Geno Smith’s jaw could cost him his job:

According to reports, Geno Smith missed a camp put together by now former teammate IK Enemkpali, claiming he couldn’t make it after his brother was in an accident. After Smith couldn’t make the camp, Enemkpali asked that the quarterback pay him the roughly $600 dollars spent on Smith’s plane ticket and hotel when the New York Jets got to camp.

Enemkpali was apparently frustrated enough that Smith hadn’t paid the money back that he punched the Jets quarterback in the face, breaking his jaw in two places, and potentially costing Smith his starting job.

New jets head coach Todd Bowles was asked if Geno could lose his job to injury, and he made it clear that’s a definite possibility.

“That’s a conversation we have to have when he comes back,” said Bowles. “If anybody’s playing great, you lose your spot by injury, you lose your spot by a bunch of things, so if he’s playing great and the ship is going the right way, you don’t make a move. But we’ll see as we go.

“If the other guy’s playing well, and the boat’s going right, and there are no waves, and everything’s going, and we’re 4, 5, 6, 7-0? Yeah, you’re not coming back to start.”

Ryan Fitzpatrick will take over the starting reigns in Smith’s absence, and after talking about the improvement he’s seen in Smith since joining the Jets, Fitzpatrick said he’s confident he can get the job done.

“That’s why I still play,” Fitzpatrick replied when asked if he was up to the task of leading the Jets into action.. “If I didn’t want to be here and if I didn’t love this game and if I didn’t have confidence in myself then I wouldn’t be standing here in front of you guys. I would be on vacation with my five kids, sailing off into the sunset with a career that nobody probably thought I would’ve had. But for me I’m not satisfied with what I’ve done.”

It would be difficult for Fitzpatrick to be satisfied with what he’s done, as the Jets are his fourth team in four seasons, and his play in recent years make it difficult to believe he’ll perform well enough  to hold off Smith once the third-year quarterback is healthy enough to get back out there. For his sake, Smith better hope that’s the case.

Chris Johnson considering one-year offer from Cardinals:

According to reports from ESPN’s Dianna Russini, former Tennessee Titans and Jets running back Chris Johnson has received a one-year contract offer from the Arizona Cardinals.  Cards head coach Bruce Arians has stated displeasure with his running back group through this point in training camp.

“I’m not pleased with the time that (Ellington) and David have lost,” Arians explained Monday, “and I wasn’t that fired up about the running backs’ performances Saturday. (The) ball was on the ground, not hitting holes. I thought we should have scored on a couple of those runs where we were one-on-one with the safety and the backside linebacker and we get stopped.”

Rookie running back David Johnson and starter Andre Ellington have both missed time during camp with hamstring issues, and Arians didn’t mix words when he said there was “no way in hell” he’d play Johnson early in the season if the rookie misses significant camp snaps due to his hamstring issues.

After an offseason that saw Chris Johnson arrested on weapons charges and shot in a drive by, the aging tailback is pretty lucky to get any kind of job offer with an NFL club, and the fact that he hasn’t already jumped all over this one should lead to some questions of how bad Johnson really wants to continue his career.

This isn’t just another opportunity to extend his NFL career, this is an offer from one of the better teams in football that just so happens to have a pretty large need at running back.

If the opportunity to earn a starting job on a very good football team isn’t enough to motivate Johnson, who’s unlikely to see a long term or big-money offer elsewhere, it would likely be a mistake to sign him anyhow.

Chicago to host second consecutive NFL Draft:

By all accounts, the city of Chicago did an outstanding job hosting the 2015 NFL Draft. The city embraced its opportunity to host one of the NFL’s biggest off-field events, and went above and beyond to make the event a more interactive experience for fans by transforming Grant Park into “Draft Town.”

The city of Chicago did such a nice job on the 2015 NFL Draft that Roger Goodell and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Tuesday that the city will once again host the draft in 2016.

“We are excited to return to Chicago and look forward to creating an even better experience for our fans next year,” Goodell said in a statement. “Based on the success of last year’s Draft and our high expectations for the 2016 Draft, Chicago continues to raise the bar for future Drafts.”

Chicago did raise the bar for the NFL Draft experience, and with the interest and excitement around the draft seemingly growing every year, don’t expect it to do anything but grow. Before you know it, teams and cities will be putting together committees to apply for “draft bids” the way they now bid on Super Bowls.

The 2016 NFL Draft will take place from April 28^th to April 30^th, wrapping up before May for the first time in three years.