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Indiana’s Curt Cignetti is clearly one of the top football coaches around.
In 2025, the Hoosiers won their first-ever national championship and became the first FBS team to go 16–0.
Not only did he turn around Indiana football, but he also turned around James Madison.
Cignetti recently grabbed TCU QB Josh Hoover out of the transfer portal to replace last season’s Heisman Trophy winner, Fernando Mendoza, who is expected to be the first pick overall in the 2026 draft by the Las Vegas Raiders.
TCU coach Sonny Dykes took a shot at Hoover after he left.
“Look, numbers are numbers and stats are stats,” Dykes said. “I think Josh started 31 games here as a quarterback, and we turned the ball over 40 — he turned the ball over 42 times in those 31 starts.”
Last week, Cignetti was asked about what Dykes said about his new QB.
When he said this, my first thought, since I cover the Jets, is, “That is exactly the formula Geno Smith needs this season.”
Smith is the quintessential game manager.
When some people hear a QB described as a “game manager,” they think that is an insult.
Honestly, it’s not.
With all the issues the Jets have had at QB in recent years, aside from in 2024, the Jets and their fans would sign up for any of the seasons Smith had during his three years as Seattle’s full-time starter from 2022-24, where he went 9-8, 8-7, and 10-7.
He averaged 23.7 TDs to 11.7 picks in those three seasons.
He managed games for Seattle and went 27-22.
And honestly, at times, Seattle’s defense wasn’t always great during that stretch, but with two defensive-minded head coaches, Pete Carroll the first two years, and then Mike Macdonald, it was often pretty good.
And they could run the ball well, with the likes of tailbacks Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet.
If you follow the formula that Cignetti mentioned, Smith can do a good job as the Jets’ QB.
The formula helped Mendoza go from a pedestrian QB at the University of California to a star at Indiana.
I’m not in the prediction business, but my gut tells me that if the Jets have a strong running game this year, led by Breece Hall, and their defense takes a quantum leap from their substandard 2025, Smith will do a good job for them.
He’s not a “put the team on his back” kind of QB, but if you support him with a strong running game that sets up play-action passes, which widen the passing windows, and you keep the scores down with strong defense, where he doesn’t have to light up the scoreboard every week, and have to win shootouts, you can win more than you lose with this guy, which he showed during those three years in Seattle.
One of the strangest things about last season for the Jets was how they actually had a pretty good running game, but it didn’t lead to much in the passing game.
I’m sorry, on the NFL level, that is unacceptable.
Was it the QB play?
Perhaps.
Was it the sequencing of the play-calling?
Perhaps.
But for whatever reason, a good running game didn’t lead to enough production in the passing game.
If the Jets can run as they did in some games last year, not all, but many, Smith, with Frank Reich calling the plays, should be able to make a lot more hay in the passing game than we saw last year.
And the Jets’ defense should be better this year.
Not the ’85 Chicago Bears, but better.
The issues on defense last year weren’t just scheme-related, but talent-related.
Why do you think the Jets went hog wild signing defensive players in free agency? And in a few weeks, expect them to add a few more potential defensive starters with four picks in the top 44.
The Jets could have 8-9 new starters in defense this year. Actions speak louder than words. 8-9 new starters on defense going from Year 1 to Year 2 of a new program tells all you need to know about how the Jets football brass, led by Aaron Glenn and Darren Mougey, felt about their defensive personnel after going over the film from last season.
So it’s quite possible they will be able to execute the Cignetti plan for Smith with his best friends being a “g
April 8, 2026
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