MR. SMITH GOES TO MOTOWN: Tonight’s first preseason game for the Jets, at Detroit, is the perfect time for rookie quarterback Geno Smith to show he can grab the reins from incumbent Mark Sanchez and lead Gang Green, The Post’s Steve Serby writes. (
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DETROIT — OK, Geno Smith, let’s see what you’ve got.
We have heard Jets coach Rex Ryan rave about your arm. We have seen the footballs you throw whistle through the air like a Matt Harvey fastball. We have heard you talk about how your footwork has improved from the start of training camp.
Now it’s time.
It’s Showtime.
You are the People’s Choice, if not the organization’s choice, to unseat Mark Sanchez, to provide hope, not so much for the present, but for the future, when Jets fans can one day laugh about the infamous buttfumble that symbolized the 2012 Green and White Circus.
You have promised the moment won’t be too big for you. You have reminded us you have played in big games and big stadiums at West Virginia and you will therefore have no big butterflies. You have buried yourself in Marty Mornhinweg’s West Coast playbook, but this is a brave new world that awaits you, filled with faster, meaner predators looking to knock your block off when the commissioner isn’t looking.
But you have seen what Robert Griffin III and Russell Wilson and Andrew Luck did a year ago as rookies, what Colin Kaepernick did when 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh handed him the ball, and you say to yourself: Why not me?
Go win the job.
Everyone can read the handwriting on Sanchez’s wall. It says Dead Quarterback Walking. There is an air of inevitability about how this quarterback competition ultimately will end. You undoubtedly will be a pawn in a game of political football between a head coach who needs to win now and a rookie general manager who has the time to rebuild.
Show them, all of them, that your time is now.
Sanchez is making his Last Stand here. A defiant Last Stand. He means business. He doesn’t allow himself to think of standing on the sidelines holding a clipboard watching you quarterback his team. His last chance, his only chance, to hold onto his job is to hold onto the ball for a change.
You will watch him start tonight against the Lions. Then it will be your turn.
“When he comes to the huddle, he’s demanding,” rookie offensive lineman Will Campbell said. “He won’t enter the huddle … until where he can see everybody’s eyes. He makes sure everybody hears the play. … He’s just very verbal.”
You will visualize it all during the course of the day.
“I’m the type of guy that visualizes things so I’ll be kind of like seeing plays in my head, running through all the scenarios that could possibly happen,” Smith told The Post. “That’s pretty much how I prepare my mind for it — just go through every single scenario, every single play, every single situation. Just so I don’t be surprised by anything.”
You are certain you add an option Sanchez cannot with the read option, but you need to show the coaches they would not be throwing you to the wolves before you are ready. Because there is no Revis Island in college. No J. J. Watts. No Ndamukong Suh. No Bill Belichick. No Dick LeBeau. No — dare we say? — Gregg Williams.
Show the coaches you will not be the second coming of Browning Nagle, the second-round draft choice in 1991 after the Falcons beat the Jets to Brett Favre. Nagle had a rifle arm and trouble reading NFL defenses after management instructed then-head coach Bruce Coslet to make incumbent Ken O’Brien a $1.6 million backup. The 1992 Jets went 4-12, and after Nagle imploded (seven touchdowns, 17 interceptions, 49.6 completion percentage), the 1993 quarterback was Boomer Esiason.
You chose not to attend Jets West, a wise decision in this regard: Why be perceived as the second fiddle while Sanchez directs everything on his home turf? No disrespect intended, of course. All’s fair in love and quarterback war.
It was the dawn of a new day when you awakened early this morning.
“We’ll have meetings. … If I have some free time, I’ll go over my playbook again, go over some of the things that we installed in the game plan … make sure that I’m definitely eating, and hydrating … watch some film. I have DVDs, I have an IPad, so watch some tape … and then just try and prepare my mind, get prepared to go out there and just have good thoughts, go out there and play a good sound game,” Smith said.
No. 6 up first. Then No. 7 up.
Make your mark.