Lichtenstein: Jets Need To Part Ways With Turnover-Prone Geno Smith
By Steve Lichtenstein
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Move on. There's nothing more to see here.
That's Jets fans' plea to coach Todd Bowles regarding what should be done with backup quarterback Geno Smith.
For those few remaining supporters who claim that perhaps there's more to Smith than meets the eye, I give you the Seinfeld-ian retort, "No, there's less."
The 25-year-old Smith has clearly not learned a thing in his three seasons, during which he turned the ball over an astounding 43 times in the 31 games he played.
Late in the second quarter of Friday's 22-18 loss in Washington, Smith stared into triple coverage and threw anyway. The ball was intercepted by safety Will Blackmon. Washington scored on the next play to take a 14-2 lead into halftime.
It was no different from many of the mind-boggling plays we've been accustomed to seeing from Smith during his tenure with Gang Green.
Enough is enough.
The only turnover he should be allowed to make going forward is when he turns over his Jets playbook to Bowles sometime before Labor Day. There's no justification for keeping Smith on the 53-man roster.
This is not about one meaningless play in a meaningless exhibition, or even Smith's body of work in the two preseason games as compared to current No. 3 Bryce Petty.
Despite certain athletic attributes, Smith just hasn't shown that he understands the quarterback position, and it is doubtful that he ever will.
Quarterback play involves as much mental processing as it does physical ability. Smith looks like he has no idea what the defense is doing, he fixates on one receiver, and then he makes poor decisions as to what he should do with the ball.
When Bowles goes over the film of Friday's game, he should feel sick over the multiple instances when Smith tried to force the ball into coverage despite other outlets where a receiver was open.
Smith, who was the Jets' second-round selection in the 2013 draft, is not a rookie anymore. The game is supposed to "slow down" for him at some point.
Instead, he still makes gaffes, such as the intentional-grounding penalty for not reaching the line of scrimmage on a third-down throw in the second quarter Friday.
The bigger issue is that these flaws never get corrected. After three years in the league, Smith still hasn't figured out how to deal with pressure.
So even though Smith is the most experienced backup on the Jets' depth chart, much of that experience has been negative and nothing has been gained from such negative experience. Would anyone really trust Smith to save the Jets' season if starter Ryan Fitzpatrick was lost for an extended period?
I wouldn't count on Petty, either, but at least with him there's been some development going into his second NFL season.
Petty was 16-of-26 for 242 yards and two touchdowns in the second half Friday. He led three scoring drives, with a fourth stalled when tight end Zach Sudfeld fumbled on the Washington 8-yard line in the fourth quarter.
Though he took three sacks, Petty did not turn the ball over despite a leaky line and no running game. He took a big hit as he released a 19-yard strike to Sudfeld for the Jets' first touchdown.
A strong second-half performance in a preseason game is only noteworthy for its curiosity pique. It should have told Bowles, "Maybe we should give Petty more," as in being the first quarterback off the bench for Saturday's tilt against the Giants.
Unfortunately, though Bowles wouldn't comment on his quarterback rotation for the Giants, Smith was still receiving second-team reps at Sunday's practice, per media reports.
My opinion hasn't changed since last week's post as it relates to the Jets' folly if they opt to keep four quarterbacks — a strategy that no NFL team has employed since 2013 -- past the final cutdown day. In fact, the recent injury buildup only reinforces my sense of the Jets' upcoming peril that would come with retaining an extra signal caller (rookie Christian Hackenberg, the Jets' 2016 second-round pick, sat for a second straight preseason game but is virtually guaranteed a roster slot) at the expense of a player at a position where depth might actually be needed on the field.
Running backs Matt Forte and Khiry Robinson have yet to play in a preseason game, wide receiver (and de-facto tight end) Quincy Enunwa suffered a concussion covering a punt Friday, the offensive line is being held together by duct tape, and reserve cornerbacks Dexter McDougle and Dee Milliner always seem to be sidelined with some ailment or other.
I would expect that it will only get worse on this aging team.
In addition, Rich Cimini of ESPN.com noted in his Sunday column that the Jets will need to create salary cap space before the season starts. Depending on the website you trust, general manager Mike Maccagnan currently has about $1.2 million in space.
However, that's only because the final two roster slots aren't counted in the figure. Neither is the allowance for practice squad players. That means Maccagnan will need to move some money around to squeeze everything in.
Smith is slated to earn about $1.6 million in the final year of his rookie deal. His departure would add about $1.1 million to the current season's cap space, with about $500,000 counting toward the 2017 dead money pool.
Petty, a fourth-round pick last year, has a very manageable $663,000 cap hit this season.
Finances aside, the Jets need to move on from Smith. Petty has two weeks to prove that he has a future in the league, even if it's as a backup.
If given the opportunity, I can't imagine how he could be that much worse than Smith.
Follow Steve on Twitter at @SteveLichtenst1
