Geno Smith apparently doesn’t think much of his competition for the Jets’ quarterback job this fall.
The brash rookie, who played at West Virginia, told a newspaper over the weekend he feels he has a “great shot” of unseating Mark Sanchez for the No. 1 job when their battle resumes this week in training camp.
“I’m prepared,’’ Smith told the Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette on Saturday. “I’m just getting better daily. I’ve improved so much from the time the [Pinstripe Bowl] ended [in December] to now. I continue to improve steadily.
“I feel like I have a great shot [at winning the job]. I did a pretty good job overall of just adapting to the system and playbook and felt very comfortable with it by the end of [organized team activities] and mandatory minicamp [in June].”
Sanchez is thought to still hold the upper hand for the starting job, in large part because Smith didn’t fare as well in minicamp as he seems to think, but the competition is still considered open going into the Jets’ reporting day Thursday in Cortland.
It doesn’t appear likely to be a friendly competition, either, considering Smith was a glaring invited no-show at Sanchez’s Jets West workouts earlier this month in Mission Viejo, Calif.
Smith signed a four-year deal with the Jets on Monday morning in advance of reporting day for rookies.
“Going into training camp, I’ve got a great opportunity and feel very good about it,’’ Smith told the West Virginia paper. “I’m going to go in there with the right mentality, the same mentality I had throughout my entire career, which is to work hard, to better myself and help my teammates get better. We’ll see what happens at the end of preseason.”