Jets’ Rex Ryan says Geno Smith came ‘a million miles’ during rookie season
By Mike Dyce
While New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan was handing out ice cream cones a New ERA sponsored event on Friday, he took some time to discuss football. He had specific praise for New York Jets rookie quarterback Geno Smith.
“There are very few players that grew as much as Geno did,” Ryan said, via Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. “He had to come a million miles… and he did. You saw our team ascending and I think part of that is the way Geno played. Statistically, he had second-highest QB rating the NFL over the last months of the season. That’s something that people don’t focus on. But that’s a fact.”
Smith did finished the season on a high note with wins against the Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins. In those two games he completed 37 of 63 passes for 404 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also had a 83.1 and 90.7 quarterback rating in those two games. He crossed the 80 mark three times in the final four games.
Still, Ryan was reluctant to name Smith the starter for the 2014 season.