How much difference does a year make for Geno Smith?
"Being in the system a year, he's light years ahead of where he was last year," Jets head coach Todd Bowles said today. "As far as being confident, operating the system and understanding the checks and running the offense, he's night and day where he was."
Smith, who also led the Jets' first-team offense last spring, said Chan Gailey's unit talked about goals on Day 1 of the team's minicamp.
"Having a better grasp and knowledge of the offense, seeing how it worked, talking to Chan and going over situations and scenarios. Those are the things that we are improving upon right now and we're really big on the situations right now," he said. "We have to improve at situational football, we have to improve in the red zone, two-minute. We talked about goals today and where we want to be as an offense during the season, and I think every single rep that we get in practice is another chance for us to improve on that."
The Jets have continued to state their desire to re-sign free Ryan Fitzpatrick. But Smith, a two-year NFL starter for the Jets who has thrown for 5,683 yards with 27 TD, has had a solid offseason and the team continues to push ahead.
"It doesn't hinder our offensive planning at all," Bowles said of Fitz's absence. "We're going full speed ahead right now. Like I said, if he got hurt, Geno would be the starter and we would have to play. And he's learning the system right now and he's getting better at it, so whether it's Fitz or whether it's Geno — we're doing the same things we need to do."
