Geno Smith is back with the New York Jets, and he is already talking about the reunion like something out of a movie. The 35-year-old quarterback said Thursday that helping the franchise find success in his second stint there would feel like a superhero story, while insisting the only path forward is steady work.
“It’s kind of like one of those superhero movies, but my life is based on reality,” Smith said. “We’ve got to focus on getting better every single day.”
That is why the former Jets starter is drawing attention now. Smith rejoined the team after eight seasons away, then walked back into the same hall he first used after the Jets drafted him in the second round in 2013. He said the visit brought everything back at once, from the first days of his NFL career to seeing his mother in the locker room. “Coming in for physicals and just walking down the hall again -- it was the very first hall I walked down when I got drafted -- all those feelings come back,” he said.
The emotional reset matters because the Jets are trying to crawl out of one of the longest cold stretches in the league. They finished 3-14 in 2025, their 10th straight losing season and one of 13 losing seasons in the past 15 years. New York has not been to the postseason since the 2009 and 2010 seasons, when it reached back-to-back AFC Championship Games. Smith knows the size of the task, but he also sees a roster that looks more complete than the one he left behind in Las Vegas.
“Just great feelings, great memories, seeing my mom in the locker room, and I started just thinking about my first time in the NFL, first time here,” he said. “Immediately, it clicked right back in: I’ve got to get to work. I just got right back to that.”
Smith’s return comes after he revived his career with the Seattle Seahawks, where he won Comeback Player of the Year in 2022 and made two straight Pro Bowls. The Raiders traded him to New York in March after a difficult 2025 season in Las Vegas, and the Jets are now asking him to help steer a team that has spent most of the last decade searching for stability.
He may have more help this time. Garrett Wilson is back as his top target, while the Jets added Tim Patrick, Adonai Mitchell and Mason Taylor to the passing game and supplemented that group with first-round picks Kenyon Sadiq and Omar Cooper Jr. Running back Breece Hall also returned on a three-year extension. Smith did not hide the scale of his aim. “We want to be the best team in the world,” he said. “I don’t feel shy about saying that, but I understand there’s a lot of work to be done.”
For the Jets, that is the whole story in one sentence: a quarterback they once drafted is back, the roster around him is deeper, and the burden on the season is immediate. If this turnaround is going to start anywhere, it has to start with the player who says the old hallway already feels familiar again.
