Every year Mike Sando of The Athletic polls NFL executives and coaches about the league’s quarterbacks. The votes rank the relevant quarterbacks in the NFL and place them into tiers
.It probably doesn’t come as a major surprise, but coming off a rough 2025 season Geno Smith did not rate highly.
Smith was in Tier 4, which is defined as:
Veteran who ideally would not be a full-season starter
Unproven player; not enough information to classify
Smith came in at 30th of the 35 passers who were part of the ranking.
Smith suffered the largest year-over-year decline of any quarterback, falling from a career-best 2.90 average to 3.70. His 11-spot drop in the rankings tied Stroud’s for the largest.
“He looked terrible on the film we saw,” a defensive coordinator said.
The Raiders did Smith no favors.
“He got sacked 10 times in a game (against Cleveland),” a defensive coach said. “Once you get hit and keep getting hit and hit and hit, how good are you going to be? They had no identity on offense. Geno got a bad rap. He was getting murdered out there.”
Seven current GMs placed Smith in Tier 4. The eighth had him in Tier 5. Coaches liked Smith more than execs did.“It’s hard to tell because last year wasn’t fair, and before that he was a 3,” an offensive coach said. “I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he’s a 3 till proven otherwise.”
The five quarterbacks to rank lower than Geno were Deshaun Watson, Michael Penix, Jr. Jacoby Brissett, JJ McCarthy, and Shedeur Sanders.
Smith has his work cut out for him to revitalize his career. A happy Jets season will require the type of performance that lands him much higher on the 2027 quarterback ranking.
