‘Tis the Season for Jets Fans’ Unrealistic Optimism. Case in Point: Rich!!!

Geno Smith is back in Jets green, and Rich has already built the entire season out of one preseason drive in Pittsburgh.

He knows it. That is the joke. It is also, if you have ever been a Jets fan in late August, completely sincere.

"The football DeLorean," Rich called it, and then immediately advised the audience to write that down as a fantasy team name. Smith setting the clock back to whenever the good times were, whenever the hell that was. People wrote him off once before, and he responded by declining to write back.

The desk tried to puncture it inside of ten seconds. Right up until the time he got punched in the face, came the reply, which is a reference no one feeling good about Geno Smith wants to hear.

"Don't bring up IK Enemkpali to me when I'm feeling good about Geno Smith," Rich said.

That is the ground rule, and it did not hold. Somebody announced they hate this team. Rich, unmoved, pointed out that a Dodger fan who left the Yankees behind does not get to start ripping the Jets. The answer came back that he has always ripped them. Rich asked not to be brought down. The reply: I'm a child.

So Rich did what optimists do in preseason. He built the roadmap.

Geno shows up like Seattle Geno. Breece Hall shows up like the first and second year Breece Hall, before the knee. Braelon Allen shows up like the guy from preseason week one who found a crease and took it to the house. Garrett Wilson shows up like offensive rookie of the year Garrett Wilson. Adonai Mitchell shows up the way he does right before the goal line, purposely or accidentally. Omar Cooper Jr. shows up like the kid at the end of the Penn State game, when Fernando Mendoza first hit Indiana and the mania went running wild.

Mason Taylor shows up like Brian Kelly going for it on fourth down, winning a big-time football game back when he was promising recruits numbers he took away once they arrived. That one earned a pause, and a genuinely funny "is this thing on?" when the room did not immediately reward it.

And the defense shows up the way it did in preseason week two in Pittsburgh, where the Jets recorded not one but two interceptions. Rich said it twice, because the concept required emphasis. One team throws the ball at the Jets defense, and the Jets defense catches it and takes it away.

"We talking playoffs or what?"

The honest answer was no better than "I don't know, man." But the roadmaps were already out on the table.

Rich pulled it back toward something like a plan at the end, which is the tell that he is not entirely kidding. Minkah Fitzpatrick. DeMario Davis, a solid, long-standing veteran. Protect them. Stay healthy.

That is the whole thesis, and it is not nothing. It is also August, when every Jets thesis is undefeated.