Mark Cannizzaro

Mark Cannizzaro

NFL

Geno leans on advice from Simms — Phil and Matt

This took place in the darkness of the quarterbacks meeting room on Monday, the day after the Jets’ blowout loss in Buffalo, where Geno Smith endured his worst game as a pro, giving the ball away to the Bills four times and was as much a reason as any the Jets lost the game.

Smith’s backup, fellow neophyte Matt Simms, imparted some friendly supportive advice to the man who owns the starting quarterback job he’d love to have himself.

“We were just hanging out, watching film and BS-ing with each other and I told Geno, ‘Hey, my father had a really tough beginning to his career as a Giant and a lot of people wanted him to go and now look at him — the guy’s a pretty popular player who was a Super Bowl MVP and things worked out for him, so there’s nothing you can’t overcome,’ ’’ Simms told The Post Wednesday.

This poignant piece of advice was not the first Smith has received from a member of the Simms family.

Before the draft in April, Phil Simms sat down with Smith before doing a pre-draft television interview with him and offered some helpful words of his own.

“His dad warned me about what I’d be getting into,’’ Smith told The Post. “He told me no matter what position you play you are going to have struggles, because you have to get adjusted to the NFL as a rookie, but as a quarterback it’s more out in the open because it’s easier to tell if you are struggling. He said it just comes with the territory.

“His dad shared a bunch of wisdom with me, before I even met Matt, which was pretty cool that he did that. He talked to me about weathering the storm from bad days like Sunday. He said those are things you have to learn to deal with and that you have to be a stand-up guy in order to get the respect of the locker room and your teammates.

“He also told me to just enjoy every minute of it, because it comes and goes pretty fast. I mean, it seems like I just got drafted and now we’re 10 weeks into the season. So everything does happen pretty fast.’’

Things looked as if they were happening way too fast for Smith in Buffalo, where he took a hard hit that knocked the wind out of him early and seemed to affect him the rest of the day.

Smith, who has completed just eight passes in each of the last two games, and the Jets face another stout challenge Sunday in Baltimore, where they play the defending Super Bowl champion Ravens, who have struggled in their title defense at 4-6 but are playing proud and desperate football.

Smith said he continues to lean on the advice the elder Simms gave him and not allow himself to be affected adversely by what happened the previous week.

When contacted by The Post, Phil Simms recalled his conversation with Smith, but said he preferred not to speak on the subject because his son is on the team and he feels a sensitivity to the situation.

An interesting element to the Smith-Simms dynamic is Matt Simms has turned out to be as valuable a sounding-board for and influence on Smith as David Garrard, the veteran quarterback the Jets signed specifically to mentor Smith.

So Smith has the best of both worlds — the 35-year-old Garrard, the amicable 10-year veteran who can impart wisdom from experience, and Simms, who is close in age (Simms is 25, Smith 23) and has become an instant friend and confidant.

“Geno is a young player who’s learning a lot of things the hard way,’’ Matt Simms said. “That is not an easy thing to do in this media market, in this league and in this atmosphere.’’

Simms, of course, learned that from a father who knows best — as qualified an authority on the subject as there is.