Ryan Fitzpatrick lands with Jets

Revis Island has a new castaway and it is “The Professor.”

The New York Jets completed a trade on Tuesday that sent a high level draft pick to the Houston Texans for quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, arguably the smartest player in the NFL. In 2005 at the NFL Combine, Fitzpatrick scored a 48 on the Wonderlic exam, tied for the highest in league history alongside former Jets Greg McElroy.

Now it is up to the Harvard man to see if he has the brains to turn around a Jets offense that was failing last year.

The Jets passing offense was last in the league a season ago behind the platoon quarterback duo of Geno Smith and Michael Vick. Last month, Metro reported that the Jets had moved on from Vick and now a quarterback competition has emerged between the incumbent Smith and the newly acquired Fitzpatrick. While he isn’t an elite quarterback, Fitzpatrick can manage a game and has plenty of NFL experience.

For his career, Fitzpatrick has 19,273 passing yards, 123 touchdowns and 101 interceptions. He has a career completion percentage of 60.1 percent and a 79.5 QBR.

He comes into a situation where he has talent at the skill positions. A trade last week netted the Jets a perennial 1,000 yard receiver in Brandon Marshall to go alongside Eric Decker, the team’s leading receiver a year ago and Jeremy Kerley. This along with a new look offensive line and the return of running backs Chris Ivory and Bilal Powell could make the Jets a very balanced team. Plus there is emerging talent at tight end in Jace Amaro, a second round pick last year.

While he is new to the Jets, Fitzpatrick isn’t new to members of the organization. General manager Mike Maccagnan, the Texans director of college scouting last year, knows Fitzpatrick well as does offensive coordinator Chan Gailey, who was his head coach during a previous stop with the Buffalo Bills.