New York Jets: Is Brian Baldinger Just Making Stuff Up?

According to Brian Baldinger of NFL Network, Geno Smith looked out of shape and poorly conditioned today at training camp. Baldinger, who has observed the New York Jets for all of one day, stated that Smith was lagging behind the others when they were doing conditioning sprints. For what it's worth, Baldinger also stated that Smith looked great throwing the ball (as did every other reporter).

It seems strange to me that Baldinger would point this conditioning issue out, mostly because none of the other reporters chose to mention that Smith looked like he was out of breath or slower than the rest of the quarterbacks. None of the other reporters that get perhaps a little too excited to slam the team, degrade them as a veritable circus, or what have you, chose to report what would surely be "big" news, at least by training camp standards.

This, of course, doesn't mean it's not true. Maybe Baldinger was the only one that saw Smith running slowly. Maybe the rest of the reporters just weren't paying attention, or they saw it and decided to be benevolent by not reporting a defect in Smith's game. But knowing the history of the beat reporters, and I speak generally here, I don't think that's likely to be the case. Maybe Baldinger will be proven to be correct, but for now, I'll go with the masses and assume he's just making stuff up.

Update:

I haven't seen anything through the first four days of practice that would lead me to think that Geno Smith is out of shape. #nyj

— Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) July 30, 2013

There you have it folks. The authority has spoken.

Haven't seen anything that would lead me to believe that RT @deejayiz: @KMart_LI Geno looks out of shape? Is this remotely true?

— Kimberley A. Martin (@KMart_LI) July 30, 2013