Geno Smith has started just one game in the last two seasons, but he still believes that he can be a productive 16-game starting quarterback in the NFL.
Smith missed the 2015 season because of the broken jaw he suffered in an infamous locker room fight. Ryan Fitzpatrick took the starting job and nearly led the Jets to the playoffs.
In 2016, Smith tore his ACL in his only start and he’s still in the process of recovering. The 2013 second-round draft pick will be a free agent and odds are against him returning to the Jets. Wherever he lands, he understands he might have to start out as a backup. But he still has his sights set on a starting job.
“My mistakes were shown on the field the first two years, and then me getting better has kind of been behind the scenes,” Smith told Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network. “The next time I step onto the field, it’ll be what they expect. People want to see you get better, they want to see you move past your mistakes. I’ve done that, just behind the scenes.”
Smith said he’s in the fifth month of a six-to-eight-month recovery process from his knee injury. Perhaps by getting better “behind the scenes,” Smith is talking about film study. If his knee isn’t fully healed, he would be limited in what he can do on a field.
There’s a big difference between getting better “behind the scenes” and getting better when the bullets are flying on a Sunday afternoon in the fall. But with quarterbacks so hard to find, the 26-year-old Smith will get at least one more chance to show that he’s worthy of a second-round pick.
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