Geno Smith received his Jets playbook yesterday. Now, the question is: Will Mark Sanchez have to turn his in?
The changing of the guard is taking place at Jets headquarters. Smith was there yesterday, talking to his new coaches, touring the training center and meeting the media. Four years ago, it was Sanchez getting the royal treatment as the team’s new signal caller. Now he may get pushed aside.
Sources said the Jets have not told Sanchez anything about his future. At the moment, the fifth-year quarterback is operating under the belief he will be given a chance to compete for the starting job. But the Jets and Smith made it clear yesterday that he is the future of the franchise.
“My goal is to be a franchise quarterback,” Smith said, before acknowledging he’s not one yet. “As of right now, there’s a lot of work to be done.”
The Jets have six quarterbacks on their roster. They may have to expand the meeting room to fit all the chairs. A six-pack of quarterbacks is not an ideal situation for the team and two likely are to be released soon — with Sanchez and Tim Tebow appearing to be the most likely to go.
The Jets are being careful to say Smith won’t be handed the job, but it is clear they are hoping he is good enough to earn it.
“Our goal is, ‘Hey, let’s see how fast we can do this thing and get you ready to go, so you can function at a high level,’ ” offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said of Smith learning the offense.
The Jets fell in love with Smith during the predraft process. They watched him put up eye-popping numbers at West Virginia — throwing 42 touchdowns and six interceptions last season.
Mornhinweg, senior personnel executive Terry Bradway, quarterbacks coach David Lee and area scout Michael Davis went to Smith’s pro day in Morgantown in March and saw him complete 60 of 62 passes.
“I thought the thing that impressed me [in] that workout was the fact that his footwork, which he didn’t have an opportunity to do a lot of at West Virginia, looked good relative to the route depths,” Bradway said. “Again, he threw the ball very well, he threw it accurately. He was very impressive in that pro day.”
They also went to dinner with Smith the night before and walked away convinced that he was a “football junkie,” as Davis said.
“He knew the history of football,” Davis said.
Smith, 22, visited the Jets this month in New Jersey and the team considered taking him in the first round. When he dropped to the second round, they grabbed him.
Sitting in the Radio City green room for the first 38 picks was “tough to stomach,” Smith said. But he is not worried about that now.
“It’s a dream come true to finally hear my name called and to be a Jet is one of the things I’ll carry with me for a lifetime,” he said.
After putting up back-to-back 4,000-yard passing seasons, Smith was projected as a first-round pick. But he took some harsh criticism, particularly from Pro Football Weekly, which questioned his work ethic. The Jets said they have no concerns about that.
The bigger question on Smith is how he will adjust to Mornhinweg’s West Coast system after running the spread at West Virginia.
ESPN came up with some interesting statistics about Smith’s completion percentage (71.6) being inflated by throwing short passes in college. He threw 177 of his 518 passes at or behind the line of scrimmage last year, including 112 screen passes. His average pass traveled 7.7 yards past the line, the shortest yards per attempt of any top QB prospect.
Mornhinweg acknowledged the crowded depth chart at quarterback needs to be resolved at some point. In three weeks, the Jets will begin offseason practices. There are not enough repetitions to go around for six quarterbacks. Three is usually the maximum.
As for Sanchez, Mornhinweg spoke with him Friday and said Sanchez is ready to compete.
“He understands this is a competition now, so let’s rock and roll,” Mornhinweg said. “Here, we have four — even more, maybe six — and I hope they’re all thinking, ‘Hey, I have an opportunity to go win a job.’ ”
➤ The Jets selected Virgina tackle Oday Aboushi in the fifth round and Michigan guard William Campbell in the sixth round yesterday, bolstering their offensive line depth. They took Wake Forest fullback Tommy Bohanon with their seventh-round pick.
brian.costello@nypost.com