The New York Jets are no strangers to fumbling decisions within the team (or butt fumbling, if you prefer), so it came as no surprise that head coach Rex Ryan once again made a horrific blunder to further hurt his team and its future.
In the Jets' Week 3 preseason game against the New York Giants, Ryan put Mark Sanchez in during the fourth quarter of the team's win over their in-state rival, but Sanchez ended up hurting his shoulder after being taken down hard by the opposing defense.
In turn, Sanchez's health is now in question and it's quite possible he may not be ready for the start of the season, although that hasn't been confirmed just yet. At the very least, Sanchez will miss the last preseason game, which was confirmed by Eric Allen of NewYorkJets.com.
Sanchez has been listed as day-to-day and ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that Sanchez has a bruised right shoulder joint.
Jets QB Mark Sanchez has a bruised right shoulder joint, per league source.Sanchez's bizarre entry into the game goes beyond the description of puzzling. Ryan did give the "win at all costs" reason for doing so, but he has to understand the risk of throwing out a potential starting quarterback with a bunch of backups on both sides of the ball.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 26, 2013
Geno Smith started against the Giants on Saturday night and while he wasn't awful, he threw three interceptions in the contest and even ran out of bounds in the back of the end zone on one play.
It's pretty clear Smith still has some work to do and starting him right away could be an issue. If he falters, the Jets will be faced with the prospects of having to go back to Sanchez instead of handing the baton to Smith from Sanchez later on in the season.
New York doesn't even have any semblance of weapons for Smith to throw and that's hardly putting him in a good position to succeed. With all that being said, there should have never been a quarterback battle in the first place, whether in front of the cameras or behind them.
It's obvious (to everyone but the Jets at least) that the team is better off letting Sanchez take the ball to start the season while the team bides its time getting through what should be a lost season. And, in that time, the Jets can start figuring out how to add some credibility to its offense between this year and next.
All of that sounds great, but now the Jets may have no choice. If Sanchez is hurt and can't take the field for Week 1 of the regular season, New York will have no choice but to start Smith and see what he can do.
If that happens, the Jets will start the Geno Smith era far earlier than they should and that could be a major mistake on the part of the organization that was brought on by its head coach's desire to win what was otherwise a meaningless game.
The Jets, who are no strangers to choosing the big splash over common sense decisions, certainly want Smith to start in order to create some buzz in what otherwise would be a boring, frustrating season. That desire flies in the face of logic in every aspect and is so short-sighted it's sickening.
Good call, Rex. Winning a dumb Snoopy trophy was certainly worth potentially destroying the career of your rookie quarterback before he even gets it off the ground.
NOT!
The Jets should have never kept Ryan on board for this season because they now have a coach who is only concerned with himself and the present while the team is very much in transition for the future. Not surprising, the Jets management fumbled that one also.
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