NOT A PUP ANYMORE
Second-year Smith finally healthy and ready to take field
You probably forgot Devin Smith was still on the Jets roster.
It’s usually difficult for secondround draft picks to hide, but Smith’s brief NFL career has been so star-crossed since the Jets took the receiver with the 37th overall pick in 2015 that he has virtually been invisible — except on the injury report.
Smith suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung early in his first training camp, missing significant practice time crucial to a rookie’s development.
Last Dec. 12, after finally earning some playing time, Smith was covering a punt against the Titans when he blew out his right knee, was carted off the field and later told he had suffered a season-ending torn anterior cruciate ligament.
The rehab from that injury caused him to miss the early part of this season, as he was placed on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list.
Finally, after a long, arduous road, it looks as if Smith will be back on the field again Sunday against the 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif.
He’ll bring with him, as experience, the 10 games he played last season, the nine catches for 115 yards and a touchdown he posted as a rookie, and a lot of scar tissue for a second-year player.
But Smith, who was a gamebreaking speedster at Ohio State, looks at this as a new beginning. He said he knows what the public perception of him is — another in a long list of Jets high-draft-pick busts — but he’s trying to ignore the outside noise and press on with his dream, and that begins Sunday.
One of the byproducts to a team being 3-9 is the coaches have all the time in the world to play their young players and evaluate them for the future. Smith is a big part of that evaluation process.
Whether or not Smith is able to become a key part of the Jets’ offense will have an impact on how general manager Mike Maccagnan’s first two drafts are evaluated. Smith was Maccagnan’s first second-round pick and project quarterback Christian Hackenberg was his second-round pick this past spring.
The Jets, for some reason, have a horrid history of second-round draft picks who never becoming good NFL players.
“I think I can do a lot. I feel like I can make some noise in this league, really push the envelope for myself,’’ Smith told The Post. “I’m not too worried about what other people think, the outside criticism, because they don’t know what goes on inside the building.’’
What’s been going on behind closed doors in the Jets’ Florham Park, N.J., building is a lot of hard work by Smith to make his way back onto the football field.
“It’s been tough — especially with the record that we have and the games that we’ve lost and me not being there trying to do something to help,’’ Smith said. “I’m just going to continue to work hard, and whatever they need me to do, I’ll do. I’m just waiting my turn.’’
Smith thought his turn was starting to come last year about the time when he got hurt.
“The game was starting to slow down for me a little bit,’’ Smith said. “I was starting to understand things on the field. I was definitely moving in the right di- rection last year when I got hurt.
“Honestly, the hardest part was facing the fact that I was done playing football for a while, because I’ve been hurt, but not in this magnitude. Now, I’m back in this position where I’m close to getting back onto the field. I feel like I’ve put a lot of work in. My weight has gotten up, I feel like my strength has gotten a lot better. Physically, I feel good and ready to be back out there.
“I’ve learned last year and this year to be patient, and to have patience. It’s kind of out of my con- trol. I can’t just go up the coaches and say, ‘Put me in the game.’ ’’
Coach Todd Bowles said “there’s a good chance’’ Smith finally will play Sunday. With Bowles, that means Smith will be playing.
“I’m just preparing like I’m going to play,’’ said Smith, who has been off the PUP list and practicing with the Jets since Oct 19. “I just have to continue to do that and we’ll see come Sunday. I’m going to continue to keep working hard and my chance is going to come.’’