Who Holds the Edge in Quarterback Battle Between Geno Smith, Ryan Fitzpatrick?

Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield. Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao. 

Geno Smith vs. Ryan Fitzpatrick?

The New York Jets quarterback battle isn't quite up to the level of those legendary boxing battles, but it's equally as important. Whoever wins the battle will hold the Jets' championship hopes in their hands.

Smith was crowned the starting quarterback in 2013 after a pseudo-competition between he and former starting quarterback Mark Sanchez ended with an injury to Sanchez's shoulder. In 2014, Smith was crowned the starter seemingly before the competition even began—although the Jets brass was saying all the right words about the competition at the time.

And now, of the two quarterbacks involved in this year's battle, it looks like Smith is the only one with a leg to stand on—or, in this case, two legs.

Fitzpatrick finished the 2014 season on injured reserve after he broke his left leg in mid-December. 

"We're projecting [Fitzpatrick] to be back ready to go for training camp," Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan said on Thursday. "He'll be involved in some of the offseason stuff, OTAs. But again, taking it into consideration, too, the rehabilitation for his injuries.

"He may be limited to a certain degree in the OTAs, so I think Geno and Matt will definitely get more reps, probably. Ryan will be involved also through the offseason program, but again, somewhat limited because of the rehabilitation from the injury."

The Jets are very clearly in win-now mode, though some folks have their doubts as to whether Fitzpatrick is a win-now quarterback. The new management of Maccagnan and head coach Todd Bowles has no ties to Smith, so it has no prerogative to give Smith a long leash.

Indeed, Maccagnan didn't use the words "open competition," as his predecessor John Idzik did in 2014 (even though the words "open competition" were the furthest thing from the truth), but Fitzpatrick will have the advantage thanks to his knowledge of Chan Gailey's offensive system. 

He may just be playing coy until after the draft, with the Jets expected to be in the running for one of the top two quarterbacks in this year's class (either Florida State's Jameis Winston or Oregon's Marcus Mariota). The acquisition of either would completely shake up the look of the battle. 

Player	Geno Smith	Ryan Fitzpatrick
Starts	13	12
W-L	3-10	6-6
Comp	219	197
Att	367	312
Comp%	59.7	63.1
Yds	2525	2483
YPA	6.9	8.0
TD	13	17
INT	13	8
Rate	77.5	95.3

But for now, Smith and Fitzpatrick are the two options to choose from, and the Jets may be choosing the lesser of two evils.

Smith, on one hand, is younger and may have a higher ceiling, but he has only shown very brief flashes of that ceiling. Fitzpatrick, on the other hand, is a bit older and while he doesn't have the long-term potential of Smith, he has plenty of NFL experience—more specifically, in Gailey's offense.

The former Buffalo Bills head coach, now the Jets offensive play-caller, has plenty of experience tailoring an offense to a quarterback with a limited skill set. Just ask Fitzpatrick, who himself became a $60 million man thanks to the offensive stylings of Gailey. Smith has limitations of his own, but Gailey may be just the man to help him work around those weaknesses and accentuate his strengths. 

We've seen how Gailey's system can work for Fitzpatrick, but not yet with Smith. In Smith's first two years under former coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, the Jets ran a West Coast style offense similar to Gailey's offense. In that respect, Smith may be able to pick up the offense quickly. The question is whether he can execute it. 

The focus of Gailey's offense has been short and intermediate passes (less than 20 yards downfield) over the middle. In 2011, Fitzpatrick attempted 282 of his 569 passes (49.6 percent) in that range, and he completed 202 of those passes (71.6 percent) according to ProFootballFocus.com.

In 2014, Smith attempted 173 of his 367 passes over the middle and 19 yards or fewer downfield (47.1 percent), and he completed 131 of them (75.7 percent). So, in that sense, he falls right on line with what Gailey might be expecting, or hoping for, out of his quarterback. 

And this time, he'll have much more help than he's had in the past. With three dynamic weapons in Eric Decker, Brandon Marshall and Jeremy Kerley, the Jets look poised to field a more potent offense than they've had in years past. 

But it all falls on the shoulders of the quarterback—whomever that may be. 

For four decades, the Jets have been facing questions at quarterback. The prospects of finding that answer do not look particularly bright in the hands of Smith or Fitzpatrick, but even if this battle doesn't turn out to be an epic clash of titans on par with Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan or Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart, the results will be pivotal to the Jets' future on offense.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes obtained via team news release and all advanced stats obtained via ProFootballFocus.com.