Content available exclusively for subscribers
Quarterback Mike Vick repeated basicall the same thing over and over again.
How do you view the quarterback competition?
“I’m just competing every day,” Vick said. “I can’t tell you exactly what the situation is. I’m competing every day to be the best I can be. That’s all I can tell you. The most important thing is to help this football team get better and win football games.”
What led you to think there might not be an open competition?
“I’m just here to compete every day to help this team win,” Vick said. “That’s the most important thing to me right now.”
Did someone from the team speak to you about your comments last week?
“I’m here to compete every day to help this football team win games and whatever it’s going to be in the end is what it is going to be, as long as I help this football team and give some support,” Vick said.
Were you honest last week and the front office didn’t want that?
“What I say is what I feel,” Vick said. “Like I said, when I step out there the only thing to do is to try to get better as far as what I know and what I continue to know, learn and how I can grow. That’s what’s most important.”
But then he delivered the money quote once again.
Is this an open quarterback competition?
“No, it’s not an open competition,” Vick said.
Thank you. Thank you for your honesty.
I think one thing we have learned about John Idzik so far is he’s into selective competition, not open competition at every position. He has plenty of company in the NFL, he really does.
The only NFL coach I know who isn’t truly into open competition, and playing all the best players, is Bill Belichick. He’s on an island. Very unique.
With most teams politics are omnipresent in these decisions. It is what it is. I’m just keeping it real.
Today, for the first time, the media had a chance to ask Rex Ryan about Vick’s saying there is “no competition.”
His answer was somewhat confusing.
“I think there is competition, Ryan said. “There’s no doubt. Like I said, you try to get it at every position. It’s probably unrealistic to think you can have it at every position, but certainly we have competition and competition sometimes has to be maybe manufactured.
“I think we’ll let it play out a little bit. It’s the second day of OTA’s. It’s not a closed competition. (joking) It’s competition. I don’t mean to make light of it, but in a way I think I should. It’s the second day of OTA’s and here we have these questions. But again, let’s let it play out. One thing we know for certain, that the player, and not just at quarterback, but at any position, rest assured, the guy that we think will give us the best opportunity to win will be there, will be the guy.”
That answer provided little clarity.
Bill O’Brien in Houston has declared the Texans’ quarterback situation as an “open competition.”
It either is, or it isn’t.
This has nothing to do with it being the second day of OTAs or the second day of training camp, there are games being played here.
How many people in football, if you did a poll of GM’s, coaches and players, would say Geno Smith gives them a better chance to win than Michael Vick?
Look, the bottom line is the Jets need to win this year.
So no matter what games are being played this time of year, they have to win games in the fall.
So playing politics with line-up decisions isn’t the way to go this year. It doesn’t matter where guys are picked, how much they make, the Jets need to win. They have missed the playoffs three years in a row.
And by the way, the media is doing nothing wrong here pressing Rex and Vick on this, and I can be critical of the press. Rex can be dismissive and say it’s just the second day of OTA’s, so this is a non-story, but Vick is saying there is “no competition” so it is a story.
End of story.
March 28, 2014
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Thursday.
