Eric Smith Not Expected to Play Sunday Against the Bills
Rex Ryan stated today during his press conference that Jets safety Eric Smith won’t play Sunday against the Bills due to his recovery from his hip/knee injury from the preseason. “It’s pretty much official,” Ryan said, according to ESPN NY. Other than Smith, there’s no real word on if there are any updates to Dustin Keller or Sione Po’uha’s status so far today. Both are hopeful to play, but might not be getting much more this week in the lead-up to any action on Sunday.
Brian Bassett, theJetsBlog.com
As far as Smith, it’s disappointing that he won’t be healthy enough to play. Smith is solid in run support and is a key special teamer. This season Smith stands to play in sub packages like goal-line, or three safety defense (which Cimini notes that the Jets actually term the “Big Nickel”). Smith would also provide a level of fluency in running the scheme and knowing the opponent from his many years in the system and playing against the Bills.The three main players (LaRon Landry, Jeremiah Bell and Josh Bush) who will see time on the field Sunday didn’t play in the Jets defense last year, so expect there to be some miscommunications in the secondary during the course of the game. If there’s any consolation, it’s that Bell is essentially familiar with the defense and would be familiar with the opponent and their tendencies already and so it might just be the lingo that will cause some issues on Sunday.
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