Geno Smith and the NY Jets

by Lamar Hull

The Jets have definitely been super-scrutinized the last few seasons. In the last couple of seasons, they've made a plethora of questionable personnel decisions. Their drafting has been a bit suspect, specifically when it comes to their negligence on the offensive side of the ball.

This seemed to change with their second round pick in Geno Smith. The Mountaineer - after what seemed to be physically painful for him - was selected 39th overall. He dropped quite a few spots, with many experts agreeing that he was one of the biggest steals in the whole draft.

The question is - can he save Gang Green? What about the Sanchize?

Geno's Potential Impact

It's actually pretty easy to see why Geno fell a few spots, but not the tumble that he took. We're talking about a player that was considered to be a surefire top 5 pick. The first few games of last year's football season, he was almost a lock for the Heisman. However, poor play down the stretch saw his Heisman - as well as draft - stock tumble mightily.

However, he still finished the season with over 4,000 yards, 42 touchdowns, and a smoking 71 percent completion percentage. Those are some solid numbers, regardless of claims that Geno was just a system QB. Of course, that claim is somewhat true. He did throw many screen passes in that spread attack ran by West Virginia.

Regardless, Geno Smith is still very much a quarterback that can thrive under Marty Mornhinweg. He's got a good release, decent pocket presence, and can be a shot in the arm for the Jet's offense.


Elite?

The Jets still have a long way to go. We can usually count on their defense to be more than competent. Heck, a lot of teams out there would love to trade their own for what the Jets have. However - for a team to be elite - they have to put a good product on both sides of the field. If anything, they have to have an offense that can put up a ton of points, or a defense that shuts everything down. The Jets are more of the latter, but we know that they're a team that can't score points.


The Geno Smith addition will help them out in a huge way, but it'll take more than him to dramatically improve their passing numbers. They were ranked 30 last year. A good amount of this can be attributed to Sanchez, but no one is scared of any of their wide receivers. Santonio Holmes can't do it all himself. While talented, he's not Calvin Johnson.

The End of an Era

The Jets brass says that there will be an open competition for quarterback. That essentially means that it'll probably be between Smith and Sanchez, not necessarily the other 14 of them. There's a good chance that Geno Smith doesn't even win the competition, knowing how stubborn the Jets have been in the past. If Geno shows why he was considered to be a Heisman winner early on in the last season, you may see Sanchez hold a clipboard when the season starts. Heck, look at Kaepernick and Wilson. No one saw either of them coming. The same may be true for Smith.


Bio: Lamar Hull is a former NCAA college basketball player who also played on the European professional circuit. Lamar writes mainly for DirectTVDeal and other companies. He poses a huge interest in basketball but loves all types of sports. Lamar is also a blogger for his youth basketball sport's blog at Inspirational Basketball.