Far too often, New York Jets fans have had to sit through atrocious quarterback play, which has cost New York many games over the past 15 years.

Think back to 2025’s abject disaster at quarterback. Not only did the team cycle through three signal callers, but they had four games where they didn’t even net 60 passing yards, the most games to fall shy of that mark in a single season since the 2005 San Francisco 49ers.

While the 2026 Jets are 1-2 through two games, it looks like they may have finally found consistency under center. Could the team be 3-0? Yes. Should they be 2-1? Absolutely.

But the team’s underwhelming record has little to do with the QB play of Geno Smith.

Geno’s excellent start to the year

Entering the season, there were mixed opinions on Smith. Many fans sighed at the idea of bringing back the same quarterback who flamed out in the Big Apple a decade ago. Most folks in the mainstream media laughed at the idea of signing the QB who led the NFL in interceptions last year and chalked it up to another classic Jets move.

However, Michael Nania and I here at Jets X-Factor thought the move was largely cohesive given where the team was this offseason. I was more excited than most to see what Smith could do with the Jets’ offensive ecosystem. Before the start of the year, I even wrote over 2,000 words explaining every reason why he was poised to succeed this season.

So far, Smith has been everything any Jets fan could ask for. In three games, he has completed 77 of his 102 passing attempts (75.5%) for 787 yards (7.7 yards per attempt), four touchdowns, and zero interceptions. He leads the NFL in completion percentage and ranks fifth among 32 qualifiers in passer rating (110.0).

After leading the NFL with 17 interceptions last season, Smith has done an excellent job taking care of the ball. Despite being more cautious with the ball, he hasn’t shied away from taking shots.

In some cases, when a QB looks to reduce their INT total, they become much more conservative. Not Smith. His 7.7 yards per attempt in three games this year is his on track to be his highest since becoming the Seattle Seahawks’ starter in 2022, and it ranks ninth in the league. While it’s still early, it’s encouraging.

Jets fans have not seen quarterback play like this in quite some time. In fact, Smith’s 110.0 passer rating is the best by a Jets quarterback through the first three games of a season since Chad Pennington posted a 121.4 mark in 2007.

Even more impressive, according to Stathead, Smith is the first Jets quarterback in franchise history to complete at least 75% of his passes, average 7.0 or more yards per attempt, and post a passer rating of at least 100.0 over a three-game span with 100 or more attempts.

That is probably the most obvious evidence that Smith is doing everything he can to put the Jets in a position to win games. Despite that output, the Jets are still 1-2.

One of the most frustrating elements behind Sunday’s loss to the Detroit Lions is the fact that they wasted an outstanding performance by their quarterback. Without Smith, the Jets wouldn’t have had a chance of coming back from a multi-score deficit in the fourth quarter.

Smith was consistently able to get the ball in the hands of his top playmakers, Garrett Wilson and Kenyon Sadiq, who each went for over 100 yards and each found the end zone against Detroit. The pass from Smith on Sadiq’s 24-yard touchdown was beautiful, in particular.

Overall, Smith completed 31 of 37 passes (83.3%) for 321 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. It’s just the third time in Jets history that a quarterback threw for 300-plus yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions with a completion percentage of at least 80%, and the first time since Smith himself accomplished it in the Jets’ 2014 season finale (Ken O’Brien also pulled it off in 1986).

The Jets’ quarterbacks didn’t surpass 60 net passing yards in four games last year. Now, Smith has made Jets history with his impressive production to begin the year.

There has also been game-over-game improvement from the signal-caller this year. In Week 1, he completed 19 of 24 passes for 215 yards. He followed that with 247 yards against the Green Bay Packers last week, then threw for 321 yards as the Jets nearly completed a multi-score comeback in one quarter.

That’s the value in having an established pocket passer for Smith. Despite the circumstances and offensive approach changing over the first few weeks, he has still found a way to succeed. The Jets were also without Adonai Mitchell on Sunday due to a finger injury, who was Smith’s No. 1 target in Week 2.

If Smith was going to bring one thing to New York this year, it was going to be his accuracy. Yet, he has been even better than expected in that area. According to Pro Football Focus, his 84.0% adjusted completion percentage (which accounts for drops, etc) leads qualified QBs this season.

As the season progresses, we will see if those numbers are sustainable. The odds are that Smith won’t finish the year as a top-10 quarterback, but that’s okay. League-average QB play would exceed consensus expectations for Smith and be the best play under center New York fans have seen in over a decade.

While the Jets’ inability to close games over the past two weeks has been highly frustrating for Gang Green’s fanbase, the team’s quarterback play has been better than anyone expected three weeks into the season.