Between The Eers: Geno Smith Deserved Better
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 Good Thursday morning everybody here Skylar Kellin on between the ears and
00:14 figure today we talk about Gino Smith, former West Virginia quarterback.
00:20 Now the starting quarterback with Seattle Seahawks and
00:23 look, I've been waiting for the right time to do this and
00:27 I figured now would probably be a good time since you just got honored for
00:32 the second straight year to go to the Pro Bowl and it's well deserving,
00:37 much deserving and also Seattle yesterday decided to hire Mike McDonald as
00:43 the new head coach so don't really know what that means for Gino's future.
00:48 Obviously anytime there's any sort of change whether it's head coach or
00:51 front office, you really don't know what's going on.
00:55 Just because you think you have a team that's competitive doesn't mean that they
00:59 could come in and make complete household changes.
01:03 And I don't think that's really the direction that they're gonna go because
01:08 they are competitive enough.
01:10 I think they just need to add a few more pieces and
01:12 then Seattle could be right back there in the mix in the NFC West.
01:14 But who knows, who knows what Mike McDonald's vision is for
01:18 this team along with the front office.
01:20 But look, man, I mean, over the last two years,
01:25 Gino has been, I mean, as good as possible.
01:31 I mean, as good as some of the best quarterbacks and
01:33 maybe not the Patrick Mahomes or anything like that.
01:38 But I mean, he has been very, very strong.
01:41 16 and 15 record but has completed
01:45 somewhere in the neighborhood of 66, 67% of his passes.
01:52 He's averaged about, or he's thrown for
01:56 a little over 7,800 yards and 50 touchdowns, 20 interceptions.
02:04 I mean, those are numbers that literally every team in the NFL would love to have.
02:08 And my biggest question since going back to, let's see,
02:14 2015 is why did it take so damn long for him to get a second chance?
02:21 I have no idea what the answer is to that.
02:24 You look at his production in his first two years when he was with the New York Jets.
02:33 It was obviously a tough situation he was put in.
02:38 The numbers weren't great.
02:40 But we've seen quarterbacks over the years have worse numbers, have better teams and
02:44 better support systems around them.
02:46 Actually have a franchise and a head coach that believe in them.
02:49 And they still fail to a worse degree than what Gino did in his
02:56 first two years with the Jets.
02:57 I promise you, if you go back and look at some of the depth charts from the 2013,
03:05 14 seasons for New York, it's almost laughable.
03:09 I mean, talk about setting up a young quarterback to fail.
03:13 That was Gino Smith.
03:16 He had no chance to succeed in New York.
03:20 Again, he was drafted to a place that the head coach didn't even want him.
03:24 Rex Ryan has been on the record several times talking about how he didn't
03:29 want Gino Smith and how he didn't like him as a quarterback.
03:33 We've seen the kind of riffraff that's gone back and
03:37 forth between those guys over the years.
03:39 And now of course Rex is given some backhanded compliments every now and
03:46 then to Gino because he's finally getting his second chance and is succeeding.
03:50 But I think had Gino been drafted anywhere else, or
03:58 at least to a situation where the head coach had full trust in him,
04:01 he had some help around him, both at receiver, running back, offensive line,
04:07 or at least two of the three, you have some infrastructure there for
04:13 him to build something, for him to have success earlier in his career.
04:17 And who knows, maybe he's a ten year starter in the league.
04:19 Because what we've seen these last two years showed that,
04:25 hey, in the right situation, he thrives.
04:28 He got that opportunity in Seattle because Pete Carroll believed in him.
04:35 Seattle, when they traded off Russell Wilson, everyone in the NFL
04:39 thought this team is going to hit the bottom.
04:43 They're going rock bottom, they're going to be drafting top five of the draft.
04:47 The offense is going to be good, but not have a guy that can get guys like DK,
04:53 Metcalf, and Tyler Locke at the ball.
04:54 But Gino proved everyone wrong.
04:58 Threw for 30 touchdowns, completed 69.8% of his passes,
05:04 which by the way, is an NFL record, and 4,200 yards.
05:10 4,282 to be exact, which is a Seattle franchise record.
05:14 Again, a franchise that had Russell freaking
05:21 Wilson as its starter for a number of years.
05:26 So I mean, I feel for Gino, I'm glad he got his opportunity when he did,
05:32 and I'm sure he's at peace with it now.
05:35 It seems like he surely is.
05:37 And he's a guy that embraces everything.
05:39 He doesn't question a lot of things.
05:42 I mean, I'm sure there's times throughout his career where he was wondering if you
05:47 would ever get that opportunity again.
05:49 And I don't know how that wouldn't run through your mind a time or two.
05:53 But he's always embraced it, he's always stayed ready, and
05:56 he's always trusted that this was the plan that was set out for him.
06:00 And he's living through it.
06:02 So hat tip to him for that.
06:04 But my goodness, in the age of drafting young quarterbacks is a cool and
06:12 hip thing to do, you got to give them a chance.
06:17 You don't have a coach, you don't have a receiver, you don't have running backs,
06:21 you don't have an offensive line that can protect them.
06:23 What do you expect from them?
06:24 You're going to give up on them after two years?
06:28 And then go through this quarterback purgatory that they've been in for
06:35 almost a decade now.
