Mike White says he has five fractured ribs

New York Jets quarterback Mike White revealed Friday he has five fractured ribs, up from the three he was originally thought to have.

White said the doctors believed one of the ribs was from an old injury. “So, there was technically a total of five, but they said one looked like an old one, which I don’t understand that, but they’re smarter than me, so yeah, a total of five I guess you could say,” he said.

White took a hit at the end of the first half against the Seahawks, which may have led to more of an injury and White would feel discomfort throughout the week, leading to him being downgraded from full to limited practice on Thursday and ultimately being ruled out Friday. Joe Flacco will start for the Jets against the Dolphins on Sunday with Zach Wilson as the backup.

“I mean at the time in the game, like yeah, I could feel it, but again, like I told you guys after Seattle, I’m not going to lean on that as an excuse,” White said. “Like I told you guys, everyone in this locker room deserves a certain standard of quarterback play, and just got to be better, got to be better for my teammates and learn from it and make sure it doesn’t happen again, but yeah, I think waking up on Monday, day after the game, that’s when I was like ‘Oh, okay this feels different,’ rested on Monday, rested on Tuesday, Wednesday was a walkthrough, so I was like alright, let me get moving, kind of toss the ball around, see how it feels.”

White added: “Didn’t feel the greatest, but it was a walkthrough, so I was able to get through the practice, and then yesterday having a full practice, went out there and threw and just said yeah, just can’t do what I want to be able to do out there with it and guys don’t deserve that, they deserve someone that can go out and play full, so Joe’s rolling.”

Head coach Robert Saleh shared similar thoughts and gave his explanation about White’s week, saying “So, Wednesday was a walkthrough — full practice, walkthrough, he can do all that — and he just wasn’t feeling right. His ribs, I’ll just point it out, the end of half Hail Mary sack that he took really bothered him, even going into the second half which clearly affected his ability to throw the ball as you all have seen from watching tape. He played really well in the first half and was just a little off in the second half. He’s just in a lot of pain.”

White is set to be a free agent after starting four games for the Jets this season,…