Boomer Esiason: ‘Geno Smith should be out of here’
New York Jets quarterback Geno Smith looks on from the field during practice at Atlantic Health Jets Training Center on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Jets may take the unusual step of keeping four quarterbacks on the roster. But for Boomer Esiason, that’s one too many.
The odd man out, in the mind of the former NFL player-turned-CBS and WFAN broadcaster: Geno Smith.
“Geno Smith should be out of here,” Esiason said Tuesday at a CBS event at the network’s New York headquarters. “In its simplest form, like I said about Tim Tebow, the Jets should get rid of him. It’s a distraction they don’t need to deal with.”
Smith was drafted as the Jets’ quarterback of the future when he was taken in the second round in 2013 by then-general manager John Idzik. But he lost his starting job last August after being punched in the jaw by linebacker IK Enemkpali and was again yanked as the starter just before training camp this year when Ryan Fitzpatrick signed a one-year deal.
“Geno had a great off-season, when Ryan Fitzpatrick wasn’t around and [Smith] was the unquestioned leader of the team in OTAs,” Esiason said. “Then when Fitzpatrick came back, imagine if you’re Geno Smith. You’re watching the reaction of your teammates, who are saying, ‘The savior is back.’ Everybody’s happy. That’s pretty amazing psychological stuff, and I can’t imagine Geno Smith in that quarterback room is the happiest guy.
“I always say that a starting quarterback needs to have solid support around him, not only on the field of play with his other offensive players,” Esiason said. “But in the locker room and in the quarterback meeting room, you want to be in there with guys that are pulling in the same direction, not hoping for you to get hurt, or you to throw three interceptions so he can go home and tell his family he should be playing.”
Smith is not expected to play in Thursday’s preseason finale on Thursday in Philadelphia. Backups Bryce Petty and rookie Christian Hackenberg instead will run the offense.
Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”
