THE WAITING IS THE SMARTEST PART
Jets should sit tight as Petty still learning to fly
GENO Smith became the latest quarterback drafted by the Jets to get added to the team’s QB graveyard this week when a torn ACL ended his season and most likely his time with the Jets.
Smith is just another log on the fire that is the Jets’ terrible quarterback history since Joe Namath left town in 1976. Smith’s name will go alongside Richard Todd, Browning Nagle, Mark Sanchez and all the rest as failed quarterbacks taken in the draft.
The Jets messed up with Smith from the start. They were gushing over him at the 2013 rookie minicamp the week after he was drafted in the second round and desperately wanted him to beat out Sanchez in training camp. The point became moot when Rex Ryan put Sanchez into the fourth quarter of a preseason game against the Giants and Sanchez’s shoulder got wrecked. Smith was the Day 1 starter despite being far from ready.
That brings us to Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg.
There is an understandable clamoring among fans to see Petty play right now. With Smith out, turning back to Ryan Fitzpatrick feels like watching a movie you did not particularly like the first time. Petty’s play in the preseason and just the allure of the unknown has fans anxious to see what the second-year player from Baylor can do. There seems to be more patience with Hackenberg, but we’ll see how long that lasts.
The Petty fan club should slow down. Maybe the Jets are finally getting this right by waiting until a quarterback is actually ready instead of throwing him into the fire too soon. Both Smith and Sanchez where Day 1 starters with the Jets and both had massive struggles. The Jets have not exhibited patience with a quarterback since Chad Pennington.
Petty was allowed to sit and watch last season in a “redshirt” year. This summer, he had some good moments in the preseason, but he was far from perfect. The Jets would have loved for Petty to have beaten out Smith for the No. 2 job. They gave Petty extended looks, hoping he would do that. But even before he suffered a shoulder injury in the final preseason game with the Eagles, the Jets brass was not convinced he was ready to be the No. 2.
After the injury, he missed practice for six weeks, returning just two weeks ago. It is going to take several weeks for him to regain his timing and feel comfortable again against a defense. The Jets are doing the right thing by waiting. If the season goes further south with Fitzpatrick at the helm, Petty can play in December. To me, the earliest Petty plays, barring an injury to Fitzpatrick, is Dec. 5 against the Colts.
One of the biggest debates in the NFL is whether to play a quarterback right away or have him sit and watch. Dak Prescott and Carson Wentz are the latest examples for those who want guys to play right away, but both are playing in systems that are similar to what they played in college. The Jets don’t want Hackenberg to play this season, wanting to bring him along slowly. You can argue a second-round pick should not be a project, but that is a discussion for another day.
In many ways, the Jets are handling Petty how they should have handled Smith. Like Petty, Smith came from a gimmicky offense in college that did not translate to the NFL. Teammates were amazed by how much he struggled just getting the plays out in the huddle during that first year. Smith had some good moments that rookie season, but you wonder if his career would have gone differently if he were permitted to learn without the pressure of playing. Instead, he is the latest Jets quarterback to be cast aside.
The Jets have drafted eight quarterbacks since 2006, more than any other team in the NFL, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Six of them have not panned out. Petty and Hackenberg will get the next chances at ending the 40-year search for a franchise quarterback.
Right now, those chances need to wait.