Geno Smith is officially a New York Jet. The rookie quarterback got in under the wire right before training camp and a highly publicized starting competition is about to begin. Roc Nation Sports were able to negotiate a contract for the second-round draft pick. Smith earned a four-year deal worth about $5 million. This follows his dramatic drop out of the first round where he could have earned a contract worth about $12 million.
With his contract out of the way, Smith is free to focus on beating out Mark Sanchez for the starting role at quarterback for the Jets. Smith has already created his fair share of controversy before training camp has even begun. Most recently, he opted to not attend Jets West, an annual offseason camp hosted by Sanchez for offensive players, Instead, Smith decided to train on his own, closer to home.
While speaking with the Charleston Gazette, Smith noted that he likes his chances at becoming the team's starting quarterback once training camp has ended.
"I feel like I have a great shot," Smith said. "I did a pretty good job overall of just adapting to the Jets' system and playbook and felt very comfortable with it by the end of OTAs and mandatory camp."
While Smith might have felt comfortable in the new offense, the New York coaching staff believes he still has a long ways to go. The Jets run a West Coast offense, a far cry from the "Air Raid" attack put on by West Virginia. He is used to coming out of the shot gun and head coach Rex Ryan believes Smith must do a lot of work on his ability to drop back and overall mechanics while in training camp.
"We knew it wasn't going to be any easy process, but I have confidence that, when we get to Cortland, I think you're going to see the guy keep improving and improving," Ryan said.
Early reports from Jets beat writers are that Sanchez maintains his position as the starting quarterback while Smith gets worked in during specific plays and packages. The faster quarterback of the two, the Jets have made comments about Smith being the quarterback that Tim Tebow never was. They will look to utilize that speed in a more read-option format. No matter what, Smith is ready for training camp and the month of work ahead of him.
"Going into training camp I've got a great opportunity and feel very good about it," Smith said. "I'm going to go in there with the right mentality, the same mentality I had throughout my entire career, which is to work hard, to better myself and help my teammates get better and we'll see what happens at the end of preseason."
