At least publicly, the new Jets boss remains in Geno Smith’s corner.
A week after Smith had his jaw broken in a locker-room incident with since-cut linebacker IK Enemkpali, general manager Mike Maccagnan met the media for the first time and said he remains confident in Smith’s ability and maturity level to lead his team.
“It’s an unfortunate incident,” Maccagnan said of the fiasco in which Enemkpali slugged Smith in the locker room in part because Smith didn’t pay him $600 he owed for not showing up to his offseason football camp after Smith reportedly stuck his finger in his face. “You have adversity as a team, you have adversity as players, and we’ll see how Geno works through this.
“Geno, in our minds, he was having a very good offseason. He did some good things, he showed some good progress, he was having a good start to training camp.”
Maccagnan said there is the “possibility” Smith will be placed on short-term injured reserve/designated for return, though he also termed it as unlikely. It would make Smith inactive for the first eight weeks of the season and he would be unable to practice during the season’s first six weeks. The GM also said Smith “will probably” miss the first four games of the year.
Smith is expected to rejoin the team on a full-time basis in meetings later this week, and has been at the Florham Park complex intermittently over the past few days. He attended a team meeting on Tuesday. Coach Todd Bowles said Smith is a week and a half or two weeks away from throwing.
“No time soon,” Bowles said.
Bowles said he has spoken to Smith each of the past two days, and said he is doing fine, and not having trouble talking despite his broken jaw. In the meantime, the Jets’ quarterback situation changed somewhat Tuesday night.
Hours after Maccagnan said he hoped to acquire a veteran signal-caller prior to the season opener and revealed there were trade discussions with other teams, a source confirmed the team planned to sign veteran quarterback Matt Flynn to a one-year deal to be Ryan Fitzpatrick’s backup, but it wasn’t completed.
“Having a veteran quarterback in there as a No. 2 option or No. 3 option has some value in it,” Maccagnan said.
If Smith avoids IR and the Jets do bring Flynn aboard, it would bring their total to four quarterbacks during the season, which is rare in the NFL.
Smith recently drew the ire of coach Todd Bowles for throwing a football around two days after undergoing surgery, but Maccagnan played down the issue earlier in the day on WFAN, describing it as “minor.”
A day after wide receiver Brandon Marshall defended Smith on ESPN’s “Mike & Mike,” saying the Jets quarterback “didn’t do anything wrong that day,” he declined to go into further detail on his feelings. But the big-play wideout stood by his words.
“I said what I had to say,” Marshall said. “What I say, my word is bond.”
Bowles and cornerback Darrelle Revis, meanwhile, previously said Smith deserved some of the blame for the high profile incident. Marshall didn’t say why he waited six days to come to Smith’s defense, either.
While Smith has had other off-the-field issues — such as missing a team meeting the day before a game in San Diego against the Chargers last year and getting caught on camera cursing out a Jets fan after a game — Maccagnan said other than this latest snafu, Smith has handled himself well since he took over as the Jets’ GM. He was impressed how the quarterback worked during the offseason and how he began camp before the incident.
“I wasn’t here for those,” Maccagnan said. “All I can judge Geno on is what he has done so far. I’m aware of the past.
“Geno has done a lot of good things this offseason into training camp. We’ll see how things go going forward.”