Geno’s Smith Agent Caused him to Fall to Jets

Feb 24, 2013; Indianapolis, IN, USA; West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith (13) participates in a passing drill during the NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Recently this week, Geno Smith fired his agent after being disappointed with how far he fell in this year’s draft. Honestly, I don’t think anyone saw him going second round to the Jets. Although Geno speculated that he could be the number one pick, the first round seemed almost inevitable. However, Jets’ fans must praise Geno’s ex-agent for all his mistakes, for if it wasn’t for Jeff Naley than Geno Smith would never be a Jet and we may be doomed to more years of Mark Sanchez.

Let’s see what Jeff Naley did wrong, allowing Geno to fall to the Jets. Reportedly, Naley told his client Geno Smith to skip the Senior Bowl and Smith obliged: for what reason, most people still wonder. The Senior Bowl is where many future NFL stars get to show off their talent and increase their draft stock. As a matter of fact, the Senior Bowl played a major role in making Eric Fisher the number one overall pick instead of Luke Joeckel. So why sit out? If there is any doubt that Smith wasn’t a first rounder or even the best quarterback in the draft, a strong performance at the Senior Bowl would have solidified a first round spot.

Also, Naley refused to oppose Pro Football Weekly’s criticism of Geno Smith. Normally, when anyone tries to bash and embarrass you, whether it be about football or baseball or intelligence or checkers, the typical response would be to make a case to prove them wrong. So why would Naley just ignore it? This kind of behavior just baffles me. Without any counter from Geno or Naley, no critics were proved wrong leaving everyone who read it with a disappointing sense of Geno’s play.

Finally, another crucial mistake Jeff Naley made that may have ruined Geno Smith’s career was getting another one of his clients, Kevin Kolb, to sign with Buffalo providing them with another option at quarterback. Because of the addition of Kevin Kolb, this allowed the Bills to make a riskier draft choice in E.J. Manuel because they knew that they had a decent backup that could come in just in case Manuel ever got in trouble. Geno Smith may very well have gone to the Bills had it not been for Naley’s poor job.

However, we Jet fans must thank Naley for all these mistakes, because without them Geno Smith would never be a Jet. Without him Tim Tebow may very well still be on the team and without him Sanchez would still have little competition for the starting job. Perhaps it was just meant to be that Geno Smith was meant to fall to the Jets, that he is the future of our franchise. Or Smith could just be another character in the New York Jets production of the Quarterback Circus. Despite all the wrong moves made by Naley, it is better that Geno waited to fire him until after the Jets drafted him.

So thank you Jeff Naley, for your failures, just like Curtis Painter, have led to the success of the New York Jets organization.