Based on how good Sanchez looks in Kelly's system, I agree that Rex's involvement markedly reduces the chance of Geno succeeding. However Geno has shown improvement, which is a positive sign. Most notably his footwork has improved:
Greg Cosell's Preview: Preseason lessons (like, Geno's improvement)
By
Greg Cosell
2 hours ago
Shutdown Corner
.
View photo
(AP)
One of the players who stood out to me this preseason was Jets quarterback
Geno Smith. The tape shows a quarterback who has shown significant improvement in his second year.
When he came out of college a few things bothered me. He had footwork issues because he played in a true spread offense, I knew he'd have to work on his anticipation passing and progression reading concepts, and because of footwork issues he would struggle with accuracy. So I wasn’t surprised by his struggles as a rookie. It was just part of the process.
In the last month of his rookie season you saw incremental, but significant, improvement.
Smith carried that over to this preseason. He is much more comfortable in the pocket, and more refined going through progressions.
Smith is clearly seeing things with more clarity, and is more aware when a throw is not there. Smith was oblivious to pressure. He threw with consistent accuracy. This preseason it looked like the game has slowed down for Smith. He's much less frenetic in the pocket.
In the third preseason game against the Giants, Smith had a 27-yard pass to Eric Decker in which he calmly manipulated the single high safety to open up a crease for Decker to get open down the seam from the slot. It was a great example of his growth.
I don’t know what will happen when the regular season starts. I'm waiting to see things like how Smith understands progression concepts when he starts facing defenses with coverage rotations and disguises you rarely see in the preseason.
But Smith has the traits to be a good quarterback. He just needed a lot of work. And he has really improved.