New York Jets quarterback Geno Smith is coming off the worst year of his career.
Smith was the Las Vegas Raiders QB1 in 2025 for 15 games. They ended up 3-14 and held the No. 1 overall pick. Former NFL scout Bucky Brooks joined me on “Boy Green Daily” and gave me a brutally honest assessment of his play and how that impacts the Jets.
“Look, I mean, there’s no way to excuse what happened in Las Vegas, I mean, he was bad. He was bad, but I would say there were a lot of things that probably led to him being bad. One, you had a disconnect between the offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and the head coach Pete Carroll, and how the offense was to be run … There was philsophical differences,” Brooks told me on the podcast.
“And then when you looked at the Raiders, they’re devoid of talent, to be honest, on the perimeter. Geno Smith is a quarterback like most of them in the league. He plays better when he has better players around him. When you think about a team that only had Brock Bowers in and out of the lineup, you had a young Ashton Jeanty; you didn’t have an established receiver on the outside that was a true No. 1. Jakobi Meyers was there for a while but I don’t think people would regard him as a No. 1 where you have to change your defense,” Brooks said.
“I equate it to Geno Smith was basically playing half-court basketball at the YMCA. They never could get fast breaks, they could never open it up, they never could really use all the things that are the strong parts of his game because they simply didn’t have the personnel and people,” Brooks added.
A Brutal Look in the Mirror
“I would say he tried to do too much. Look, it’s a fatal flaw. Sometimes you get in a situation where, ‘Hey, don’t worry about it, I’ll fix it.’ And in trying to do too much, he turned the ball over too often,” Brooks stated.
Smith’s 17 interceptions led the National Football League in 2025.
“In New York, if they kind of stick to to the script where they run the football, they lean on an offensive line, that should be one of the better ones in the league, a rebuilt cast of perimeter weapons, they run the football with Breece Hall and Braelon Allen, he can be more of a distributor, more of a mangerial type player than a guy that is the playmaker,” Brooks explained to me on the podcast.
Smith Has to Contain the Mistakes
The former West Virginia product is unlikely to solve his turnover issues.
In every season of his career that he has started at least 13 games, Smith has thrown at least nine interceptions. He is a gun slinger.
Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report recently said Smith’s “main obstacle” ahead of 2026 is “mistakes.”
“The 35-year-old bridge has thrown a league-high 32 interceptions since the start of 2024. No other quarterback has more than 27 in that span. It’s difficult to imagine Smith suddenly overcoming that in what is likely a do-or-die campaign for his career,” Gagnon wrote.
If Smith limits those, the Jets will have a shot to make some noise in 2026.
Like HEAVY’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Ex-NFL Scout Gets Brutally Honest About Geno Smith’s Mistakes appeared first on HEAVY.