Jensen Smith (born September 1st, 1995) is an American football quarterback for the New York Jets of the National Football League. He played college football at Florida State, and was selected by the Jets with their first overall pick of the 2018 NFL Draft.
Smith was ranked as a 5-star prospect coming out of high school and recieved offers from Ohio State, Texas A&M, USC and Florida State. After redshirting his freshman year at Florida State, he was named the Seminoles starting quarterback during his junior season. Smith helped lead his team to the College Football Playoffs as he posted a 12-1 record as their starter. On January 13th, 2016, Smith would lead Florida State to an improbable victory over Ohio State, after being down 21 points towards the end of the fourth quarter of the National Championship game.
As a junior, Smith improved on Florida State's previous year record by leading his team to a 13-0 record. Smith was named the winner of the Heisman Trophy on December 15th, 2017, joining current Tampa Bay Buccaneers starting quarterback, Jameis Winston, as the second Florida State quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy within the last five years.
With their 13-0 regular season record, Florida State entered the College Football playoffs as the #1 seed with Smith leading the team. On January 3rd, 2018, Smith helped lead Florida State to a victory over Texas A&M at the 2018 Rose Bowl. Smith went 30-42 for 395 yards and three touchdowns in a 42-38 victory. Florida State would then face Clemson in the National Championship, where Smith would lead Florida State to back-to-back championships after defeating Clemson 49-46 in a close game. He completed 35 out of 45 attempts for 415 yards and five touchdowns in the National Championship game, and led Florida State to victory by engineering a game winning drive which resulted into the game-winning touchdown within the final seconds of the game. Smith declared for the 2018 NFL draft on January 29th, 2018, forgoing his final year of college elgibility.
After the NFL Scouting Combine, Smith was regarded by analysts to be the best quarterback prospect of the draft.
On April 29th, 2018, the New York Jets selected Smith with the 1st overall pick of the 2018 NFL Draft.
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