Geno Smith is back with the New York Jets, but not everyone is buying the fit.
Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon made it clear he thinks the Jets are boxed in at quarterback, arguing the roster around Smith is good enough to push forward while the veteran passer keeps the ceiling low.
"This is a team that has the offensive talent to take off right now but will inevitably be held back by the fact Geno Smith is a low-ceiling, mistake-prone bridge," Gagnon wrote.
That’s a harsh label for Smith, who is trying to reset his career in a second stint with the Jets after a rough 2023 with the Las Vegas Raiders. Last season, he led the NFL in interceptions. Still, Smith’s résumé also includes his best NFL work in Seattle, where he put together strong seasons in 2022 and 2023, earned Pro Bowl nods in both years and won the 2022 AP Comeback Player of the Year Award.
The West Virginia product enters the next season with 22,168 passing yards, 124 passing touchdowns and 89 career interceptions. His career starting record sits at 42-56-0.
While the outside view is skeptical, Jets offensive coordinator Frank Reich has come away impressed by what he’s seen so far. Reich said Smith’s processing and command have stood out early in the relationship.
"It's hard for me right now to not be overly, what's the word, effusive with praise, but I am just so impressed with Geno," Reich said, via Jets.com. "I know we haven't played any games yet, we've got a long way to go, we've got a lot to prove.
But man, he is on point. His preparation is top-notch, his football mind is elite, the way he's communicating in the huddle and at the line of scrimmage and the way he communicates in the quarterbacks room."
The Jets are coming off a 3-14 season in Year 1 of the Aaron Glenn era, and now they’ll try to move forward with Reich and Smith in place.
There’s also optimism from inside the building. Smith-Njigba and Smith were teammates in Seattle, and Wilson said the reaction to the signing was immediate.
"Yeah man, when I heard we signed Geno, initially for me it was like I immediately hit up my dawg Jax, who had played with him for two years out in Seattle," Wilson said on the Jets' official podcast, via Heavy Sports. "He had a lot of good insight. He just loved Geno, he spoke so highly of him.
"All of a sudden, I'm pumped, I'm excited, and then once I got to meet the guy, which would have been a month ago now, mid-April, I had constructed this view of him in my head and how he was going to be. It was cool, right?
I couldn't wait to meet him based on what I had constructed in my head. Then I met him and he just blew that out of the water."
In Other News...
Jets May Have Finally Set Garrett Wilson Up For His Leap
Garrett Wilson has spent four seasons doing the heavy lifting for the Jets passing game, piling up 3,466 receiving yards and 18 touchdowns while often having to make the most of shaky surroundings. Now, for once, the setup around him looks more deliberate, with the team adding more help on offense and trying to build something that can actually take advantage of Wilsons talent in 2026.
The bigger difference may be under center, where Geno Smith is expected to bring a steadier hand than the Jets have had in recent seasons. Wilson also comes into this stretch after playing only seven games in 2025 because of a midseason injury, so the combination of better weapons and more quarterback stability gives New York a real chance to see what he can do with a cleaner runway, even as the long-term picture at quarterback still has another layer to it. [Read more 🡒]
Jets Running Out Of Time To Fix A Familiar Linebacker Problem
The Jets search for linebacker help has become familiar enough by now that it hardly needs much introduction. Depth remains an issue, and with the season moving forward, the front office could look outside the building for a veteran who can step in quickly and stabilize the middle of the defense. One name that fits the profile is Cody Barton, a player with plenty of NFL experience who started all 17 games for Tennessee last season.
A deal would not have to be complicated, which is part of the appeal for New York. The Jets have some existing ties to the Titans through former head coach Robert Saleh and previous trades between the clubs, and Tennessees addition of Anthony Hill in the second round could make Barton more available than he was earlier in the offseason. Nothing is confirmed, of course, but the longer the Jets go without adding another linebacker, the more this kind of move starts to look less like a luxury and more like a necessity. [Read more 🡒]
Jets Mock Draft Finally Tackles Their Biggest Fear About The Future
A speculative 2027 NFL mock draft is giving Jets fans a glimpse of how the franchise could try to steady its future, and the path starts with a clear priority: finding a quarterback worth building around. The projection also has New York using its other premium picks to keep reinforcing the defense, a reminder that even in a long-range draft exercise, the roster still looks like it will need help on both sides of the ball.
The defensive additions in the mock are the kind of names that would fit the Jets' recent roster-building instincts, with a cornerback and an edge rusher slotted in to complement the quarterback swing at the top. None of it is real, of course, but that is part of the appeal for a team whose biggest fear is easy to identify - missing on the position that can change everything, and then having to keep patching the rest around it. [Read more 🡒]