The New York Jets have a new offensive coordinator, and he actually likes quarterback Geno Smith running his offense.
Quarterback Geno Smith was an unmitigated disaster in his lone season with the Las Vegas Raiders last year, but he’s getting a second chance with the New York Jets. Frank Reich will be his new offensive coordinator, and according to Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk, Smith is a “perfect” fit for Reich’s offensive scheme.
Reich made his comments in his first press conference via a transcript from the team, and for Raiders fans who watched Smith last year, it may be tough to keep a straight face while reading them.
“I’ve liked Geno from Day 1,” Reich said in his press conference, via transcript from the team. “When he was coming out of West Virginia, I had a high grade on Geno.”
Lots of evaluators did, but as the old saw goes, that was then, this is now. Smith was a disaster in his first stint in New York, but he’s had some on-and-off success since then, and Reich and the Jets felt strongly enough about Smith to trade for him, although the Raiders will be paying most of the freight for this experiment.
“I had not met Geno before here, and I’m kind of glad because I’m even more impressed with him, now meeting him in person,” Reich added. “I feel his resilience, his toughness, I always think the No. 1 attribute in any quarterback that you need, especially if you want to come and turn something around, is you need someone who’s tough. I mean tough mentally, tough physically, and I feel that from Geno on every front.”
Reich is right about Smith’s toughness, which has never been questioned, although he didn’t exactly react well to adversity when the Raiders went completely south last year. What Smith needs is better protection, along with more talent around him, but Reich seems intent on ignoring that for the moment.
“I think his experience, the ups and downs that he’s been through, and he’s had great success, and had to deal with some tough seasons, and if you play in this league long enough, everyone’s going to face that,” Reich concluded. “And if you are the person, if you’re the right kind of leader, then you come out of it better, and I think that’s the version of Geno Smith we’re getting. We’re getting the best version of who he is, and I think his best football’s ahead of him.”
It’s hard to imagine how Reich is imaging this. Smith played his best football in Seattle, which was a .500 team with that level of talent in place. The Jets are engaged in a perpetual rebuild, and Smith is just the latest quarterback who’ll be thrown to the wolves with a bad team around him in an organization that defines inept and hapless in the NFL.