Geno Smith knows what a lot of New York Jets fans are daydreaming about.
The quarterback has been here before, a much younger and less-experienced version, of course. The Jets had only missed the playoffs the previous two years when Smith was selected by the franchise in the second round of the 2013 NFL draft.
He has come and gone elsewhere — four other stops, actually — and that postseason drought has since reached 15 years, the longest among teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball. Smith is now 35 years old and back where he began his professional career, a comeback story with the potential to be special if he can help return the downtrodden Jets to the playoffs.
“Yeah, I mean, that would be like a story in a movie, right?” Smith said Thursday with a smile. “It’s kind of like one of those superhero movies, but my life is based on reality. We’ve got to focus on getting better every single day.”
After a successful five-year stint in Seattle, where he began as a backup to Russell Wilson before becoming the starter, winning the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year award in 2022 and making two Pro Bowls, Smith had a dismal season for lowly Las Vegas.
He threw for 3,025 yards and 19 touchdowns — after having at least 20 in each of the previous three seasons with the Seahawks — and a league-high 17 interceptions. But the Jets desperately needed a veteran quarterback after a failed one-year experiment with Justin Fields and traded for Smith, sending a sixth-round pick to Seattle and also getting a seventh-rounder back.
It was an unlikely reunion, especially since the quarterback’s first stint with the Jets was largely remembered for the locker room incident in 2015 that left Smith sidelined with a broken jaw, the result of a punch from then-teammate IK Enemkpali. It changed the trajectory of his career with the Jets. He lasted one more season in New York before leaving.
Because of all that, Smith acknowledged the surreal feeling he had being back at the facility — nine years later.
“Coming in for physicals and just walking down the hall again — it was the very first hall I walked down when I got drafted — all those feelings come back,” Smith said. “Just great feelings, great memories, seeing my mom in the locker room, and I started just thinking about my first time in the NFL, first time here. Immediately, it clicked right back in: I’ve got to get to work. I just got right back to that.
“I’m really excited to be here and even seeing all your faces again, it’s really cool.”
Jets coach Aaron Glenn was in the team’s scouting department during Smith’s rookie season and he has watched the quarterback — mostly from afar — mature on and off the field in the years since.
“Just the fact of how he’s grown from that time to now is outstanding,” Glenn said. “And he’s still growing, even being in the league as long as he has. And he will tell you that.”
Linebacker Demario Davis, who’s in his third stint with the Jets, played three seasons with Smith and also praised him for overcoming obstacles in his career and persevering.
“He’s obviously walked through different things in life that’s brought his countenance and his spirit to a place of peace,” Davis said. “He’s very comfortable in his skin. He knows who he is. He’s arriving at this moment with his mind right, and you can feel it.”
Smith’s teammates rave about their quarterback’s command in the huddle and having the presence of a true leader. He isn’t sure when this Jets reunion will end, though. Or if it’ll have that fairytale-like ending.
“We want to be the best team in the world,” he said. “I don’t feel shy about saying that, but I understand there’s a lot of work to be done.”
And Smith is focused on that. Each day he takes the field — again — for the Jets.
“God has blessed me to play in the league this long and to have an opportunity to come back here, I’m very, very grateful for that, because they don’t come too often,” he said. “These opportunities, you have to cherish them and that’s the way I look at it — I really cherish this opportunity.
“I really look forward to, again, just going to practice tomorrow and trying to get better. That’s the way I’m going to treat this entire year and the rest of my career.”
Reporting by the Associated Press.
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