New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan recently announced that rookie quarterback Geno Smith may be used in a special read-option package this season.
The read-option quarterback has become a rising trend over the last few seasons, with several teams implementing the strategy into their offense with great success. We saw first hand last season how effective it can be: Colin Kaepernick in San Fransisco, Russell Wilson in Seattle, Robert Griffin III in Washington, and the list goes on.
While this could give a less-than-dynamic Jets offense a new wrinkle, it may be bad news for Smith, who is still looking to compete for the starting job. If Mark Sanchez were to be named the starter, Smith would rotate in occasionally, being deployed in his own offensive package. All of this sounds awfully familiar to Jets fans. In 2012 Tim Tebow was brought in to fill this exact same role, and the “Tebow package” saw very little success. Whether that was due to Tebow’s own ineptitude, or just a lack of opportunity is still up for debate.
“I know what everybody’s thinking, like ‘ugh, didn’t we try that last year?” Ryan said. “But certainly, that’s a possibility, you know, but to probably make assumptions now isn’t the thing to do. We’ll let this thing pan out.”
Geno Smith did not run the read-option offense on any consistent basis during his time at West Virginia, but Ryan does not think this will be an issue.
“I think he’s got the athleticism to do that,” Ryan said. “…He didn’t run a lot of zone reads and different things but he has the skill set to where there’s no reason he shouldn’t be able to do that.”
Whoever they choose to put behind center, the Jets will need to improve on offense if they look to make a run in 2013.
