Cris Carter May Have a Point With His Geno Smith Leadership Comments

I’ve never been a fan of Cris Carter the NFL analyst – he always appears to be trying to out-shout whoever he’s debating, and I can’t recall the last time he said something original that made me think. Today, he’s getting crushed on social media for making the above comments about Jets QB Geno Smith.

Hours after the Jets revealed that Smith would be out 6-10 weeks with a broken jaw suffered at the hands of teammate IK Enemkpali, this is what Carter said on ESPN:

"“I don’t know what happened, but for me, it’s a lack of leadership on Geno Smith’s part that he would put himself in arm’s way to get sucker punched. You’re the president, like CEO of the team. We can’t have you fighting.”"

Carter doesn’t know what happened, but he’s going to have a strong opinion anyway. It’s 2015, that’s what people do. All anyone has to go on is that Smith wagged his finger in Enemkpali’s face (for reasons nobody knows) and then the QB got drilled in the face.

I can’t believe I’m going to briefly side with Carter (until the rest of the story comes out, at which point I reserve the right to change my mind): What’s the star QB doing putting his finger in the face of a linebacker?

You think Andrew Luck is doing that in Indianapolis? There are passive QBs (Eli Manning) and there are hard-driving QBs who have a history of getting in the face of teammates (Dan Marino). Through two seasons, Geno Smith has shown to be much closer to passive, in between all his sulking and angrily tearing away his chin strap after turnovers.

When Seattle went through the “Russell Wilson isn’t black enough” stuff last year, you think he wagged a finger in anyone’s face? Aaron Rodgers is a hard-ass, and has gone at it with his coach, but nothing he’s done/said has resulted in him getting his jaw broken.

So yeah, Cris Carter may have a point.

As for Enemkpali, no, he doesn’t get a pass. Or anything close. Good luck getting picked up with the attitude that you’re going to punch anyone out who sticks a finger in your face. You won’t be long for the NFL, regardless of how promising you look in training camp.