{"id":864039,"date":"2026-04-11T15:09:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T15:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/864039\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T15:09:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T15:09:14","slug":"geno-smith-is-already-jets-biggest-winner-of-the-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/864039\/","title":{"rendered":"Geno Smith is already Jets’ biggest winner of the 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

As was the case when he first joined the New York Jets<\/a> in 2013, Geno Smith\u2019s second stint in the green and white comes amid a rebuild.<\/p>\n

This time, though, Smith isn\u2019t the young, highly-touted prospect hoping to end a decades-long search for a franchise quarterback.<\/p>\n

Instead, Smith is tasked with starting ahead of whoever the Jets select in this month\u2019s NFL draft, whether it\u2019s Alabama\u2019s Ty Simpson<\/a> or Miami\u2019s Carson Beck.<\/a> Although nothing is guaranteed until draft weekend, all signs point to the Jets once again taking a quarterback.<\/p>\n

Jets coach Aaron Glenn has publicly committed<\/a> to Smith as the starter \u2014 not that Smith should care much, seeing as he\u2019s already won both the battle and the war.<\/p>\n

Geno Smith still wins regardless of which quarterback the Jets draft<\/p>\n

When the time comes, Smith \u2014 as all starting quarterbacks do \u2014 might say all the right things about how confident he is in the Jets and how he\u2019s the right man for the position.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most importantly for Smith, he gets paid either way. The Raiders are covering $16.2 million of his salary, and the Jets gave him a $3.3 million signing bonus.<\/p>\n

Sounds pretty good, right? Just ask Kirk Cousins, who made out like a bandit for most of last season in Atlanta.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To be clear, we\u2019re not suggesting that Smith is greedy or selfish. Far from it.<\/p>\n

However, Smith is taken care of whether the Jets take a quarterback<\/a> on Day 1 or Day 3. He\u2019s a 35-year-old who doesn\u2019t appear in a rush to retire.<\/p>\n

Barring disaster, Smith should join Andy Dalton and Joe Flacco in the veteran backup quarterback club. Those two will almost always be on rosters if they want to keep playing.<\/p>\n

Smith is the perfect stopgap option for a bad team. The Jets aren\u2019t tied to him beyond this year, and they\u2019re not exactly close to a playoffs-or-bust mentality.<\/p>\n

And, if anyone in the building does have that mindset, then they need a reality check.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jets fans must continue asking themselves what the true best-case scenario is for 2026. Objectively speaking, this is not a playoff-caliber roster.<\/p>\n

At best, the Jets are the third-best team in the AFC East \u2014 and if they are, then they\u2019re not too far ahead of the Dolphins.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say Jets fans should root for a 3-14 season. Tanking is never the answer.<\/p>\n

More than anything, the Jets need Smith to be competent and to stay healthy. Granted, those are the bare minimum of expectations.<\/p>\n

The bare minimum is fine, though, especially when you have nearly $20 million coming your way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As was the case when he first joined the New York Jets in 2013, Geno Smith\u2019s second stint…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[7,226,1917,255,2321,2097,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-864039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-jets","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jets","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-jets","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkjets","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116386710396891178","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}