Geno Smith's fall to the New York Jets on Day 2 of the 2013 NFL Draft has claimed a victim other than Tim Tebow: Smith's agency.
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Liz Mullen of Sports Business Journal reported Tuesday that Smith fired Select Sports, the agency representing him throughout the draft process. By league rule, he can't hire another agent for another five days.
Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News wrote that Smith believed he "would be and should be" the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. When he didn't make the first round, the agents paid the price.
Select Sports later released a statement to NFL.com's Ian Rapoport defending its handling of Smith.
"We worked tirelessly for Geno Smith and all of our draft prospects," the firm said in the statement. "The NFL Draft is unpredictable, and we prepared Geno and all of our draft prospects, as we do every year, about what can happen during the draft. Not only did we tell him that what transpired on the first day of the draft was possible, the question of whether Geno would be a first- or second-round pick was arguably the most talked about subject in the three months leading up to the draft. We wish Geno the best."
This will open up the former West Virginia quarterback to easy criticism: It's not like the agents are at fault for Smith's draft-day fall, and it looks like he's taking it out on them. But that's overly simplistic and sympathetic to the agents.
Sports agents often make big promises they can't keep. We don't know what transpired between Smith and his agents, but Smith is well within his rights to fire them if they didn't deliver.
UPDATE: Smith told SiriusXM NFL Radio on Tuesday that the firing was "not because of the whole draft experience. It's not because of one particular incident. There's a number of things." He declined to go into further detail.
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.
