CORTLAND — The Jets coaches had been on quarterback Geno Smith all year to use his legs more.
“If it’s not there, you know what you can do. Tuck it and run,” head coach Rex Ryan told Smith over and over again.
But running did not come naturally to Smith, who had always been a pocket quarterback. Yes, Smith ran the 40-yard dash in 4.59 seconds, the best among the quarterbacks at the 2013 Scouting Combine. But he only averaged 1.4 yards per carry on 245 rushes at West Virginia.
Slowly, though, Smith began to realize he needed to start running.
“It really hit home with me later on in the year,” Smith said. “I realized, ‘Man, I can’t keep forcing it down the field. I can’t keep trying to make every single play with my arm. These guys are too good at this level.’ A lot of things we need to do in terms of us getting first downs involves me using my feet. I just tried to make the best play possible. If it was there, I was going to throw it. I was going to get it to the guys. If not, I’d try to pick up a few yards and keep it on schedule.”
Smith made a change in the final month of the season and began taking off with the ball. He rushed 31 times in the final four games of the year for 186 yards and three touchdowns. During that time, the Jets went 3-1 and Smith played his best. He threw just two interceptions in those four games after throwing six in the previous three.
The 23-year-old said things really clicked against the Panthers in December. The Jets ended up losing 30-20, but they were in the game for most of the day against a playoff team.
“I started playing faster for some reason,” Smith said. “I know it was a direct approach of [quarterbacks coach David] Lee stayed on me all year about staying in your reads, knowing your reads, knowing your precise footwork. I was getting better and better and right around the Carolina game I knew I had it, as far as knowing where to go with the ball, knowing when it was and wasn’t there. Even in that game I forced a ball when I probably could have ran the ball and took care of us and maybe we would have had a better shot to win that game.”
The Jets coaches loved seeing Smith take off with the ball and felt it really added an element to the offense that had been missing.
“It’s a backbreaker,” Ryan said. “When a quarterback can run for first downs, it’s a backbreaker, especially on third downs. I think that was what he really did well for us.”
Smith said his rookie year with the Jets was the first time coaches pushed him to run.
“I’ve always been an athletic guy, but I don’t think it’s ever been emphasized to me that you can use this as an asset, you can hurt defenses with it, until I got here,” Smith said. “I’m learning more and more that defensive coordinators really hate guys that can run. When things are all covered up and you think you’ve got a guy sacked and he gets out of there and picks up some yards or scrambles and finds a guy downfield, it breaks down a defense. Those little games within the game makes for a better offense.”
This offseason, Smith said he “isolated myself from everybody.” He went to IMG Academy in Florida for two months and worked with the strength coaches there to add 10 pounds of muscle.
“I’ve been changing my body. A lot of it is for the girls,” Smith joked.
He also locked himself in a room with former NFL quarterback Chris Weinke and broke down all of last year’s film, including the games when he was terrible.
“It’s like jumping into a tub full of razor blades. You get all cut up,” Smith said, borrowing a phrase from Lee. “You watch it and you’re like, ‘Man, why did I do that? Why did I throw the ball here?’ My biggest thing is I was really going off the reservation and putting too much pressure on myself to make a play instead of allowing the game to come to me and just playing football and being natural and then when my time came being opportunistic and taking advantage of it.”
Even if that means taking off and running.