Story over the weekend that new (and old, and former) Jets quarterback Geno Smith was being investigated for allegations of assault. Innocent until proven guilty, so we'll see on that one. But it's just another thing that makes an already iffy signing looks worse.
The Jets won't be competing this year; most envision the team struggling to an early pick in next year's draft, believed to have more good quarterback options than this one. But the Smith signing looked like a positive for the league's bottom-ranked passing game a year ago. So they'd like him to be around to start all year.
Over the last two seasons, Smith has averaged 230 passing yards per game. That's a top-10 figure, remarkably enough, among quarterbacks to start at least half the time. Good news for Garrett Wilson and the team's other receivers: Adonai Mitchell, first-rounder Omar Cooper, and a couple of young tight ends, Kenyon Sadiq and Mason Taylor. Keep Smith in the lineup, and at least there will be more yards to go around than they had a year ago (with Justin Fields and Brady Cook leading the team to all of 164 passing yards per game).
But aside from the current potential legal issues, Smith's own play makes staying on the field a little questionable. Over the past two seasons, he's also been sacked and intercepted at a higher rate than any other quarterback (among the 28 passers to start at least half of those games). Table is sorted by interception percentage, but Smith would be at the bottom if sorted by sack percentage, too.
| QB INTERCEPTIONS AND SACKS, 2024-2025 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | GS | TD | Int | Int% | Sk | Sk% |
| Caleb Williams | 34 | 47 | 13 | 1.2 | 92 | 7.53 |
| Jalen Hurts | 31 | 43 | 11 | 1.3 | 70 | 7.91 |
| Cam Ward | 17 | 15 | 7 | 1.3 | 55 | 9.24 |
| Matthew Stafford | 33 | 66 | 16 | 1.4 | 51 | 4.38 |
| Lamar Jackson | 30 | 62 | 11 | 1.4 | 59 | 7.07 |
| Jacoby Brissett | 17 | 25 | 9 | 1.4 | 61 | 8.63 |
| Joe Burrow | 25 | 60 | 14 | 1.5 | 65 | 6.66 |
| Justin Herbert | 33 | 49 | 16 | 1.6 | 95 | 8.55 |
| Josh Allen | 34 | 53 | 16 | 1.7 | 54 | 5.42 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 33 | 52 | 18 | 1.7 | 69 | 5.99 |
| Jared Goff | 34 | 71 | 20 | 1.8 | 69 | 5.82 |
| Jayden Daniels | 24 | 33 | 12 | 1.8 | 65 | 8.87 |
| Bo Nix | 34 | 54 | 23 | 2.0 | 46 | 3.76 |
| Jordan Love | 30 | 48 | 17 | 2.0 | 35 | 3.89 |
| Dak Prescott | 25 | 41 | 18 | 2.0 | 52 | 5.54 |
| Patrick Mahomes | 30 | 48 | 22 | 2.0 | 70 | 6.07 |
| Kyler Murray | 22 | 27 | 14 | 2.0 | 46 | 6.15 |
| Daniel Jones | 23 | 27 | 15 | 2.1 | 51 | 6.57 |
| C.J. Stroud | 31 | 39 | 20 | 2.1 | 75 | 7.28 |
| Drake Maye | 29 | 46 | 18 | 2.2 | 81 | 8.89 |
| Bryce Young | 28 | 38 | 20 | 2.3 | 56 | 6.10 |
| Trevor Lawrence | 27 | 40 | 19 | 2.3 | 59 | 6.53 |
| Baker Mayfield | 34 | 67 | 27 | 2.4 | 76 | 6.39 |
| Sam Darnold | 34 | 60 | 26 | 2.5 | 75 | 6.84 |
| Tua Tagovailoa | 25 | 39 | 22 | 2.8 | 51 | 6.12 |
| Kirk Cousins | 22 | 28 | 21 | 2.9 | 41 | 5.37 |
| Brock Purdy | 24 | 40 | 22 | 3.0 | 42 | 5.38 |
| Geno Smith | 32 | 40 | 32 | 3.1 | 105 | 9.28 |
Smith labored for the trainwreck Raiders last season, so we can cut him some slack for those starts. Few quarterbacks would have done well in that situation.
But the year before that he started all year for a Seattle team that just won a Super Bowl. And his numbers were similar each season: 55 sacks and 17 interceptions in 17 games a year ago, and 50 sacks and 15 interceptions in 15 games in 2024. Smith is who he is.
If the legal stuff does go away, it's still hard to count on Smith remaining in the lineup all year for Aaron Glenn's Jets. Eventually the sacks and turnovers might result in fourth-rounder Cade Klubnik making some starts. At least in terms of negative plays, hard to imagine things could be a lot worse.
--Andy Richardson
