Rex Ryan on Geno Smith’s four-pick practice: ‘It was brutal’

A day after he defended Geno Smith against criticism from the rookie quarterback’s former West Virginia teammates, New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan had some criticism for Smith himself.

Only it wasn’t a personal attack like the ones from the Mountaineers who questioned their ex-quarterback’s leadership abilities. Ryan was simply giving an honest assessment of Smith’s performance at Jets practice Wednesday.

“It was brutal,” Ryan said. “It was Geno’s worst day.”

Ryan probably isn’t going to get an argument from anyone, even Smith, who threw four interceptions, including three during 11-on-11 team drills.

It all must be bad news for Jets fans who were hoping that when their beloved team took Smith in the second round of this year’s draft, it marked the end of the Mark Sanchez era -- something many of them are sure to label “brutal” as well.

In Smith’s defense, he was practicing on the ankle he sprained during Saturday’s preseason opener. And it showed, although Smith said the injury wasn’t bothering him.

But Ryan indicated that the ankle could prevent Smith from playing against the Jaguars this weekend.

“I don’t think he’s at 100%. I don’t believe he’s close to 100% right now, but again, that doesn’t mean we have a few more days, that it can’t get a lot better,” Ryan said. “We’ve seen these type of injuries get better in a hurry, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Injury or not, though, Ryan made it clear that days like Wednesday are not acceptable.

“Obviously, the ankle’s part of it, but ... way too many picks and things. Did not look comfortable today,” Ryan said. “Obviously he has to come back from it -- he will come back from it. It was a bad day. Everybody, we’ve seen it, guys have bad days. But this was a really bad day for Geno.”

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