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What the heck if going on here? Mixed messages galore. The narrative surrounding the Jets’ QB situation took a surprising turn today in Florham Park.
As you know by now, today was the first open locker room period for the media with the Jets’ veterans (in 2014).
The big story was obviously the Jets’ quarterback situation. Geno Smith and Michael Vick both addressed the press.
“My goal is obviously to start, but I understand that there is a competition at hand and the coaches are ultimately going to make those decisions,” Smith said.
Fair enough. What say you, Michael Vick?
“I mean going through the competition with Nick (Foles) we knew, both of us coming in, that it was an open competition and the best guy was going to win the job,” Vick said. “Whoever performed well throughout OTAs and preseason and that’s just what it was. It was pretty much cut and dry. This situation is different, it’s kind of unique, but even though it’s not open competition, we’re both competing every day.”
When Vick said, “it’s not open competition,” that surprised a lot of reporters.
While most people assume that the Jets’ brass wants Smith to win the job, the sense was that they would let Vick compete with him for the spot.
Vick clearly thinks that isn’t the case.
What is going on here?
Before I continue, I wanted to give you the perspective of another Jets beat writer.
‘I suspect they are trying to take pressure off Geno by downplaying the competition,” the writer said. “They also might hope that by doing that they can head off the media overplaying the QB competition/controversy during the spring and summer, but good luck with that.”
That is an interesting take on the situation. Perhaps by not approaching this like a competition, in the spring and summer, it can cut down on the media making this a three-ring circus.
Maybe that will calm down the press a little, but they still are going to monitor practices like hawks, and comment on which quarterback is doing better – competition or no competition.
Nobody from the Jets ever said to the press that there is “no competition.”
So why did Vick make that major announcement today, that there is “no competition?”
“It’s not been made publicly that it’s open competition. Chip Kelly made it known that it was open competition (in Philadelphia last year),” Vick said.
Rex Ryan was asked at the NFL’s Owner’s Meetings in March, if Michael Vick could be the opening day starter.
“I would say yes,” Ryan said. “We want that competition. Again, we’ll let it all play out. I think it’s still early in the process, but there will be a competition there.”
This is a downright weird situation.
Is there a competition or isn’t there?
We will continue to drill down on this one.
But one thing is for sure.
The Jets have missed the playoffs three years in a row.
Ryan only has two guaranteed years left on his contract.
The Jets and their coach need to win this year.
Quarterback is the most important position in the sport by far.
It’s a quarterback-driven league.
So they need to pick the quarterback who gives them the best chance to win.
Perhaps that is Geno.
But this shouldn’t be about ego.
“Geno was Idzik’s second round draft pick last year,” one writer said today.
The writer was saying this is an ego call by Idzik.
I have no idea if that is true.
But none of this should be about draft record. It should all be about winning.
May 22, 2104
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