Tom Rock: Memo to the Jets and Giants . . . homecomings don't always work
From left: Jets linebacker Demario Davis, Giants wide reciever Odell Beckham Jr., and Jets quarterback Geno Smith. Credit: Getty Images/Adam Hunger; Noah K. Murray; Ed Murray
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Few NFL narrative arcs spark as much conversation and elicit as much interest as a good ol’ homecoming. A player starts out with one team, departs on a journey, then at some point returns to where it all began, a slightly altered version of himself.
It’s like “The Odyssey,” only with football teams in place of mystical islands and front office personnel instead of a cyclops or siren.
“You go off to places and you learn so much more,” linebacker Demario Davis, back for his third stint with the Jets, said of those epic tales. “You get exposed not only to the game on the field but the game of life . . . To be able to accumulate all of that knowledge and wisdom and to be joining forces and reconnect is special.”
New York right now is at peak levels of this phenomenon, not just in its IMAX movie theaters but in its training camps.
The Jets have Davis, whom they drafted in 2012, did not sign as a free agent in 2016, regretted that and traded for him later that season, then let him leave in free agency again in 2017. He became a five-time All-Pro with the Saints and is slated to be the centerpiece of Aaron Glenn’s defense.
They also have Geno Smith, their 2013 draft pick and one-time “quarterback of the future” who was not given a second contract, bounced around and toiled in shadows, became a trusted backup, emerged as a solid starter and even a Pro Bowler for the Seahawks, failed as a Raider and was reacquired by the Jets in a trade this past spring.
The Giants added one-time sensation Odell Beckham Jr. to their receiver room despite a long injury-forced layoff from the sport and a career in which he reached highs and lows — sometimes on the very same day. Beckham tore an ACL while helping the Rams win a Super Bowl.
Around the league, the same thing is taking place. Aaron Donald seems poised to return to the Rams. Deebo Samuel just came back to the 49ers.
All of this is irresistible catnip for fans, not to mention those of us who cover the teams. Familiar faces whose back stories already have been forged and who can harken back to the olden days (even if those weren’t successful) and complete the full circles we inherently want to close up neatly and firmly. We all get a visceral reaction to the things we already know.
Too bad they hardly ever work out.
That’s the unspoken reality of these feel-good sagas. They rarely feel good in the end. They never seem to star Matt Damon. In football, it’s nearly impossible to go home again.
To find two of the biggest successes in this realm, you have to go back decades. John Riggins had consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons for Washington before retiring at the end of the 1979 season. In 1981, he told reporters, “I’m bored, I’m broke, I’m back” — and he wound up being better than he was before his departure.
Before that, the shiniest example of the second act probably was Fran Tarkenton, who had two winning stints with the Vikings on either end of a Giants tenure in which he experienced very little winning at all.
Still, teams keep trying it. They’re as addicted to it as we are.
One big reason why such moves are doomed to certain failure has to do with the very small window during which players are in their primes. Once they start to look a little washed up, it’s usually a precipitous decline.
In recent years, the Giants welcomed back Justin Pugh and Landon Collins, and at one point further back they had the likes of Barry Cofield and Brandon Jacobs re-enter their orbits. All of them were fractions of the players they had been even though in some cases, their time away could be measured in months rather than years.
Laveranues Coles actually did pretty well in his Jets encore and averaged 72 catches for 860 yards and six touchdowns over four seasons in his second turn with the Jets, but there are plenty of others who didn’t, including Vinny Testaverde, Antonio Cromartie, Braylon Edwards and Hall of Famer Darrelle Revis.
Look what happened when Ezekiel Elliott came back to the Cowboys. Do you even remember Ezekiel Elliott going back to the Cowboys? Maybe as a headline, but certainly not as a contributor to any on-field production.
Another factor is the ego of front-office execs who are loath to admit mistakes. Once they have given up on someone, bringing that same player back is hard to justify. Usually it’s a new regime that engineers the comeback and rummages through the recycling bin.
Which brings us to this current crop of Big Apple Boomerangs: Smith, Davis and Beckham.
Beckham is back to be a supporting bit player for the Giants, so whatever he can give them will be gratefully accepted, but Smith and Davis are penciled in as very important starters on each side of the ball.
This is Smith’s fifth different stop since he first left the Jets, so he is used to showing up and getting to know a whole new roster and learning a new offense. That part, he insists, is familiar. “It’s the same for me,” he said, equating it to when he arrived to be a Charger, Seahawk or Raider.
Doing it with the team that drafted him is very different whether he admits it or not. After nearly a decade away, though, he is different too.
“I would say experience in this league, being around a lot of great coaches, being a part of some great organizations, being under some really great quarterbacks has helped me develop and grow,” Smith said. “That’s what the NFL is about. It’s about the process.
“So heading into year 14, I still have that same edge, that same chip on my shoulder that I had as a rookie, but I’m a lot wiser. I’ve obviously developed in many areas, but that process is still ongoing.”
A few years ago, Smith and Davis, who were Jets teammates during the early years of their careers, found themselves sitting together on a bus. That it happened to be a shuttle moving players from one site to another at the 2023 Pro Bowl in Las Vegas illustrates that both had survived and overcome their Jets-hood.
“We had a chance to talk, chop it up, reconnect on old stories on our journey and where life has taken us without ever knowing we would be back here,” Davis said of the interaction.
“He and I share the same sentiment in that we’re just excited to be here in the year that we are here,” Smith said of himself and Davis.
“There’s nothing more to it. I’m just excited to go out there and play football. I love football, I love being around my teammates and I love the challenge of trying to get better. I think that’s what makes the game special, and I look forward to trying to be the best player that I can be every single day for my teammates.”
The odds are high that it won’t work out. And given the Jets’ apparent intent to draft their next quarterback in April, perhaps that is the point.
We know Geno. We know Demario. We know how this probably ends.
But at this point in the season, that doesn’t make the story any less compelling. It makes it more so.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