06:36 They've been drafting guys left and right, they don't work out.
06:41 I mean, hell, they gave Sam Darnold a longer chance, or more of a chance.
06:47 And Sam had a little bit more to work with, not much.
06:52 He had bad coaching and he had some bad people around him in terms of the skill
06:55 position, but you compare and contrast, you could argue Sam Darnold had
07:01 a little bit more help and he had a longer leash.
07:04 Same organization, why?
07:06 Why didn't Gino get that same lifespan?
07:11 Why, when the Jets said, you know what, we're giving up on Sam Darnold,
07:18 we're going to move in a different direction.
07:19 We're going to draft another young quarterback who's going to come in here
07:21 and eventually fail because we don't know how to build around him.
07:24 When that all happened, there was trade interest all around the NFL for Sam Darnold.
07:34 Carolina gave up a second, a fourth, and a sixth round pick for crying out loud.
07:39 For Sam freaking Darnold, who by the way is now the backup on the San Francisco 49ers.
07:47 Why was there no interest in Gino Smith?
07:53 I don't understand that.
07:54 Two years and you're giving up the whole league, all 32 teams say he's not good
08:02 enough to start, we're not going to give him an opportunity.
08:04 How many first and second and third round picks that were starters at the beginning
08:11 of their career didn't have success, they take a backseat for maybe a year or so
08:16 and boom, they're right back into a starting role, whether it's for the long
08:20 term or not, there's some teams at the bottom of the NFL that they say, hey,
08:26 we're going to take a flyer on this guy.
08:27 If it works, great.
08:28 If not, we're going to be drafting him.
08:31 Nobody did that.
08:32 No one gave Gino Smith an opportunity.
08:35 And I just don't understand it.
08:38 I mean, would he be the same quarterback today if he didn't go through all he
08:46 went through and sat all those years and learned from the likes of Eli Manning and
08:53 Philip Rivers and Russell Wilson?
08:55 Maybe not.
08:56 Maybe he never has these two types of years that he's just had.
09:01 That's a possibility.
09:02 Maybe he needed that time.
09:04 But also maybe if he wasn't thrown into the fire in his rookie season, starting 16
09:13 games on a bad football team.
09:16 That could have changed.
09:20 Had the Jets went out and actually signed somebody that's worth a damn, that's had
09:28 some years of experience in the NFL that Gino could pick that quarterback's brain
09:33 and learn from and sit.
09:35 Because back then, that was kind of the thing.
09:39 You draft the quarterback, especially if he was a second rounder.
09:42 I mean, everyone thought Gino was a first round pick, but he wasn't a second.
09:46 But especially when he was drafted in the second, you think you got to have somebody
09:51 in place.
09:51 That was the thing back then.
09:54 Even when you draft the guys high, teams would sit those quarterbacks for four or
09:59 six, maybe even eight weeks before giving them the keys of the offense.
10:04 Not New York.
10:06 No, no, no, no, not New York.
10:09 And how does it make sense?
10:12 You're going to start the quarterback that you don't even believe in from day one.
10:21 Is that to make sure he flames out and you prove everybody right, that you were
10:25 right?
10:26 I don't I don't I don't get it.
10:28 Has if he sits behind a veteran.
10:33 For four to six to eight weeks.
10:36 Maybe it doesn't blow up in New York's face.
10:40 Maybe you sit him for half the year, give him some starting experience towards the
10:46 back end of that season of his rookie year in 2013.
10:49 You go out and you actually get the guy some help.
10:52 And probably find a way to make it work.
10:57 But this is the New York Jets that we're talking about.
11:01 It's also the New York media that we're talking about.
11:06 The first two years of his career.
11:09 Everything highly scrutinized.
11:11 Highly talked about amongst the New York media, the second he does one wrong thing.
11:19 Or the second the team does something bad or they lose a game.
11:22 Might not even be Geno's fault.
11:24 But it's going to be pinned on him as well because he's a quarterback.
11:28 Going to New York was the worst.
11:33 Thing that could have happened in Geno Smith's career.
11:37 But.
11:39 Like I said.
11:41 Who knows what he would have been?
11:47 If he'd left, had that same exact situation in New York for the first two years, went
11:51 somewhere else and started right away.
11:52 Instead of sitting behind Manning and Rivers and Wilson.
11:57 Who knows if he's the same player today, but I'd be willing to bet he would be.
12:02 I mean, it's not every day that.
12:05 This guy is completing well over 60% of his passes.
12:10 Or you have a quarterback that's completing that high percentage.
12:15 So.
12:16 You tell me.
12:18 What Geno would have looked like had he not had to wait six years.
12:24 Really seven.
12:26 For his second chance.
12:28 In why did it have to take seven years for that second chance?
12:34 When everybody else gets that second chance like this.
12:39 I don't know.
12:42 Don't have the answer for that one, but once again.
12:45 Tip of the hat to Geno for finding a way to make it work.
12:49 If we're having these last two stellar seasons that he's had in Seattle and
12:54 hopefully he has another couple more in him before he hangs it up and gets into
12:59 the next chapter of his life, whether it be coaching.
13:01 TV who knows, but that'll do it for us here today on between the ears.
13:06 I'm Scott Cullen.
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