One are he has seemed to improve in is fumbling. he is protecting the ball when he is getting hit. Now if we can get him to cut down on the INTs we'll be in business.
Geno vs. Andrew Luck. Kinda interesting. Minus the difference in INT's (Luck has three to Geno's ten), there isn't much of a disparity in their numbers, despite Luck having more weapons to work with. In fact, Geno has thrown for 100 more yards and is averaging more YPA. Imagine if Luck played for the Jets right now. We'd have folks on this forum labeling him a bust and campaigning for the team to draft Teddy Bridgewater. http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/stats/_/id/15864/geno-smith http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/stats/_/id/14874/andrew-luck
I'm still not on board yet. I have the following 2 big concerns: 1. I don't like his footwork; thus, I don't like him for the WCO. MM is not utilizing all of the playbook because he's just not as comfortable under center. 2. Though his arm is much stronger than Sanchez's, I think he and many Jets fans think his arm is better than it actually is. IMO a lot of his INTs have been a result of this. That first INT for example was suppose to be a throw away. On that overthrow to Hill he did not put enough air under the ball. That seems to be the case on many of his deep passes. Throwing these passes with such a low trajectory leaves very little room for error. They pretty much have to be right on the money in order to connect. To his credit more often than not they have been thus far.
I think he was just making an excuse on the throw away. His arm is very good and mark's arm was good too. Of course marty won't give him all the playbook, he's a raw rookie who really shouldn't even be playing right now but we have no choice. He's learning, he's young and has been forced into action. There will be many more bumps along the way.
It's only interesting if you didn't actually see Luck and Geno play football. We can only hope that in 3 years Geno shows 75% of the football IQ that Luck showed in his rookie season. That's not a knock on Geno.
If we take him at his word, it would just add to the already long list of INTs resulting from under thrown balls. As much as I love the fact that most of his INTs have been due to under throws rather than bad decisions, there will come a time where it won't matter anymore and not knowing your arm's limitations will have to been lumped into the bad decision category.
This is the kind of post that puts me off about pro-Smith sentiment at this point. You realize that Luck took over a team that went 2-14, and took them to the playoffs? It's not like Luck inherited an offensive powerhouse. And the more apt comparison is while the Jets have a top third at least D, the Colts D last year was bottom third. In addition to the 35 they gave up to the Jets in the first six games, they gave up 41 to Chicago, 27 to GB in a Colts win, 22 to woeful Jville. Their HC was fighting leukemia. I doubt there were many Colts fans who were disappointed with Luck six games into last season. As for this season, despite their disappointing loss last night, they still lead the division, have beaten both SF and Seattle, and are 4-2. Nice stretch!
it's silly to compare him to Luck, Luck is going to be an elite guy in this league for the next decade+ but please don't cite the 2-14 record as Indy quit on the 2011 season. They had much more talent than their record indicated and that was proven a year ago.
Excellent point. I don't think there's any binary distinction between a bad decision and an underthrown ball. Yes, a throw can be one with great velocity on it and even placed where intended, but it was a bad decision because, for example, the Qb did not see or anticipate the coverage. But an underthrow is quite simply not a good decision, either. Heh. At this level, if a qb doesn't know he's got his feet planted poorly, or cannot rely on himself to follow through properly, or saw a pass rusher bearing down on him an threw it too late to avoid a hit that took something off his throw, then all those have something to do with making a bad decision.
Why is the comparison silly? Geno and the future elite QB are putting up comparable numbers, despite the fact that the elite guy is in his second season and has more weapons. Of course, that doesn't mean they'll develop into the same sort of player, but it does make a case for showing some patience with Geno, as he's put up respectable numbers for a guy who's been thrown in the fire with a weak offensive team.
you are looking at yards and ignoring turnovers. A 7 INT difference is HUGE. I am on board w/ geno but he's not going to be Andrew Luck.
Luck threw 18 picks and fumbled nine times during his rookie season. Obviously, Geno's turnovers aren't insignificant, but it's not a stretch to think they might be attributable to his inexperience and the lack of talent around him. Again, not claiming he'll be the same caliber player as Luck, just sayin', when you put things in perspective, he's not in a bad place right now.
Why the focus on the offense being weak? Btw last year who were other than Wayne the top Indy offensive players? Their RB's averaged only 3.8 per carry. Hilton was a rookie. As I pointed out before, Indy had a bottom tier D last year, while Smith has a top tier one. Despite those huge differences, Luck's team overcame that poor D to get off to a 3-3 start, and then won 8 of their last ten games. Just stop with the comparison to Luck. You should be embarrassed.
Don't take my post out of context. I was responding to a knock on Simms by applying the other poster's logic to Geno. If you included the post I had responded to my post would make the same point you seem to be trying to make.
You should be embarrassed for being a jackass when someone's trying to have a reasonable discussion. You're taking the comparison too literally. I stated twice that Geno and Luck may not end up being the same caliber of player. However, when you compare Geno's first year numbers to Luck's sophomore numbers, there isn't a huge disparity. At the very least, that lends some perspective to where Geno is at right now. If those numbers are acceptable from a future elite, in his second season, playing with a solid offensive core, they certainly justify having some patience with a rookie, second round pick who's playing on a weak offensive team.
They're silly because you aren't a statistician and have no basis to make any conclusion on stats particularly limited statistics that may have no meaning at all. Additionally Luck as a rookie was asked to carry his team and did carry them. If you watched the Colts last year Andrew Luck was the single best player on that team, yes folks better than the great WR he had to throw to. (Not based on stats that you don't know how to interpret based on my opinion.) Geno has been asked to manage games. The Jets have a pretty sound D a TE enhanced by drugs for several games and some decent talent around him on both sides of the ball. If Geno takes us on an 8 game win streak to the playoffs we can start comparing him to Luck. Based on your small sample and two teams that are completely different and what both QB's have been asked to do, your comparison isn't silly, it's ridiculous. Again, I'm not knocking Geno with this post. How about keeping it somewhat real.
I make the distinction only early on in a QB's career as he transitions from college to the pros. There are throws one can get away with at the collegiate level that become INTs in the NFL due unanticipated speed, talent level and creative schemes. There are INT degrees at this point. Throwing a INT in obvious triple coverage is more alarming than throwing the one because the defense set-up a trap, or you over/under-threw, gave your WR a chance to fight for the ball and he loss, did not set your feet because of pressure...etc...etc. As the games continue to be logged, the degrees become less and less as you expect your young QB to learn from and not continue to make the same mistakes.
He lost 5 fumbles as a rookie and had 23 TOs total. Geno has 13 TOs, on pace for 35 and he is on pace for 507 attempts, Luck attempted 627. Luck also led his team to 11 wins and a playoff berth and led his O to more pts. Let's see Geno lead us to the playoffs. This game is about much more than individual #s, #s may look similar but the way they got there can be completely different. I hope one day Geno can be compared to Luck. My apologies.
Luck coughed up the ball 27 times in his rookie season, completed only 54% of his passes, and ultimately, had a pedestrian QB rating only two points higher than the one Geno has now. He was brilliant at times. Obviously, he was a huge part of the Colts turning things around. However, he did display the inconsistency of a young QB. The Colts have scaled back his responsibilities this season (he's thrown the ball less than game manager Geno), and that's probably a reflection of the Colts' brain trust feeling he's not quite ready to chuck the ball around like a "franchise" quarterback does.
