Geno Smith Struggles in Practice

Aug 9, 2013; Detroit, MI, USA; New York Jets quarterback Geno Smith (7) on the sidelines in the first quarter of a preseason game against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

It seems that once again Geno Smith is attracting attention from the football world for all the wrong reasons. After receiving an injury in the New York Jets’ preseason opener, Smith was quickly back at practice. However, today at practice Geno struggled more then he has all year, having by far his worst practice yet. When asked about it, Rex Ryan admitted that Smith struggled today.

"It was brutal. It was Geno’s worst day. I think, and obviously, the ankle’s part of it, but … way too many picks and things. Did not look comfortable today. Obviously he has to come back from it, he will come back from it. It was a bad day. Everybody, we’ve seen it, guys have bad days. But this was a really bad day for Geno.”"

For Rex  Ryan to add in that last sentence you can tell how serious this issue is. It was almost as if Rex was signifying that Geno’s poor practice today was the worst practice from any player all year, which cannot be a good thing for the rookie who is struggling to beat out Mark Sanchez. Admittedly, it is very possible that Smith’s poor play is ascribed to his ankle injury. Rex Ryan stated that Geno Smith is not playing at 100% due to his injury. However, if the ankle is bothering him so much that it’s causing him to throw four interceptions in a single session of practice, one has to wonder why Geno Smith is on the field to begin with.

A possible reason as to why the Jets are encouraging Geno Smith to play through his injury is because they want to see him beat out Mark Sanchez for the starting job. The Jets drafted Smith for a reason, and they fully expect him to be the quarterback of the future. However, injured or not, is it really necessary to force him into the starting role in his first NFL season? Many of the great quarterbacks in the NFL today were not given the starting job immediately and all of them benefited greatly from it because they were allowed time to fine-tune their quarterback skills and time to become accustomed to the NFL. Some of these quarterbacks include Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Colin Kaepernick, and Drew Brees. And although some quarterbacks have found immediate success in the NFL as a rookie, they were all more mature and more talented then Geno Smith right now.

Although it pains me to say this, and will probably pain many of you to read it, the best situation for the Jets is to have Mark Sanchez start week. Geno Smith is by no means ready to be an NFL quarterback, and if we want him to be our quarterback of the future he needs more time to develop. To start him right now would be absolute sabotage for his career, and he needs to start his career with weapons around him. This could possibly be a reason the Jets go after someone like USC’s Marquise Lee in this year’s draft, but until we get him or another quality receiver it would not be beneficial to Geno Smith or the Jets’ franchise to have him start week 1.