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It’s a rare situation in which the smart organizational move is to get rid of a young player in favor of a journeyman veteran, but in the case of the New York Jets, that’s what they should seriously consider doing.
The organization endured a lot of criticism when they drafted West Virginia‘s Geno Smith in the second round of the NFL Draft a few years back, and it still looks like a failed pick.
In three NFL seasons, Smith has thrown just 27 touchdowns to go along with 35 interceptions. He barely played in 2015 due to a locker room incident with a former teammate, and the team was much better off without him.
Ryan Fitzpatrick has jumped around the league throughout his career and has been relatively successful in a starting role. He stepped in for Smith and nearly led the team to the postseason in a season with very few expectations.
Normally I would still advise an organization to give a young player more time before cutting him loose, but I’ve never been sold on Smith’s abilities as an NFL quarterback. Fitzpatrick certainly isn’t the future, but when you take such an enormous leap from one year to the next, you need to stick with whatever is working.
Fitzpatrick is an upcoming free agent, and the Jets need to re-sign him. If they do so, they’ll need to next think about what to do with Smith. The likely option would be to trade him to a team in need of a quarterback. He’s still young, and therefore may still hold a little bit of value for a team desperate for a change at the position.
If the Jets move forward with Fitzpatrick, they still must consider the future. I would expect them to take a shot on a quarterback anywhere from the third to fifth rounds of the upcoming draft.
It’s never an easy decision to part ways with a young quarterback after just three seasons under his belt, but in a league that’s only concerned with winning, sometimes teams have to think about the present before the future.
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