New York Jets: Geno Smith with Questionable Football Intelligence

Geno Smith can make all of the throws of an NFL quarterback. Through his two-year career, we have seen it. There is not a throw on the route tree that Geno Smith cannot make. He can also use his legs effectively. Geno Smith has rushed for seven touchdowns over his first two seasons. Michael Vick rushed for nine, only two more. Russell Wilson only accounted for five on the ground. Clearly, Smith can move.

So what is the problem? Why is he so questionable as the future quarterback of the New York Jets? The answer is his football intelligence. Time and time again, he shows us that is football intelligence is not so great.

Whether it is bad decisions with the football for costly interceptions, no pocket awareness, the inability to read a blitz, Geno Smith makes decisions that make no sense. One of his biggest problems is taking costly sacks. He took one on Sunday, that we all saw, that made Nick Folk go from having a reasonable field goal attempt to a tough one, and it cost the Jets three very important points.

It’s not that Smith makes mistakes, all young quarterbacks make mistakes. The question becomes whether or not Geno Smith learns from those mistakes, and it often seems that he doesn’t. After the game, Smith was obviously asked about the play where he took the sack. Take a look at his answer:

The guys got on me fast. As soon as I got the snap, I felt immediate pressure. In those situations, we always talk about situational football, and in those situations, my job is to throw the ball away (and) prevent the sack. But I was bottled up in the pocket. I just tried to limit the loss (and) tried to not hurt us any more.

Smith went on to repeat himself when asked if he knows that he shouldn’t take a sack in that situation:

Yeah, I know and Marty (Mornhinweg) does a great job at reiterating the fact, “Hey, we’re in field goal range, don’t take a sack here.” Unfortunately, it happened. It’s not something that I would say is one person or anybody. It’s all of us. It’s a sack on all of us and in my position as a quarterback, obviously you want to throw it away (and) not take a sack at all. I didn’t have an outlet (and) didn’t feel like I could get it off so I just tried to take the sack and (minimize) the loss.