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New Jersey – The non-stop bashing of Geno Smith continues. If the way he’s being trashed by critics doesn’t give him a chip on his shoulder the size of a crater, nothing will.
Interesting note in a story from ESPN New York today about Geno Smith.
“At least one quarterback-needy team in the top 10 passed on him because of the diva attitude he displayed in a pre-draft visit, according to a league source,” wrote Rich Cimini.
What team is that?
It’s likely Buffalo.
The Bills were slated to pick in the Top 10, at eight, but they made a traded down with St. Louis, and picked E.J. Manuel at 16.
The writer is good friends with Doug Marrone. That is no secret.
In fact, the writer, an influential Syracuse graduate, helped Marrone land the head coaching job at his alma mater.
But if the source of this story was Buffalo, who really cares?
They are a division rival of the Jets, so why not make the Jets look bad by leaking that? It’s called, “gamesmanship.”
I’m not here to defend Smith, but I have a hard time believing Buffalo (if that is the source) ever considered taking him in the Top Ten.
Smith was a second-round quarterback, a player with a world of talent, but a lot of work to do, a lot of skills to hone.
Diva or no diva, he needed too much work coming out of college to be a Top Ten pick. Any team considering him in the Top Ten would be clueless.
And let’s be blunt here, there weren’t any quarterbacks who were probably worthy of being picked in the first round in this draft.
Most people around the league think the Bills reached, big-time, grabbing Manuel at 16.
He is a streaky quarterback, who tends to hold on to the ball too long. He needs work on his decision-making and has had durability issues. Hey, he might turn out to be excellent, but a lot of people in the football world didn’t view him as a first round pick.
But remember something that Bills GM Buddy Nix said during last season.
Nix, an old-school GM, has always believed in sticking to his value board in the war room. He doesn’t like to stray from it.
But he claims to have learned a lesson last year – if you like a quarterback, you need to pick him a round earlier than your board dictates.
The lesson came from missing out on Russell Wilson. The Bills had a fourth-round grade on him, and the Seattle Seahawks grabbed him in the third round.
Before the draft, Nix came out and said his team would pick a franchise quarterback in this draft.
And considering his new theory about picking a player a round early, the selection of Manuel in the first round, instead of the second, where he probably belonged, made perfect sense.
The ESPN article also quoted an unnamed NFL scout ripping Smith’s attitude.
The quarterback supposedly was a little too busy with his cell phone during team visits – e-mailing and texting people, and this might have turned off some teams. Yahoo reported the same thing.
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, where there is smoke, there is fire. Nolan Nawrocki was on to something here about Smith’s attitude in college.
But with that being said, Geno is 22 years old. With proper coaching and role models at One Jets Drive, perhaps he can change.
If he had a drug or drinking problem, I would hesitate to say he could change in a football environment because it’s not the Betty Ford clinic.
However, from a attitude and work ethic standpoint, if he’s handled the the right way, positive change can be effected here.
May 3, 2013
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