Jets receiver Smith to miss 2017 season with knee injury

New York Jets wide receiver Devin Smith suffered his second major knee injury in less than two years and will miss the 2017 NFL season, the team said Saturday.Smith, the Jets’ 2015 second-round draft pick, has a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee that was discovered on April 17 — just as the team began its offseason programme.Smith had torn the ligament during his rookie season in 2015 after starting his career with broken ribs suffered in training camp.He did not return from the first knee injury until midway through last season.Overall he has played just 14 games over the past two years.“It’s bad luck and bad timing because the kid worked so hard to get back,” Jets coach Todd Bowles said.49ers acquire running back BibbsThe San Francisco 49ers acquired running back Kapri Bibbs from the Denver Broncos on Saturday for a 2018 draft pick.The 49ers received Bibbs and Denver’s 2017 fifth-round (177th overall) draft choice for San Francisco’s fourth-round draft choice next year.The 5-foot-11, 203-pound Bibbs signed with the Broncos as an undrafted free agent in May 2014.After spending the majority of his rookie season on the Broncos’ practice squad, Bibbs appeared in 13 games over the last two seasons, recording 29 rushes for 129 yards with two receptions for 75 yards and one touchdown.The 49ers added the 24-year-old Bibbs to a backfield headlined by Carlos Hyde and newly signed veteran backup Tim Hightower.Policy change may affect Air Force player’s NFL dreamAir Force wide receiver Jalen Robinette’s dream of playing in the NFL this season may be impacted by a change in the academy’s policy requiring cadets to serve two years of active duty.The Air Force Academy said in a statement obtained by the Denver Post that it will no longer defer the two years of active duty for cadet athletes to play professional sports upon graduation, a departure from a 2016 policy change by the Department of Defense.That means Robinette could not start his playing career until the 2019 season at the earliest.According to USA TODAY, Robinette is hoping there is a way to lobby the Pentagon to allow him to be grandfathered into the NFL under the 2016 policy because an official order has not been signed by Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.Robinette is on track to graduate May 24 — taking six courses to finish his degree in management at the Air Force Academy — while he prepared this spring for the draft believing he would be able to join an NFL team immediately.He went undrafted after the ruling.Cowboys’ Gregory tests positive, againDefensive end Randy Gregory of the Dallas Cowboys, already on suspension for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy, tested positive for the seventh time, according to media reports.Gregory was tested on February 21 and on March 2, and was reportedly informed that he had tested positive for marijuana. He has since been uncooperative with NFL officials trying to discuss the situation.Gregory, 24, was suspended for the first four games of the 2016 season, suspended for 10 more games last September, and in January was suspended for at least a year following additional positive tests.Lynch thanks former team in newspaper adRunning back Marshawn Lynch is sending a thank you to his former team before resuming his career with the Oakland Raiders.Lynch took out a full-page ad in Sunday’s Seattle Times to thank the Seattle Seahawks’ fans and owner Paul Allen for their support during his tenure in the Pacific Northwest.The 31-year-old Lynch, who is coming out of retirement to play with his hometown Raiders following a trade with the Seahawks, paid tribute to the Seattle organisation and its fans in the ad, which was tweeted by Seattle Times publisher Frank Blethen on Saturday.