The New York Jets used to pray for times like this.

New York fans have endured many a season in which their team seemed to be on the verge of either playoff or title contention, only to be held back by some of the worst quarterback play in the NFL. Plenty of examples quickly come to mind.

From 2009 to 2010, the Jets led the league in both total defense and rushing yards, but they only managed to earn two wild card appearances due to Mark Sanchez ranking 28th out of 29 quarterbacks in passer rating over that span. Sanchez turned it on in the playoffs to lead two AFC championship game runs, but the team arguably would have been the title favorite in either season with merely league-average quarterback play.

From 2022 to 2023, the Jets again had a two-year span in which they had an elite defense (second-best in total yards allowed), and this time it was Zach Wilson holding them back, ranking second-worst among 32 qualified quarterbacks in passer rating.

After the botched Wilson experiment, Aaron Rodgers and Justin Fields tried and failed to give New York the merely competent quarterback play they have long yearned for. Next up was Geno Smith, a man previously known as one of the Jets’ many unsuccessful quarterback draft picks in a long line of them.

Not only has Smith cleared the low bar that Jets fans been waiting for, but he might even be having the most prolific passing season of any quarterback to don a Jets uniform.

Although it still hasn’t changed the Jets’ fortunes in the standings, Smith’s first eight games of 2026 have him on a staggering pace when stacked up across franchise history.

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Geno Smith’s historic pace

Here are some of Smith’s numbers and where they rank across the NFL through Week 8:

  • Passing yards: 1,913 (9th)
  • Passer rating: 104.5 (6th)
  • Completion percentage: 69.0% (4th)
  • Passing touchdowns: 12 (T-13th)
  • Touchdown-interception margin: +9 (T-8th)

Now, here is where Smith’s 2026 numbers are on pace to rank in Jets history, projecting them over 17 games:

  • Passing yards: 4,064 (1st)
  • Passer rating: 104.5 (1st)
  • Completion percentage: 69.0% (1st)
  • Passing touchdowns: 26 (T-4th)
  • Touchdown-interception margin: +20 (T-2nd)

Is… is this man really on track for the greatest quarterback season in Jets history?

Clearly, that case can be made if Smith finishes with those numbers; after all, he’d be the franchise’s single-season record holder for passing yards, passer rating, and completion percentage, while placing second in touchdown-interception margin and fourth in total passing touchdowns. That sure sounds No. 1-worthy.

However, there are some caveats worth keeping in mind before handing Smith the (somewhat) prestigious title.

17 games

First and foremost, Smith will benefit from the added 17th game that has only existed since 2021. None of his competitors in the Jets’ all-time quarterbacking race had a 17th game.

If Smith were limited to 16 games, he would project to rank a few spots lower in volume-based categories. He’d be on pace to finish fifth in passing yards (3,826), 10th in passing touchdowns (24), and third in touchdown-to-interception margin (+18).

The efficiency metrics, of course, can be compared regardless of games played. In fact, maintaining these numbers over more games would actually favor Smith in terms of impressiveness.

Still, it is certainly worth noting that an extra game can be extremely advantageous for a player in these all-time statistical races.

Overall efficiency

Smith looks elite in the box score, but he is the type of quarterback whose flaws don’t really show up in the most basic box-score stats, so he does not look quite as excellent when you evaluate him using some of the more advanced quarterback metrics.

The main issue for Smith this season has been his propensity for sacks, as he has taken the second-most (23) and lost the most yards on those (194). Sacks do not affect any of the basic metrics we outlined above, but they obviously have a major effect on winning, so they can create a discrepancy between a QB’s box-score performance and his actual impact. Smith is also one of the league’s weakest rushing quarterbacks.

Due to these factors, advanced metrics aren’t quite as high on Smith as his top-eight rankings in passer rating (6th), completion percentage (4th), and touchdown-to-interception margin (8th). He ranks 18th in QBR (59.6), 14th in adjusted EPA per play (0.132), 14th in DVOA (3.8%), and ninth in PFF’s overall grade (80.9).

