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Phil Savage runs the Senior Bowl, and is the former General Manager of the Cleveland Browns. He was interviewed by the Jets’ website, and he gave another nuanced description on how the Jets view the QB competition . . .
Savage was asked about the Jets’ quarterback competition, and what he described was probably dead-on, and in my opinion, another example of the re-defining of competition, something he you have seen from time-to-time from John Idzik.
Check out this answer . . .
“We have heard the word competition and open competition and this is not an open competition,” said Savage, a smart football man, who has been around the game a long time. “The Jets want to steer this ship to Geno Smith.”
I am not going to kill the messenger here
My criticism of what you just read is not directed at Savage.
But what he described is troubling.
Is that a way to run a football operation, to “steer” jobs to certain people?
That isn’t a winning formula.
You go through camp and the preseason, let the quarterbacks (or players at any position) duke it out, and may the best man win.
Kudos to Michael Vick who was trying to tell us all spring that there was no open competition, but some of use didn’t buy it because people in the building said there was one.
Do you think championship level teams “steer” jobs to players?
Heck know, they play the best players.
I’m telling your right now, if Idzik continues to re-define competition to fit his own agenda, and this season doesn’t go well, the New York media is going to destroy the guy.
There are a number of reporters who feel they were sold a bill of goods from Idzik on competition.
He uses the word all the time, and calls it a mantra.
But his actions haven’t met his words.
Five draft picks were handed starting jobs last year, and four of them weren’t ready.
All of the team’s draft picks made the team last year, even though two late round offensive linemen didn’t really earn spots (they both belonged on the practice squad).
I know I’ve written about this quite a bit, but I’m not going to stop.
You don’t win in this league by re-defining what competitions means.
That is a flawed strategy.
Savage also said, “[Smith] was not equipped with a lot of talent from a skill position standpoint last year.”
Too me that excuse is trumped up too much.
Of course the Jets needed to ramp up their firepower this off-season, but that skill position talent had little to do with Smith telegraphing passes to his primary target, and his poor sixth sense for feeling blitz pressure. NOTHING!
And there was a play in the spring that to me is illustrative of an issue Smith had last year, regardless of the weapons. I’ve brought this play up before.
Stephen Hill, who was part of the “no-weapons brigade” last year, beat the secondary like a drum on a post pattern down the deep middle. He was wide open, and waiving his arms, and Smith checked down.
How is this Hill’s fault?
Smith needs to improve his field vision, regardless of who the weapons are.
And the Jets need to play the best players, not “steer” people into the lineup.
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