Frank Reich’s Geno Smith praise is difficult to believe

Frank Reich believes Geno Smith is physically in his prime. Based on what Smith produced last season, the New York Jets had better hope Reich is seeing something nobody else can.

Frank Reich sees a much younger quarterback

Smith is 35 years old and preparing for his 14th NFL season. That has not stopped Reich from speaking about him as if the Jets uncovered a quarterback entering the best stretch of his career.

“I don’t know how old he is. Isn’t he past 35?” Reich asked reporters Friday before being corrected. “It feels like he’s 28.”

Reich then went further, saying Smith is physically in his prime because of his arm, movement and footwork inside the pocket.

Perhaps Smith does look terrific in practice. Training camp has produced much stranger claims over the years. Every veteran reportedly arrives in the best shape of his life, every struggling offense has been fixed and every quarterback looks five years younger until somebody wearing a different uniform is allowed to hit him.

The problem is that Smith’s most recent season looked nothing like the work of a quarterback reaching his peak.

Geno Smith’s 2025 numbers tell another story

Smith completed 67.4% of his passes for 3,025 yards and 19 touchdowns with the Las Vegas Raiders last season. Those numbers are not terrible by themselves.

The rest is much harder to defend.

Smith threw an NFL-high 17 interceptions, posted an 84.7 passer rating and took 55 sacks. Las Vegas went 2-13 in his starts before trading him back to the organization that drafted him in 2013.

Smith did not receive much help from the Raiders. Their offensive line struggled, and the roster around him was not good enough to compete consistently. Quarterbacks receive too much blame when teams lose and far too much credit when they win.

Still, Smith was not an innocent bystander. Seventeen interceptions cannot be blamed entirely on blocking, coaching or a poor supporting cast. At some point, the quarterback has to own the decisions that repeatedly gave the football away.

That season came after Smith threw 21 touchdowns and 15 interceptions with Seattle in 2024. He passed for 4,320 yards and completed 70.4% of his attempts, but the turnovers remained a problem.

His actual prime may have arrived in 2022. Smith threw for 4,282 yards, 30 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while leading Seattle to the playoffs and winning Comeback Player of the Year. He has not approached those touchdown numbers since.

Jets need competence more than a miracle

None of this means Smith cannot help New York.

The Jets finished 3-14 last season and ranked at or near the bottom of the NFL in several offensive categories. Justin Fields, Tyrod Taylor and Brady Cook combined to produce a passing attack that averaged only eight yards per completion.

Smith should improve that. He remains accurate, can push the football downfield and brings far more experience than the quarterbacks New York used last season.

That is a reasonable expectation. Calling him a quarterback in his physical prime is something else entirely.

Reich is trying to build confidence in his new starter. Publicly praising Smith costs nothing, and an offensive coordinator insulting his quarterback in August would be a fascinating strategy.

However, there is a wide gap between believing Smith can stabilize the offense and pretending last season never happened.

The Jets do not need Smith to look 28 years old during training camp. They need him to stop throwing the football to the other team once the games count.

Until he does, talk of a late-career prime sounds much more like August optimism than reality.