Green Lantern: If Geno Is Still In The Picture, Jets Better Make Timeout Brief
By Jeff Capellini
WFAN.com
This Sunday's game in Kansas City means nothing to me. Michael Vick can throw five touchdown passes and the Jets can put forth their best effort of the season on both sides of the ball and it won't mean jack.
And that's not because the season for all intents and purposes is over. Don't get me wrong -- it is. But it would be nice to see the Jets show some fight and heart down the stretch if for no other reason than to prove they care about Rex Ryan, a head coach who has numerous faults but really wasn't given that much of a fighting chance this season.
The reason why the potential outcome Sunday is meaningless is because the wrong guy is starting at quarterback. Now, before you freak out, just hear me out.
For the time being I'm going to assume that Ryan and general manager "Lord" John Idzik have decided it will do Geno Smith some good to watch a game or two from the sidelines. After all, Smith never had the benefit of watching a veteran with know-how. He was basically thrown into the fire after Mark Sanchez got hurt in that meaningless preseason game last summer.
Since then, Smith has predictably been up and down, forcing Jets fans' heads to spin round and round.
But that's what happens when you give a second-round pick with potential the keys to the kingdom. Idzik chose this kid, likely with an eye on a long-term evaluation. Smith showed promise over the last four games of the 2013 season, and Idzik almost certainly was ready to give him the entire 2014 season to truly prove he could be a franchise quarterback.
Vick had very few, if any, starting options when he tested free agency during the offseason. He signed with the Jets hoping he'd win the job, but ultimately accepted that he was never really in a competition.
Idzik wanted Smith to start. What Ryan wanted will likely have to wait until his memoir is released.
So now, two months into the Jets' latest season of despair, Smith finds himself on the bench. And the quarterback who will not lead this team going forward after the season is taking his snaps. It's illogical, save for giving Smith a mental breather and appeasing angry fans.
I'd say it also reeks of Ryan trying to save his job, but I've been of the belief all along that Rex's job may not be in as much jeopardy at this point as the beat reporters will have you believe. During his interminable mea culpa on Monday from the Jets' practice facility in Florham Park, New Jersey, Idzik basically knelt down and kissed Ryan's feet. His words more than suggested that Rex being fired is not this foregone conclusion that so many think it is. He's being evaluated over 16 games as much as Smith should be evaluated over 16 games, and a playoff spot has never necessarily been the determining factor.
Both Idzik and Ryan made it clear Monday that Smith's benching is only temporary.
"He's still a New York Jet. We're still developing Geno Smith," Idzik said.
Ryan said the decision to start Vick isn't "any long-term deal or whatever," but added that it is "the right decision for this time."
All that being said -- assuming he's healthy -- if Smith isn't back under center by next week's home game against Pittsburgh, or at the very latest following the Week 10 bye when the Jets travel to Buffalo, something is very wrong.p
Idzik has gone the evaluation route this entire season. His decision not to spend on key positions in free agency lent itself to the theory that the money was being saved to re-sign key in-house veterans and make splashes in free agency when the Jets, or more specifically Smith, are older and wiser and ready to win. Even the recent trade for wide receiver Percy Harvin was done with an eye on the future.
Everything the Jets have done since Idzik arrived has been about a year or two from now. There's no way they would have ignored the secondary in the manner they did if the idea was to win now. I simply refuse to believe that owner Woody Johnson would knowingly have hired someone who is that incompetent.
In the event that the Jets have secretly decided that Smith isn't the guy and that Vick playing out the string is the best thing for the morale of the team, Smith better not be mentioned as even a remote possibility to start next season. The Jets better be ready to do everything in their power to trade for an established quarterback or maneuver into position to draft a Marcus Mariota or Jameis Winston, because the free-agent crop this offseason is scary bad.
If Geno isn't worth evaluating further over the final eight games of a lost season, he certainly should not be worth looking at again next spring -- and then at training camp when the idea is starting out even with everyone else. He better have a clipboard glued to his hands.
Because sooner or later this franchise needs to get the quarterback position right. It's a disgrace how inept the Jets have been offensively for decades. I read on Monday that Vick will become the 27th starting quarterback for the Jets since Joe Namath's last game with New York in 1976.
That's 27 different starting quarterbacks in 38 years. It's a stunning statistic, but one that speaks volumes about why the Jets are in the position they're in.
I don't have a dog in this fight. I can take Geno or leave him at this point, but I know that despite all the mistakes Smith makes, he still has potential. The game against Atlanta last season, the final month of last season, the New England game two weeks ago; it all featured a kid with ability and promise.
The Jets need to forget that they play in the New York market, where the pressure on a quarterback -- inexperienced or otherwise -- is almost unfathomable. Because, as crazy as this sounds, we still don't know what Smith is.
The Jets need to be completely sure before they start that vicious cycle once more.
Play him.
Read more columns by Jeff Capellini and follow him on Twitter @GreenLanternJet
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