Brandon Marshall: Geno Smith did nothing wrong

When the man two straight NFL coaches' polls ranked as the worst quarterback in the league gets punched in the face by one of his own teammates, the normal inclination among his teammates is to voice support for him.

Until now, though, the Jets locker room has largely been crickets after Geno Smith was sucker-punched by former linebacker IK Enemkpali, an injury that will keep him out of play for 6 to 10 weeks.

It didn't help Smith's case that some of his mates actually made some statements in support of Enemkpali, who allegedly punched him over some unpaid debt. 

He finally found a friend on Monday in the form of wide receiver Brandon Marshall.

"I was sitting right there and I would say this without going into too many details because we've already moved past it: Geno Smith did nothing wrong," Marshall said on FOX-TV, per Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. "He did nothing wrong. . . And that's all I'm going to say about that because we have to move forward and I don't want to be a distraction to our team, but Geno Smith did everything the right way."

Compare that sentiment with what one (unnamed, and thus cowardly) teammate who told Daily News that Smith "deserved" what he got.

Marshall, who recently said some unkind things about Jay Cutler, his quarterback in Chicago, said the incident is distracting the Jets from their primary goal -- chucking the Patriots from the pole position in the AFC East.

"People think it's a distraction," Marshall said. "It is. It sucks. It was shocking. I'm very disappointed. I feel bad for the kid, because he was doing really good. But we have to move forward if we want to win. Geno knows that."

Moving forward for the Jets now means putting their offense in the hands of Ryan Fitzpatrick, who the team signed as Smith's reserve this offseason, and who suddenly finds himself the starter Week 1.