Jets Fans Joke: IK Enemkpali Deserves Team MVP Award

The New York Jets haven’t had a lot to cheer about in recent seasons, so you can forgive a large chunk of them for holding a pretty morbid view of how their 2015 season has panned out.

Earlier this week, wide receiver Brandon Marshall deservedly won the franchise’s Curtis Martin Team MVP award for his 101-catch, 13-touchdown season. Marshall has been the team’s most dangerous skill player and has more than proven his worth for the fifth-round pick the Jets gave up. His stellar play has made the toothless Bears look ridiculous, and has put the Jets on track for a return to the playoffs.

But a vocal contingent of Gang Green fans have made a tongue-in-cheek assertion that current Bills linebacker IK Enemkpali is more deserving of the award. For those that don’t remember, Enemkpali was unceremoniously booted off the team after a petty cash dispute with starting quarterback Geno Smith. The altercation ended with Smith getting punched in the jaw and missing significant time.

Enter Ryan Fitzpatrick: a career journeyman who enjoyed a career year as New York’s signal caller. Without Enemkpali’s actions, Jets fans claim, who knows where the team’s season would have ended?

The front office and coaching staff, led by defensive-minded rookie head coach Todd Bowles, were set on rolling with Smith as the starter until fate forced them to look further down the depth chart.

It’s possible – perhaps even likely – that Smith would have been benched for Fitzpatrick at some point in the season care of injury or poor performance, but it’s hard to determine just how much of a hole the team would have dug itself into by that point. Fitzpatrick also may not have developed the kind of chemistry with his skill weapons that has quietly made the Jets one of the most efficient offenses in the league.

As he prepares to face his former team and potentially play spoiler in week 17, Enemkpali called the assertions “crazy” and that he is “not surprised” by Jets fans and their lack of a “filter.”

One thing’s for sure: if the Bills can muster an upset win and help the Steelers leapfrog the Jets into the AFC’s sixth seed, those same fans won’t be laughing.