Brandon Marshall, Ryan Fitzpatrick's Fantasy Outlook After Geno Smith's Injury

With one ill-fated punch, Ryan Fitzpatrick became the starting quarterback for the New York Jets. For fantasy owners brave enough to start a Jets quarterback or those targeting Brandon Marshall, however, very little has changed. 

On Tuesday, Geno Smith was "sucker punched" by linebacker IK Enemkpali in a locker room altercation, as head coach Todd Bowles said in a press conference, per Rich Cimini of ESPN.com. He's now out for six to 10 weeks with a broken jaw, while Enemkpali was immediately cut. 

That has opened the door for Fitzpatrick to take the reins as the starting quarterback. Trey Wingo of ESPN offered some optimism for Jets fans:

As fantasy owners already know, however, Fitzpatrick isn't exactly an appealing option. In 97 career games, he's averaged 198.7 yards, 1.2 touchdowns and 1.0 interceptions per contest. 

In standard-scoring leagues, that's an average of about 11 fantasy points per game—not exactly inspiring stuff.

With the Jets, of course, he'll arguably have a better set of weapons at his disposal than he's had to this point in his career, with Brandon Marshall, Eric Decker, rookie Devin Smith (once he recovers from a partially punctured lung and broken ribs) and H-back Jace Amaro to utilize in the passing game.

Still, the Jets were always likely to be a run-first offense, and that isn't about to change with Fitzpatrick at the helm. He's a low-end QB2. 

As for Marshall, his fantasy stock shouldn't dip too much either. Marshall was always going to be a low-end WR2 or flex option in this offense, and Fitzpatrick isn't much, if any, of a downgrade from Smith in the passing game. 

Because Marshall is an elite possession receiver and very good at high-pointing the ball and beating defenders in the air, he'll still produce solid numbers and should finish with a fair amount of touchdowns. Remember, Marshall has scored at least eight touchdowns in each of the last three seasons, though he did so with Jay Cutler as his quarterback. 

Also worth noting is that from 2007-13, Marshall had at least 80 receptions and 1,000 receiving yards in every season, establishing himself as the game's top possession receiver. He'll absolutely be a player whom Fitzpatrick relies on heavily, so if you were planning on drafting him to be a WR2 option, there's little reason to deviate from that plan.