FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The soap opera that is the Jets’ quarterback situation took another sudsy turn Wednesday afternoon when head coach Todd Bowles said the team would look to add a veteran quarterback if Ryan Fitzpatrick doesn’t return.
Normally there’d be nothing wrong with adding depth at the most important position in sports, but Bowles’ comments raised eyebrows given how the Jets have talked up Geno Smith this spring.
“Being in the system a year, he’s light years ahead of where he was last year,” Bowles said Tuesday afternoon. “As far as being confident and operating the system and understanding his checks and running the offense – he’s night and day of where he was.”
Of course, this is the fourth straight offseason in which the Jets have gushed about Smith in pad-less practices, and the spring and summer success has yet to carry over to when the leaves change colors. Smith went 11-18 as a starter in his first two seasons before losing his starting job following a locker-room fight last summer with former teammate IK Enemkpali.
And for as highly as Bowles spoke of Smith on Tuesday, he also acknowledged there’s no deadline for Fitzpatrick to rejoin the team and regain his starting role.
“If (Fitzpatrick) got hurt, Geno would be the starter and we would have to play, and he’s learning the system right now,” Bowles said. “He’s getting better at it. So whether it’s Fitz or whether it’s Geno, we’re doing the same things we need to do.”
Presumably, the same is true whether it’s anybody else, too.
–Cornerback Darrelle Revis participated in practice for the first time this offseason on Wednesday, when he took part in positional drills during the second day of the Jets’ minicamp.
Revis underwent surgery to repair a ruptured tendon in his wrist in March and is expected to be 100 percent for training camp, which opens July 27. He said Tuesday he suffered the injury early in the season, though he was never listed on the injury report due to the wrist.
“It affected me,” Revis said. “That was something where it did bother me, but at the same time, I persevered and fought through it.”
Revis will be facing a different fight in 2016, when he battles to prove he’s not on the downside of his career. The 31-year-old future Hall of Famer looked a step slow last season, when he was beaten badly by young speedsters such as the Houston Texans’ DeAndre Hopkins and the Buffalo Bills’ Sammy Watkins.
“I’m going to play until the wheels fall off, hopefully,” said Revis, who has $23 million guaranteed left on the five-year deal he signed prior to last season. “We’ll see.”
And as for those who believe the wheels might have begun falling off in 2015?
“If that’s how people feel, that’s fine,” Revis said. “It’s not going to hinder what I do or bother what I do or change who I am.”