Geno Smith turned the ball over four more times on Sunday and got pulled from the 37-14 loss to the Bills in the fourth quarter in favor of Matt Simms.
That benching won’t extend into next week’s game against the Ravens. Smith has been playing poorly for weeks, but coach Rex Ryan isn’t contemplating a move to Simms or David Garrard at this point.
“We’ll look at everything as we go, but again, but I don’t think it’s fair to place it on one man,” Ryan said, via Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com. “We have to take a hard look at what we’re doing, but I would say Geno is our starting quarterback against Baltimore next week.”
The Jets could live with Smith’s 8-of-19 performance against the Saints because he didn’t turn the ball over, but they can’t live with anything approximating Sunday’s performance because there’s no way for them to overcome handing away points on turnovers. If that continues to happen for Smith, who is now at 20 turnovers and counting, then Ryan may have to take a harder look at a change in the coming weeks.