Geno Smith thinks he has a poker face. Each week during his one season in Las Vegas, he would stand up in front of the media and deliver the most eye-roll inducing cliché non-answers you ever heard. The obviousness of his disingenuous answers were so bad that it came off as outright contempt for those asking the questions and his having to answer any questions at all.
Based on his press conference on Wednesday, he has clearly not changed since he arrived in New York.
The media seems to approach these with him knowing he won't actually give a real, genuine response to anything they ask, especially about facing his former team this week. But they had to ask anyway.
"It's another game," Geno said of facing the Raiders. "It's another opportunity for
us, as a team, to go out there and try and start a streak. Try and establish ourselves. We want to preach improvement every single week, so going against, obviously, a team I played on, I don't really put too much stock into it. I just think it's another game and that's the way we need to approach it. That's the way I approach every game. It's the most important game because it's the next one."
Based on his words and actions during last season, especially after the team showed they were on the path to having the worst record in the league, it became clear that Geno is anything but someone who would see facing his former team as just "another game."
Geno Smith flips off Raiders fans
The first instance came during a game in late November in which Geno flipped off fans. This would be bad enough if it were opposing fans, but these were Raiders fans, at home, who he was flipping off. We're talking about a 35-year-old man. With the emotional intelligence of a teenager. Not the unaffected, unemotional "it's another opportunity for us" guy he thinks he's convincing people he is.
He would apologize for the gesture, but just like most of his statements in front of the press, it rang as dishonest. And he seemed more upset that he had to apologize at all.
Geno Smith says he's got a bright future
Let's be clear; Geno Smith was put in a near impossible situation in Las Vegas. Specifically behind that terrible offensive line with incompetent coaching. But what started as some pretty obvious subtext behind every "I have to do better" became a clear message that he had shifting to looking out for number one.
Exactly a week after he made his flip-off apology, he said "I got a bright future I know that for sure," seeming to suggest that he's gonna be fine regardless of what happens with the Raiders with a tone the suggests he already had one foot out the door.
Geno Smith thanks God after Raiders trade him away
The moment the trade to New York went through, Geno wasted no time letting everyone know how happy he was to be out of Las Vegas. In a tweet that was basically the text equivalent of Antonio Brown running out and jumping in his pool, Geno said God is the GREATEST. THANK U LORD.
The responses from fans thanking their 'Tank Commander' likely had him flipping them off all over again. Probably with both hands.
Sorry, that's not fair. Clearly he is not emotional like that. This is just another game. Like any other. Another opportunity to get better. Preparing as a team for the next game on the schedule.
Sure, bud.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Jets QB Geno Smith pretending facing former team Raiders just 'another game'
