Rex Ryan plans to make IK Enemkpali a co-captain vs. Jets

There might not be a better troll than Rex Ryan.

On Monday, the Buffalo coach tweaked his former team with the announcement that IK Enemkpali will be a game-day captain for the Bills-Jets matchup Thursday night at MetLife Stadium.

Enemkpali is the former Jets linebacker who punched quarterback Geno Smith on Aug. 11 in a locker-room altercation over Smith's unpaid $600 debt. The punch heard 'round the NFL broke Smith's jaw, and the time he missed after undergoing surgery essentially cost him his starting job.

Ryan, who coached the Jets for six seasons before he was fired last Dec. 29, didn't seem to care about that one bit. "Yeah. I'll get ripped, whatever,'' he said. "I do this all the time.''

When told that his decision was causing a stir on social media, Ryan said, "Maybe we should let him go out alone.''

Jets players weren't surprised that Enemkpali had been named a captain.

"Typical Rex,'' said receiver Brandon Marshall, who never played for Ryan but knows all about the headline-grabbing coach.

"That's a Rex Ryan move. Are you guys surprised?'' Marshall asked with a smile. "All right. I love it.''

Marshall said he doesn't expect the Jets to seek retribution against Enemkpali. "You have to ask other guys, probably individually,'' he said. "Go to every locker and ask those guys. But for the most part, it's just football. It's not a soap opera, it's not TMZ. This is just football."

The Jets immediately released Enemkpali after the incident, and the Bills claimed him off waivers the next day. On Sept. 11, the NFL suspended the 24-year-old linebacker for the season's first four games. And now, three months after the incident, he will be front and center for the coin toss.

Asked by a Bills reporter if he has been in touch with Smith since he left the Jets, Enemkpali said, "Next question.''

Jets coach Todd Bowles refused to get sucked into the storyline. "He coaches his team, he can name whoever captain he wants. We just coach our guys,'' he said. "We just worry about us. I don't worry about anybody else.''

Based on their limited interactions, Bowles called Ryan "a hell of a guy.'' He also said the Jets haven't discussed who their game-day captains will be, Smith included.

The Jets' locker room was a ghost town on Monday, save for appearances by Marshall, quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and linebacker Calvin Pace. Although Smith wasn't present, he has made his feelings about the Enemkpali situation known.

"I'm extremely [ticked],'' Smith told Newsday Sept. 16. "But I have to keep my temper down. I can't exhibit that in the locker room, I can't exhibit that on a daily basis. I just feel for my family more because they enjoy seeing me out there.

" . . . If I was playing bad and got benched, that's on me. But for something like that to happen, it's like . . . What can you do? You've just got to weather the storm and move on from there.''

Smith returned to the practice field sooner than his initial recovery timetable of six to 10 weeks, but he has played in only one game. He took over during the first quarter of the Week 8 loss at Oakland after Fitzpatrick suffered a left thumb injury. Aside from two plays in which he was sidelined after getting hit in the abdomen, Smith finished the game, completing 27 of 42 passes for 265 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

The following week, however, Bowles

announced that -- despite having an injury that requires surgery -- Fitzpatrick would remain the starter.