With so many moves coming so quickly during the craziest four days in NFL history, it was easy to miss some fairly compelling stories regarding how a guy landed in a given city.
In New York, the decision of receiver/returner/Wildcat quarterback Brad Smith to jump from one corner of the state to the other demonstrates just how crazy things became.
Peter King of SI.com reports in his indispensable Monday Morning Quarterback column that the Jets planned to bring back Brad Smith if they weren’t able to land cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. But Smith, unlike cornerback Antonio Cromartie, opted not to wait.
Smith told King he has no regrets about leaving a team with Super Bowl dreams. “Not at all,” Smith said. “And I saw what happened with them not re-signing Jerricho [Cotchery], Shaun [Ellis] and Braylon [Edwards]. Things were changing there. And here, this might be a Super Bowl team too.”
Smith is now a quarterback in Buffalo, where he could become a Kordell Stewart-style weapon (from Kordell’s good years, not his bad years). King saw Smith line up in shotgun formation with four receivers, roll to the right, step forward as if he planned to run, and then launch the ball 55 yards in the air.
“That guy’s going to be so much fun to have around here, because he gives us such a different dimension,” quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick told King.
Said coach Chan Gailey regarding Smith’s role, “I don’t know if he’ll touch the ball four times in a game or 14. All I know is he’s going to get it a bunch.”
And so now the Jets have neither Nnamdi nor Smith. They’ll instead get to face each guy this year, and they’ll see Smith twice.