When compiling a list of up to 20 veteran quarterbacks with starting experience who could be available in 2017, I overlooked a guy who definitely will be on the market: Jets quarterback Geno Smith.
The 2013 second-round pick becomes a free agent in March. But he’s recovering from a torn ACL, and by all appearances the Jets won’t be bringing him back. So what’s next?
“My mom told me something that was pretty special,” Smith said Friday, via Fred Kerber of the New York Post. “She’d been going to my games since I was a kid and never missed a game. And these past few years, I missed more games than I missed in my life and she said, ‘There’s always a time for that, there’s always a season where you feel like things aren’t going right. And then what comes after that is usually the best part of your life.’”
It’s always admirable to have a positive attitude, but that will take a football player only so far. At some point, positivity must intersect with talent, and Smith has done little during his NFL career to display that he has enough of it to win and keep a starting job.
Personally, the fact that Smith played college football in my home state of West Virginia makes me inclined to root for him. But I’m also realistic; the odds are stacked against him, even in a league without enough quarterbacks to go around. The key is to be a quality quarterback, and Smith has not yet demonstrated that type of ability on a consistent basis.
