Smith has had a rough run over the past two weeks as he fumbled away a kick return that was brought back for a touchdown against the Bills in a 5-point loss two Sundays ago, before dropping two bombs from quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, one that would have gone for a touchdown, in a 7-point loss against the Texans last week. Some of his work can be found on CBS-Miami (Dolphins), CBS-LosAngeles (Chargers), CBS-BayArea (Raiders), CBS-NewYork (NY Jets), CBS-TampaBay (Buccaneers), AXS.com, Examiner.com and other online publications. “We’re trying to get back to that”. “We’ll see later in the week, but we are preparing to play without him”.
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Certainly the Jets haven’t been having very much fun, and only fleeting flashes of excitement, as they have stumbled to a 5-5 mark after getting off to a 4-1 start. “They’re all playing about the same right now”.
“He’s a cool cat”, defensive end Olivier Vernon said.
“It hasn’t been good enough for us to win consistently”, he said. “If individuals won games, we’d have a lot of wins under our belt”. Miami executive vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum drafted Coples in the first round in 2012, when he was the Jets’ general manager.
Darrelle Revis officially was ruled out for Sunday’s home matchup with the Dolphins, leaving Gang Green without the services of by far their best cover cornerback in an AFC East game critical to their playoff hopes. “You don’t want to give up on a quarterback just like that because overall, on what he’s done this year, he still proved he can do that going forward”.
“Any time a guy who’s been playing eight years, missing a game like this, a division opponent, a high-intensity game, [we’re] definitely going to miss his leadership and ability to play defense”, Jets strong safety Calvin Pryor said. Bowles said Fitzpatrick isn’t on a shorter leash because of his recent struggles. Fitzpatrick was 19 of 39 for 216 yards with a touchdown against the team he started 12 games for previous year.
“We are ready to play without him, but if he comes back it will be a bonus”, said Bowles, who will decide between starting Buster Skrinne or Marcus Williams in place of Revis.
Jarvis Landry has an injured knee that kept him out of two-and-a-half of the team’s three practices this week. “We know what we’ve got to do”.
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The current slide started last month, so there’s still time to reverse it. It also should be noted that Todd Bowles’ predecessors, Eric Mangini and Rex Ryan, rallied to make the playoffs after 5-5 and 4-6 starts, respectively, in their first season.
