The Jacksonville Jaguars have been linked to a handful of quarterbacks in the 2013 NFL Draft, most notably West Virginia's Geno Smith, who many expect to be drafted in the top half of the first round. Opinions on Geno Smith seem to be all over the map however, which always stirs up debate when talking about whether or not the Jaguars should draft him second overall.
One take of Geno Smith I read and thought was really well done and quite spot on was by Mike Tanier of Sports on Earth, who had a very interesting comparison for Smith... Tony Romo.
That's it! Geno Smith is Tony Romo! The streaks, the lapses, the rhythm passes, the highlights, the head-scratchers, the athleticism, the polarization. He's Romo, and he takes too much blame when things go wrong for his team, even though he deserves some of that blame. He can develop into a quarterback who wins five or six games per year for his team all by himself, then loses about two or three all by himself, then plays at a fairly high level in the other eight. Like Romo's Cowboys, that can result in 13-3 seasons or 6-10 seasons, depending on who is surrounding him.
Romo is a good quarterback, often a great one. Is he a student of the game? It depends on who you talk to, when you talked to them, and what they felt like telling you. For Romo, that sort of talk is irrelevant now. Someday, it will be for Smith, too.
Romo is another quarterback who's opinions are often split. Some people don't think he's very good at all while others think he's a Top 12 quarterback in the league, he's just on a team that is over-managed by their owner, Jerry Jones.
In Romo's career with the Cowboys, he's 55-38 in the regular season, throwing for nearly 26,000 yards with a near 2:1 TD:INT ratio in his career (177:91). Romo is 1-3 in the post season, often taking the brunt of the blame when the Cowboys lose, however.
Romo just signed a massive extension, which led to a lot of criticism of both Romo and Jones, but if you knew that Tony Romo was going to be what he was, would you have drafted him second overall?
Furthermore, if you knew that Geno Smith would wind up being Tony Romo, would you draft him second overall?
Personally, if you could guarantee me Smith would be Romo I would sprint the card with his name on it to the podium. But then again, I think Romo is a Top 12 quarterback in the NFL.