Todd Bowles Explains Decision to Start Geno Smith vs. Ravens

Jets head coach Todd Bowles discussed his decision to bench Ryan Fitzpatrick in favor of Geno Smith for this Sunday’s game against Baltimore.

On making the change to Geno Smith…

I felt like it was time for a change. We had six games where we didn’t play very well in five of them. The quarterback is ultimately responsible but I’m responsible, the rest of the team is responsible. I felt like it would be a good time to make a chance to see what he can do. When you have guys of equal talent at a equal talent level and one’s not playing as well, you try to turn to the other one. That’s what we did.

On whether he considers Smith and Fitzpatrick equal talents…

I figured they both started and played in this league. They’re equal talent. They do different things well. Each of them do different things well. Going in, Geno had a shot at it last year, Fitz took it over and played well. Fitz had a shot at it this year and Geno took it over.

On whether he feels Smith gives the team the best chance to win on Sunday or if this team just needs a spark…

Little bit of both. We’ve been stagnant on offense. Not to say we’ve been playing great on defense either but we’ve been stagnant on offense and we have some things in place where we think another quarterback will probably right now be beneficial.

Bowles also indicated this will not be the only lineup change we will see Sunday.

On whether he’s made any changes defensively…

I’ve made some changes, yes. (None) that I feel like revealing, but I’ve made some changes.

On whether he made changes to the defensive starters…

I’ve made some changes, yes.