookie 4th round pick Bryce Petty. The word out since the beginning of camp is Petty will need some seasoning and is struggling early. So that leaves “Mr.Ivy League” Ryan Fitzpatrick. Luckily the Veteran QB has worked with Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey in the past and knows the offense well. So the same questions apply for Fitzpatrick that applied to Smith keep the turnovers down and hit your open receivers. Sounds simple, but the only thing that’s simple now is who’s starting week one for the NY Jets.
By Joseph O’Reilly