Aug 10, 2026 · 1 hr 6 min · 12 segments
On the Season Three premiere of Jets Final Drive, SNY NFL Insider Connor Hughes and The Athletic's Zack Rosenblatt come together for another season of Jets football, as they break down all things…
Connor HughesHost
Zack RosenblattHost
Let's start here, Zach, because I believe that we start 90% of our shows this way, but it truly is important here.
The Jets have a new quarterback again, and it is none other than old friend Geno Smith.
I came back and looking at Geno, after looking at Jackson Dart, I was like, dude, Geno looks pretty good.
I mean, that spiral that he looked, I mean, basically throughout his entire career, he's always thrown one of the better spirals in the NFL.
that's still there even in his mid-30s he's still as aggressive as he's ever been this isn't like when Russell Wilson came to the Giants and suddenly got terrified of throwing the football and I think he's looked pretty good now granted he's going up against the Jets defense are they any good but I've been I've been pleasantly surprised with Gino I think
yeah you know I've I've talked about this a bunch both in writing and on my other podcast uh flight plan like I I think the bar isn't that high for us, and I'm not saying this to disparage him, but the bar isn't that high for us in terms of what we've watched in training camp practices, like with quarterbacks throwing the ball.
We watched Justin Fields last year where we're all looking around like, is he ever going to throw the ball down the field? And that was in preseason games too.
And, you know, Zach Wilson – you know, is missing like the short passes and things like that.
Like he's one of the best practice quarterbacks I've covered in terms of like what I've seen this summer in terms of like what he's capable of.
Like you watch him even next to their backups and his, his arm is just like, you know, really far ahead of Cade Klubnick and Bailey Zappi and Brady Cook in terms of where he can get the ball.
he's not afraid to throw it which is fun for us because when you are watching a quarterback do check downs all of training camp it's not the best aaron rogers will probably always be the best practice quarterback i'll ever cover like just because he can do such amazing things with the football the no looks and things like that and he's not getting hit so aaron rogers not getting hit like there's nothing better than watching him throw the football but in but like in terms of what gino is capable of like It's fun to watch in practice, and we'll see how he does when the season starts and how he does, you know, he struggles under pressure generally.
But, yeah, I think he's been, you know, if we're going to say, like, has he exceeded or fallen below expectations, I'd say he's exceeded my expectations going into a training camp with Geno Smith.
I don't get the impression he, like he always had like the arm talent, but I don't get the impression he was this like efficient and like he made this many wow throws necessarily.
Like you can speak to that better than I can, but he's clearly grown and his IQ has gone way up just through experience and things like that.
Let's start here, Zach, because I believe that we start 90% of our shows this way, but it truly is important here.
The Jets have a new quarterback again, and it is none other than old friend Geno Smith.
I came back and looking at Geno, after looking at Jackson Dart, I was like, dude, Geno looks pretty good.
I mean, that spiral that he looked, I mean, basically throughout his entire career, he's always thrown one of the better spirals in the NFL.
that's still there even in his mid-30s he's still as aggressive as he's ever been this isn't like when Russell Wilson came to the Giants and suddenly got terrified of throwing the football and I think he's looked pretty good now granted he's going up against the Jets defense are they any good but I've been I've been pleasantly surprised with Gino I think
yeah you know I've I've talked about this a bunch both in writing and on my other podcast uh flight plan like I I think the bar isn't that high for us, and I'm not saying this to disparage him, but the bar isn't that high for us in terms of what we've watched in training camp practices, like with quarterbacks throwing the ball.
We watched Justin Fields last year where we're all looking around like, is he ever going to throw the ball down the field? And that was in preseason games too.
And, you know, Zach Wilson – you know, is missing like the short passes and things like that.
Like he's one of the best practice quarterbacks I've covered in terms of like what I've seen this summer in terms of like what he's capable of.
Like you watch him even next to their backups and his, his arm is just like, you know, really far ahead of Cade Klubnick and Bailey Zappi and Brady Cook in terms of where he can get the ball.
he's not afraid to throw it which is fun for us because when you are watching a quarterback do check downs all of training camp it's not the best aaron rogers will probably always be the best practice quarterback i'll ever cover like just because he can do such amazing things with the football the no looks and things like that and he's not getting hit so aaron rogers not getting hit like there's nothing better than watching him throw the football but in but like in terms of what gino is capable of like It's fun to watch in practice, and we'll see how he does when the season starts and how he does, you know, he struggles under pressure generally.
But, yeah, I think he's been, you know, if we're going to say, like, has he exceeded or fallen below expectations, I'd say he's exceeded my expectations going into a training camp with Geno Smith.
I don't get the impression he, like he always had like the arm talent, but I don't get the impression he was this like efficient and like he made this many wow throws necessarily.
Like you can speak to that better than I can, but he's clearly grown and his IQ has gone way up just through experience and things like that.
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