Geno Smith's days with the New York Jets as their starting quarterback may be in jeopardy and the organization has nobody to blame but head coach Rex Ryan for that.
Smith was pulled from the Jets' matchup versus the Miami Dolphins on Sunday after proving to be ineffective once again in what appears to be a regular occurrence nowadays. Of course, New York lost to Miami without incident.
Now that's not to say Smith didn't deserve it. After all, this was his fourth straight horrid performance and the Jets were actually in a good spot to make the playoffs before this run that has effectively ended all hopes of playoff football for Gang Green.
And, for those Jets fans thinking Matt Simms is the answer, please stop. He just isn't and this team has no better future with Simms behind center than with Smith at the same position.
Smith's benching may or may not be the end of his season because it just isn't clear who can get the job done behind him better for the time being.
This shouldn't have even happened, though. Smith was a raw rookie coming into a horrible situation that should have been handled by a veteran quarterback, namely Mark Sanchez.
But hopes of Sanchez taking the reigns to help ease Smith into the starting role down the road were vanquished when Ryan puzzlingly placed Sanchez into a tough spot late in a postseason game that resulted in the veteran signal-caller getting injured for the entire season in what was a meaningless contest.
Had Ryan simply kept Sanchez out of that game, he would likely be running things behind center for the Jets and there's no question he couldn't do any worse than what Smith has done. In fact, I would argue the Jets could be challenging for the division if they had a more competent quarterback.
Instead, Smith was unnecessarily thrust into the starting job before he was clearly ready to be and that isn't even the half of it. Smith was also set up to fail considering the Jets have zero weapons on offense aside from an injury-plagued receiver named Santonio Holmes.
Aside from him, New York had nothing to surround Smith with and that has made his job monumentally harder.
I mean, just think about it: it's hard enough for a rookie to get his feet wet in the NFL, and that's especially true at the quarterback position and even furthermore when you have zero targets who can make things happen offensively.
The Jets knew this and so did Ryan. However, the head coach put his clear-cut starter in harms way and ultimately forced a young quarterback into a spot for which he wasn't ready.
There's no doubt in this writer's mind that the Jets had their sights set on naming Geno the starter from the moment they drafted him. The organization thought it had a team that couldn't compete and figured the best way to create buzz around a throwaway season was to put a new QB at the helm.
But little did Rex and company know they would have a top-flight defense that would keep them in games despite Smith's struggles.
Little did they know that the quarterback they wanted nothing to do with, Sanchez, would be the best solution they could get for the time being and his experience could have won the Jets more games that Smith simply wasn't able to win.
So, what's left at this point for the rookie?
That is far from clear and this situation is far from over. Smith will still have an opportunity to show himself the rest of the season because there is nobody else good enough on the roster to steal the spotlight from him, which isn't exactly difficult to do.
At the very least, this team could have secured a veteran QB just in case Smith faltered, but they didn't. Oh yeah, they did have that but Ryan single-handedly destroyed it.
Sanchez is still under contract for next season and unless the Jets land a big-name quarterback in the NFL draft, you better believe the embattled QB will not only be on the team next season, but he'll be the Jets starter as well.
That's because, as Rex loves to say, he will give this team the best chance to win and if he's an upgrade over Geno, the Jets will be playoff bound in 2014.
But until next season, Jets fans and Geno Smith himself can thank Ryan for destroying his career before it even got started.
