Game Slowing Down For Geno Smith

Unless something changes between now and the Bengals game on the 11th of September, Geno Smith will be the starting quarterback of your New York Jets, as such we're going to be paying a lot of attention to his pre-season.

One of the main criticisms of Geno was that he seemed to be playing faster than everyone else, and not in a good way. One of the key attributes of any good offense is rhythm and timing.

We've heard that Geno looked good in Spring and he seems to be carrying that over as we head into the business portion of the pre-season. He's throwing more touchdowns, less interceptions and connecting with more accuracy and timing. Will that continue once he has 350lb lineman closing in on him? That's the question, but we can only judge him on the here and now, and it's so far so good.

"The ball might come out faster, but it's a result of me actually thinking faster and moving slower with my body if that makes sense," he said. "So the release is quick and the ball gets out fast, but to me it's like everything's moving in slow-mo."

"In my mind, the game is so slow right now. I’m not playing super-fast," he said as the Jets broke minicamp in June. "I’m actually taking my time out there. I’m not rushing things."

"I feel like I’m exactly where I need to be right now. I honestly do," he said. "Whether I played last year or didn’t play last year, I think I still would have gotten to this spot that I’m in right now.

"I think being able to watch the game from afar, watch how the mechanics of the offense work, game-planning throughout the week, the terminology, how to create different things within the offense — that helps out a ton. Now you know what to do rather than trying to figure out what do, which is what I was doing myself."

These quotes were taken by Eric Allen of newyorkjets.com, and I know a lot of fans aren't interested in what he has to say until he shows it on the field, but there seems to be a new maturity to Geno, something I haven't seen in him before.