Geno Smith played less than a full half of football before suffering a season-ending injury, and one of his New York Jets teammates seems to think the quarterback could have avoided said injury by playing smarter.
After Smith injured his knee in Sunday’s win over the Baltimore Ravens, defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson said he has urged the former West Virginia star to get rid of the ball quicker.
“I keep telling him to get rid of the football, but he won’t listen to me,” Richardson said, per Connor Hughes of NJ.com. “Told him I sack a lot of quarterbacks. You’d think he’d listen to me.”
Smith tore his ACL on a play where he scrambled out of the pocket on third down and was tackled, with his leg bending awkwardly underneath him. The injury didn’t seem serious at first, but it obviously was. Richardson felt it could have been avoided it Smith threw the ball away.
“He was looking good,” he said. “Tough break.”
It should be noted that Smith remained on the sideline for the remainder of the game and was even able to stand under his own power, so it came as a major surprise that he suffered a torn ACL. Had Richardson known the severity of the injury, he may not have been critical.
Whether the injury was his fault or not, Smith can’t catch a break. The Jets’ quarterback situation has now taken a very awkward turn, as head coach Todd Bowles reminded us when he made a surprising remark on Monday.
