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There were a lot of interesting notes from Todd Bowles conference last night and we'll bring you a few more throughout the day, but one interesting quote referenced Geno Smith and how 3rd and 4th year guys need to pick it up.
On if he felt Smith was overwhelmed in his first two years with the Jets...
No, I don't. Rookies come into this league every year and some play well and some don't, for whatever reason, whether it's playing, whether it's grasping the system, whether it's coaching, whether it's injuries, whether it's off-the-field issues. And you come into a new situation, you take it as is and you hope, third-year players as rookies learned from their mistakes. Third- and fourth-year guys, really, that's their time to pick it up. Third, fourth and fifth year for a guy that's drafted or a rookie, that's their time to pick it up. You don't know situations going in, but I don't look at it and look in the past and worry about what he did in the past. I worry about what he does going forward.
It looked to me as though Geno was overwhelmed when he first came into the league, but Bowles is hinting that he just didn't play well and that happens to some rookies. He is also saying that when players get to their 3rd and 4th years (Geno is in year three) it's their time to pick it up, they need to show obvious signs of improvement and they need to really take that next step.
I'll be honest and say that one of the most frustrating things for me at the moment, is the anti-Geno sentiment that is permeating through the New York fan-base, it probably won't be the popular opinion but I think it's largely unwarranted at this stage of his career, in the age of instant gratification, the expectations are unrealistic, and that's why I still have faith in Geno. I'm not going to sit here and say he's going to be the next coming of Joe Montana as he hasn't showed me enough to suggest that, but so many people have completely wrote him off, and I'm certainly not willing to do that, even if that's not the popular opinion.