Geno Smith Is Ready If Fitz Falters: ‘I’m Way Too Talented’ to Be a Backup

BUFFALO, N.Y. — He doesn’t surf through the mass of humanity to greet anyone, nor is anyone waiting to greet him. There’s no jersey exchange. No reminiscing. He’s mired in postgame purgatory these days. Darting his eyes around New Era Field one final time, he decides that, nah, he’s good and heads through the tunnel.

Geno Smith is the backup quarterback.

Ryan Fitzpatrick is the starter. And the starter—that bearded wonder making a cool $12 million—is the main attraction after this game, a 37-31 win over the Bills in Week 2. As Fitzpatrick explains his FitzMagic at a press conference moments after the game, Smith stands here in sudden, surreal obscurity.  

One punch KO’ed him into irrelevance.

Inside a crammed visitor’s locker room, the 25-year-old knows where this conversation is headed.

“Eventually everybody will see,” Smith begins. “Eventually everybody will see.

“You’ve got to roll with the punches.”

Yes, one could say that.

It’s one thing to lose your job based strictly on performance. Or an ankle injury. Or an arrest. In the summer of 2015, Smith lost his when a backup linebacker named IK Enemkpali cold-cocked him in the jaw. He was set to be the starter in Year 3, but instead he needed surgery, Fitzpatrick stepped in and the rest is history.

The career journeyman enjoyed a career renaissance, with 3,905 yards and 31 touchdowns. Smith’s last start was Dec. 28, 2014.

Then this past offseason, Fitz and the Jets engaged in a seven-month staring contest, Smith preparing as the No. 1 all along through OTA’s and minicamp. But, voila, Fitzpatrick re-signed on July 27.

That punch heard ’round the sports world is still rocking Smith’s world.  

But Geno Smith is here to tell you, emphatically, he’s better for it.

Is he optimistic? Grateful? A Fitz ally? Yes, yes and absolutely yes. Smith speaks with Stuart Smalley tenderness. But he was also “pissed off” when the Jets re-signed Fitzpatrick and assures, “I’m still pissed off.” When he runs sprints, lifts weights, studies film, he thinks about the Jets’ decision.

Asked point blank if he should be the starter of this team, Smith is shy, then not so shy.

“I’m not going to go there right now,” he says. “I believe in myself. I was the starting quarterback at one point. I don’t see why I can’t be.”

Yet here he is. Waiting.

He won’t relive The Punch, but the story that surfaced originally was that Smith owed Enemkpali $600 in travel costs after missing the linebacker’s football camp due to the death of a brother’s best friend. Three months later, Smith told Newsday he never owed Enemkpali a dime.

Either way, he was sucker-punched and refuses to lament what could’ve been.

“You could walk outside and get hit by a car,” Smith says. “You never know what could happen with life. Life throws obstacles at you, and you just have to take them—and it really shows your character, what type of man you are. Are you going to lay down and cry? Or are you going to stand back up and keep fighting?”

Smith has been fighting, his way, ever since. After trying to learn several different types of offenses under Marty Mornhinweg—the coordinator in all-out experimentation with the 2013 39th overall pick—Smith found comfort in Chan Gailey’s scheme. He fine-tuned mechanics with personal quarterback coach, Tom House.

At West Virginia, Smith was an arcade-like juggernaut in completing 71.2 percent of his passes for 4,205 yards, 42 touchdowns and only six interceptions as a senior. Today, he admits the Mountaineers offense did not translate to the NFL. He needed to the learn why and how behind plays.

So forget those 35 interceptions to 27 touchdowns his first three pro …

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