Geno Smith vs. Jets: Of course it's with season on the line
Geno Smith #7 of the Seattle Seahawks calls a play during the third quarter against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on December 24, 2022 in Kansas City, Missouri. Credit: Getty Images/Jason Hanna
More than one Jets player this week took time out to thank the “football gods” for giving them a pathway to the playoffs.
To get there, though, the franchise will have to face some of the demons from its past.
Standing in the immediate way on Sunday are Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith and coach Pete Carroll, both of whom were unceremoniously disposed of by the organization.
If they get past those two, the Jets could very well find themselves facing yet another of their former quarterbacks, albeit a brief one, in Teddy Bridgewater of the Dolphins. He was traded away before he could ever take a snap for them when the Jets decided to put everything into yet another failed rookie starter, Sam Darnold.
Oh, and this entire scheme to make the playoffs hinges on the Voldemort of former Jets, Bill Belichick, losing at least one of his final two games with the Patriots.
To get to the postseason, the Jets might not need a head coach as much as an exorcist.
These names come to us from so long ago that there aren’t many left in the front-facing part of the organization who even knew them during their time with the Jets. Their souls are clean.
Smith has no former teammates from his tumultuous 2013-16 stint with the team. He wasn’t drafted or cut by the current general manager, never played for the current staff.
Carroll was hired and fired by Leon Hess, the team’s owner once removed. And since that one-year stint as their head coach, Carroll has won two national championships and a Super Bowl. It’s hard to imagine his trophy case being so crowded if he had remained with the Jets to this day.
But the sins of the Jets’ franchise — perceived or otherwise — linger over this defining two-game stretch.
As Carroll said this week in regard to Smith’s potential taste for vengeance: “Really, we are kind of going as partners in crime, that we were both there. It didn’t quite work out right at the end, so we are just sharing the experience a little bit.”
The irony of having to beat Smith to keep their playoff hopes alive is so Jets. No matter how many games they win, how many good vibes they create, they are a team that always seems weighed down by its dismal and disappointing history. If they lose Sunday, it will be one more case of their past haunting their present.
Current Jets coach Robert Saleh often has said that he and most of the roster are new to the organization so they don’t wear the “scars” with which fans and other longtime Jets are burdened.
Sunday is his chance to prove that.
The fact that Smith has survived to get to the point that payback, icy cold as it could be, is even a possibility, is remarkable. He spent years as an NFL extra serving as a backup for the Giants, Chargers and Seahawks before stepping into the starting role in Seattle this season and performing at a level that made him a Pro Bowler.
“I’m sure there’s people who didn’t even know he was in the league a few years ago, and here he is having the year that he’s having. It’s been a pretty cool deal,” Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said.
Smith’s trajectory certainly can serve as an inspiration to the most recent young quarterback whose Jets tenure appears to be heading toward a less than amicable end. Zach Wilson is this generation’s Geno (with a Darnold sandwiched between them). Perhaps one day in a decade or so he’ll be a Pro Bowler with an opportunity to eliminate the Jets from playoff contention. We all need role models, right?
Smith insisted this week that he has no bitterness toward the Jets, only appreciation.
“It helped me grow as a man,” he said.
Even the sucker punch from teammate IK Enemkpali in 2015, which Smith referred to this week as a “freak accident,” has been chalked up to a learning experience.
“Things happen, and you don’t wish that on anybody,” he said. “But it was an incredible moment for me to learn and practice resilience and patience. It took a lot of patience and it took a lot of hard work to even have an opportunity to compete again as a starter after all of that stuff happened . . . I was able to turn it around and make it a positive.”
Of course, he said similarly kind things about the Giants earlier this season before facing them in Seattle. Then, after beating them, he delivered a sick burn by dedicating the win to Jerry Reese and Ben McAdoo, the general manager and coach who essentially were fired for benching Eli Manning in favor of Smith.
We won’t really know how Smith feels about this game until it’s over.
And with it, if Smith has his way, the Jets’ season.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
