Geno Smith to Detroit Lions: My Dream/Nightmare

With the New York Jets re-signing wayward starting quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, fellow QB Geno Smith is left in roster limbo. Smith, the team’s second-round pick back in 2013, is not expected to make the Jets now. The Jets drafted youngsters Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg in the last two seasons with a management and coaching regime that didn’t select Smith. Now Geno sure appears to be the odd man out in New York.

I fell asleep Thursday night hearing this very discussion on some sports radio channel. Unfortunately, it led me to a vivid and starkly real dream. Or was it a nightmare?

I’m hunched over my laptop in a messy living room writing a future headline that reads “Detroit Lions sign Geno Smith”.

I awakened in a sweaty, confused mess. At 4:07 AM, the line between dream and reality is blurry, yet this seemed too real.

I tried rolling over and shuffling the pillows, but the vision of Smith standing on the sideline in a Detroit Lions uniform in the preseason finale wouldn’t get out of my head. In my drowsy, uncaffeinated state my mind really ran wild with this notion.

Oh my God, it’s going to happen, isn’t it? My cat, agitated that I moved my feet and disrupted her slumber, failed to respond to my silent inquisition as we made eye contact under the white light of my phone. Her bemused deportment only fueled the war inside my head.

It makes too much sense. The Lions are clearly building competition all over the roster, quarterback being no exception. Heck, they brought in Jimmy Clausen this week. If that’s not a sign of discontent with incumbent backup Dan Orlovsky and rookie sixth-rounder Jake Rudock…

My mind raced. I was just on a podcast where we broached the subject of Matthew Stafford’s long-term future. If he’s not the Stafford we saw at the end of last season, but more of the sporadically great yet generally disappointing quarterback Detroit Lions fans have come to know, the team could conceivably pull the plug after 2016.

Orlovsky sure as hell isn’t a long-term solution. The odds are strong Rudock ever will be more than a backup quarterback the team desperately hopes never plays meaningful action. They’re going to need a Plan B. Geno Smith totally fits the bill.

He’s young but experienced, having started 29 games in his first two years in New York before the Todd Bowles regime hitched its wagon to the wildly hirsute Fitzpatrick. Smith had some success. Heck, he pitched a perfect QB Rating in his last start, posting a 20-for-25 for 358 yards and 3 TDs in the 2014 season finale against Miami.

Matthew Stafford’s line two months earlier against those same Dolphins? 25-for-40, 280 yards, 2 TDs and one INT. And he had Calvin Johnson, Golden Tate, a healthy Reggie Bush and Theo Riddick as targets. Geno had, uh, Eric Decker, Jeff Cumberland and something called Chris Owusu to throw at.

My head is now spinning. It all makes too much sense. Lions GM Bob Quinn is going to put all of these fragmented thoughts in my fuzzy reality together and sign Smith.

As I shuffled to the kitchen to get a drink of water and hopefully wash away the dream, I begin to wonder if this would be a positive or a negative. Is it a dream or was it a nightmare after all?

The Lions do need a better backup quarterback behind Stafford. I’ve advocated this position for years now in beating back the hopelessly deluded Kellen Moore sycophants and cringing every time I watch Dan-O run the offense in training camp sessions or preseason. Smith is better than either of those guys, for sure.

Geno would come to Detroit hungry to prove himself and to prove the Jets made a huge mistake. He won eight games as a rookie under Rex Ryan, a coach notorious for chewing up and spitting out quarterbacks the way Lions DL Coach Kris Kocurek attacks his chewing tobacco. Yet they gave up on him for a guy in Fitzpatrick who choked worse than Stafford detractors could ever imagine, blowing a “win and you’re in, lose and go home” contest against the now-hated Ryan’s Buffalo Bills in last season’s final game, throwing 3 INTs and wetting the bed.

A quick survey of the available quarterbacks reinforces the outcome of the dream. It’s truly a nightmare when someone as lousy as Nick Foles gets cut by the Rams and immediately draws interest from as many as ten teams. He’s not better than Case Keenum to be overhyped rookie Jared Goff’s backup in Los Angeles, but playoff teams like the Broncos and Vikings supposedly have legit interest in Foles.

Now I’m pretty awake, scared straight into lucidity as I obsess over the Detroit Lions signing Geno Smith in my dream. Oh yeah, it’s bound to happen. This is exactly what Bill Belichick and the Patriots would do, and that where new Lions GM Bob Quinn learned how to do business. Take advantage of other team’s mistakes.

It is a mistake for the Jets to cut Geno Smith, at least from a strictly football sense. He’s proven himself a viable young quarterback with enough ability to win games with a pretty meager supporting cast. Sure he’s got warts, namely a lack of decisiveness. There are strong indications he’s not well-liked or respected in the locker room. Need proof?

Quinn and the Lions could earn benevolence points by taking a shot on Smith. He’ll likely come cheap and should appreciate the chance to prove himself to the NFL once again.

Holy crap, I mutter as I pour the day’s first coffee into my Detroit Lions mug. I realize I’m also wearing Lions shorts and gaze upon the large picture of Ford Field hanging prominently in my den. My FanSided brain is talking myself into Detroit signing Geno being a great move.

Was it truly a dream? Did the spirit of the late Miss Cleo possess me with a vision of the near future? Or was it a nightmare?

Only time will tell. Until then, I’m going to try and get some much-needed sleep.