2nd Half of Regular Season Will Shed Light on Future of New York Jets QBs

In the next 16 months, the New York Jets are going to have to make a lot of difficult decisions about their depth chart at quarterback.

In that time frame, the Jets will have to decide on the future of quarterbacks Ryan Fitzpatrick and Geno Smith. It wouldn't hurt if, in the meantime, they can get an honest evaluation of rookie quarterback Bryce Petty, so they can figure out how to proceed for the long term.

But before the Jets start thinking that far ahead, they have to see exactly what they have in Fitzpatrick. The veteran journeyman has been the Jets' starting quarterback for the first nine games of the 2015 season, and he has performed well at times, not well at others. 

Year	2015	Career
Comp	169	1921
Att	283	3194
Comp %	59.7	60.1
Yds	1983	21256
YPA	7.0	6.7
TD	15	138
INT	9	110
Rate	85.5	80.0

"We're very happy with what Ryan's done so far and what he's brought to the organization and the team," Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan said, via Brian Costello of the New York Post. "I think he has a lot of good football left in him. We'll see how this unfolds as the season goes on."

Fitzpatrick has been the same quarterback he always was, on par with most of his other seasons. His completion percentage is slightly lower, but his passer rating is a little higher than usual. That being said, Thursday night against the Bills was one of his worst performances of the season, and if he continues to play like that, the Jets should be looking for new quarterbacks elsewhere.

If that's the case, it may be time to call on Smith. The third-year backup is still largely unproven, but he appeared to be on track to being the starter before IK Enemkpali did his best impression of Rocky Balboa and broke Smith's jaw. As a result of that incident, we haven't seen much of Smith at all this season, and thus, it's still a little hard to evaluate.

"The jury is still out, but not necessarily in a bad way," Maccagnan said. "We're just going to see how it unfolds going forward."

This isn't exactly an indictment of Smith, though; Maccagnan was also somewhat noncommital on Fitzpatrick, looking ahead to the rest of the season rather than giving Fitzpatrick a ringing endorsement ahead of schedule.

There's no reason to jump the gun on either of these quarterbacks, but especially Smith, who is not set to become a free agent until 2017.

"Obviously, Geno's under contract for next year," Maccagnan said. "As of right now, I think Geno has dealt with some adversity with the incident this summer. I thought he's handled it very well. He's actually done a good job in terms of his practice, his approach, preparing."

But there's also the possibility that Petty is the best option for the Jets. The Jets drafted Petty in the fourth round, but the rookie has yet to throw his first NFL pass. He does, however, have the right skill set to be a fit in Chan Gailey's offense, and much of what he learned at Baylor will translate well to Gailey's system.

According to Jim Corbett of USA Today, Petty said: 

"

When I came up on my [pre-draft] visit, we did a mini install and it was actually a lot of the same dynamics or schemes that we had at Baylor that he was showing me on tape.

I'm definitely excited about getting into the film room with him and start understanding where, what, and how and the way things work. It's definitely an offense that your guys can have fun with and that's an important thing especially in this league.

"

Fitzpatrick is also a great mentor for Petty, in that sense, because he can help coach Petty on the ins and outs of the Gailey offense. 

There are some options for the Jets, and these next seven games will shed some light on what direction the Jets should go. If Fitzpatrick plays well and helps the Jets get to the playoffs, they will probably fight to bring him back.

If not, the Jets could start building for the future behind either Petty or Smith. The two could compete for the job next year, should the Jets miss the playoffs. But that's not going to begin taking shape until this season plays out.