. Third time's a charm? It's not unprecedented for a quarterback like
Geno Smith to get another starting nod after two below-average seasons. Look at quarterbacks of his statistical ilk, and you'll see it happens fairly often. But keeping reading because there's a caveat.
The folks at Football Outsiders did some number crunching and
came up with a list of 10 quarterbacks over the last 25 years whose statistical metrics in their first two seasons come closest to Smith's numbers (minimum: 100 attempts). This list isn't flattering toward Smith --
Kyle Boller, Jake Locker, Tim Couch, Rick Mirer, Trent Dilfer, Joey Harrington, Charlie Frye, Billy Joe Tolliver, Steve Walsh and Jake Plummer.
Basically, they all stunk in their first two seasons, but eight of the 10 -- all except Tolliver and Walsh -- started opening day in Year 3. Ah, but there's more to the story: Seven of the eight were first-round picks, including four in the top-6. The exception was Frye (third round), who got benched in the 2007 opener and never started another game for the
Cleveland Browns.
Obviously, teams are more patient with first-round draft choices because of the money invested. Smith was a second-round pick, so, yeah, what the Jets are doing is outside the b ox. The new regime is planning to start Smith after two years of play that ranged mostly from poor to uneven. If he succeeds, he'll be bucking a trend.
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