Of course, those are still impressive numbers; they average out to make Smith an above-average starting quarterback, which is well beyond the expectations that most people had for him entering the year, and still good enough to make him the Jets’ best quarterback in years and one of their best in franchise history.

But in terms of whether Smith is having the best quarterback season in Jets history, his advanced metrics certainly weaken his case.

Era adjustments

NFL passing numbers have continuously risen leaguewide over the course of history. The average QB today is bound to put up numbers that would be MVP-caliber in 1970.

That sentence isn’t hyperbole. The 1970 league MVP, San Francisco’s John Brodie, had a league-high 93.8 passer rating, which in 2025 would have ranked 17th in the league between Jacoby Brissett and C.J. Stroud.

When comparing players across eras, you have to account for the changes in the league averages. Greatness has to be measured relative to what “great” looked like at the time, otherwise, nearly every quarterback in today’s NFL should be in the Hall of Fame. Gardner Minshew has a higher career passer rating than Dan Marino.

While Smith is on pace for the some of the best single-season numbers in Jets history, both in terms of volume and efficiency, he is not having the best QB season in Jets history relative to the current league averages. Other Jets QBs have stood out more relative to their peers at the time, particularly that one guy who guaranteed a Super Bowl victory.

Unfortunately, advanced metrics do not go back far enough to compare Smith against Joe Namath’s 1967 season in adjusted EPA per net dropback divided by the radius of the sun and multiplied by the square root of the waning gibbous (garbage-time adjusted). But even if we stick to the basic metrics, Namath had higher-ranked seasons than the one Smith is having.

When Namath threw for 4,007 yards in 1967, it was revolutionary. He became the first 4,000-yard passer in professional football history, and nobody did it again until 12 years later (Dan Fouts).

Critics will poke holes in Namath’s AFL-high 28 interceptions that season, but he led the league in passing attempts with 491; his 5.7% interception rate was actually below the league average (5.9%). And even with that lofty total of attempts, his 8.2 yards per pass attempt led the AFL, too, so it’s not as if he simply spammed a ton of passes to hit the 4,000-yard mark.

It could be argued that Namath’s 1967 season was his best, but it wasn’t his only dominant campaign. He was an All-Pro in 1967, 1968, 1969, and 1972, including a first-team nod in 1968.

In 1972, Namath ranked third in NFL MVP voting in just the Jets’ third season as an NFL team, leading the league in passing yards (2,816), passing touchdowns (19), and yards per pass attempt (8.7, a still-standing franchise record). If you want to take it a step further, he even led the NFL in net yards per pass attempt in 1972, with a franchise-record 8.1, which accounts for sacks and sack yardage. Smith is 13th in net yards per pass attempt this season (6.6), a much lower ranking than his sixth-place spot in standard yards per pass attempt (8.0), showing the impact of his sacks.

Relative to league average, Namath’s groundbreaking explosiveness in his heyday still takes the cake in Jets history. There have been a few other standout campaigns since then, too.

Ken O’Brien won the passer rating title in 1985 (96.2). Chad Pennington pulled off the same feat in 2002 (104.2), although he only started 12 games. Pennington’s mark remains the franchise record.

Pennington also had a 52.3% passing success rate in 2002, second in the league behind MVP Rich Gannon, and a still-standing Jets franchise record as far back as 1977, the earliest season the metric is available. Smith is at 46.9% this season, ranking 12th in the NFL and on track to finish ninth on the Jets’ single-season list (min. 300 attempts).

In 1998, Vinny Testaverde ranked second in passer rating (101.6) and had the league’s highest successful-pass rate (49.8%).

So, it’s safe to say that, on his current trajectory, Geno Smith is not on pace for the best quarterback season in Jets history. Nonetheless, he is on pace to break multiple single-season franchise records, which is still extremely impressive—and a damning indictment of the 2026 squad for wasting his tremendous efforts.