http://espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/story/_/id/11774942/new-york-jets-name-michael-vick-starting-quarterback

Quote :

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- The New York Jets have a new starting quarterback -- Michael Vick.

Rex Ryan made the expected move Monday, benching the struggling Geno Smith in favor of the 34-year-old Vick, who will start Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs and his former Philadelphia Eagles coach, Andy Reid.

After more than a year of Smith's maddening play, Ryan finally ran out of patience with the quarterback, who was pulled from Sunday's 43-23 loss to the Buffalo Bills after three interceptions in the first quarter. He finished with a 0.0 passer rating.

It was the second time in four weeks that Smith was benched in a game, but this marks the first time in his career he won't start. He was named the starter as a rookie and has compiled a 9-15 record, with 31 interceptions.

Smith may have injured his right shoulder in the loss, tackling safety Aaron Williams on an interception return. He underwent an X-ray after the game, but it's doubtful that factored into the decision.

This was a dramatic if not stunning decision by the Jets because it raises serious questions about Smith's future. They drafted him in the second round in 2013 and were grooming him to be their long-term quarterback, but his development has stalled amid a flurry of turnovers.

Vick, who signed a one-year contract last offseason, isn't considered part of the Jets' future. He started six games last season for the Eagles before getting hurt and losing his job to Nick Foles.

General manager John Idzik, who drafted Smith, is a staunch supporter of the second-year quarterback. The decision to bench him indicates that he, too, has lost confidence in Smith or that he simply let Ryan make the call.

The Jets (1-7) have dropped seven straight, and they're desperate for a spark.

Vick was hardly mistake-free against the Bills -- two lost fumbles and an interception -- but at least he rallied the offense to 23 points. Vick is widely respected in the Jets' locker room. Smith's support among teammates has waned.

In five-plus seasons at the Jets' coach, Ryan has benched his starting quarterback only twice. The previous occasion came in 2012, when he replaced the slumping Mark Sanchez with Greg McElroy, bypassing Tim Tebow.

"Geno Smith is not the problem"

He's not.

The team is 1-7. They were 8-8 last year with Geno playing much worse than he's played this year... Not to mention, he played well enough for them to win last week against New England, if they don't get a FG blocked...

The team might even play better with Vick because a lot of the game is emotional and the change at QB might have the rest of the team slightly more optimistic, but this team SUCKS and Geno Smith is a better Quarterback than Michael Vick by a big fucking margin.

A 7th round Safety project converted to CB and won a starting job on this team. David Harris is, what, their 3rd best defensive player and he's been one of the worst cover linebackers in the NFL...

Burdur is already putting fantasy waivers out for Vick.

The team is 1-7 because the guy at the front of the pack has been struggling all year long. Of all the teams with 1 win, Blake Bortles and Mike Glennon have a higher rating than Smith does (Bortles: 68.3 with a QBR of 24.8, Glennon: 85.3 with a QBR of 57.5, Smith: 65.6 with a QBR of 27.6). Both of those guys also have a better completion percentage than Geno does. In terms of statistics...yes, Geno Smith IS the problem. Even the last 5 games, he's performed far worse than both of those quarteracks.

People tried to make this argument when Tim Tebow was in Denver. Supposedly good QB, poor when it comes to actual play

i can't believe people thought during the college season a couple of years ago that Geno Smith was going to be the # 1 overall pick. lol the dude played for west virginia

Ian you really need to stop defending Geno. I've paid close attention to him every week and simply don't see any reason to defend the guy barring some random hot streaks. The team is bad, but that doesn't mean Geno is good, he's decent at best. That's a general excuse, not an excuse for Geno for the way he's played the past 2 years (majority of the time). Geno is lacking in many areas.

The things you criticize Vick for are things Geno isn't good at all with either. He's really bad with his reads, he makes poor decisions over and over again, he really isn't accurate on a consistent basis at all, etc. It's not a conspiracy why his stats are so bad, his turnovers are so frequent & truly ridiculous at times. A lot of the time he actually almost does the opposite of what we need him to do: takes chances when we don't need to and plays very cautious when we need him to turn around and make a big play. Part of this is the OC, but not all of it by far. The fact you even said Geno is a better runner than Vick in another thread is mind boggling to me. Vick just has more to his game and is at least an explosive player for this offense to have a chance. I like Vick for what I've seen from him in the past but don't get me wrong, he's not the savior of this team either. I know that, but Vick just has that spark potential with his speed & arm so it would've been a worthy switch when we still had a shot.

Anyway, that's why I actually disagree with this move now: making it so god damn late. We're 1-7 now so at this point I would have liked to see what Geno could have done the last couple weeks... might as well, before we draft a QB next year.

The funny thing is, Vick turned the ball over more than Geno when he came in

Both of these niggas trash.

Huh wrote:

i can't believe people thought during the college season a couple of years ago that Geno Smith was going to be the # 1 overall pick. lol the dude played for west virginia

What is that supposed to mean?

It means ya'll trash.

Geno is 23 and needs time to develop. He has flaws but the team is the bigger problem. Consistent accuracy is never going to come if he's not getting reps. Michael Vick does not give you a better chance to win. Making the move really does absolutely nothing for the franchise. It's a move of a coach that's clearly not making it to next year. Geno Smith played the brutal part of the Jets schedule where they faced 6 playoff teams in 8 weeks. Vick will now look superior to Geno playing what's left.

Señor Drächen wrote:

Huh wrote:

i can't believe people thought during the college season a couple of years ago that Geno Smith was going to be the # 1 overall pick. lol the dude played for west virginia

What is that supposed to mean?

EEYEN wrote:

Geno is 23 and needs time to develop. He has flaws but the team is the bigger problem. Consistent accuracy is never going to come if he's not getting reps. Michael Vick does not give you a better chance to win. Making the move really does absolutely nothing for the franchise. It's a move of a coach that's clearly not making it to next year. Geno Smith played the brutal part of the Jets schedule where they faced 6 playoff teams in 8 weeks. Vick will now look superior to Geno playing what's left.

Nah, you're making excuses for Geno and then going and straight out bashing the rest of the team when many deserve some of the same leniency. On top of that, we've played better offenses than defenses, better rush D's than pass D's. You bashed the running game the other week in defense of Geno looking bad, when those RB's had barely 10 combined carries that game and Geno was the one missing receivers and turning the ball over... the loss was partially on just about everyone (including coaching, Marty in particular), and Geno deserved his individual blame. Either you or some others on here blamed Marty for our loss vs. the Pats though when that was one of the best games he's called. If anything, Marty deserves praise for that game.

I've given plenty of leniency to Geno for many of the same reasons you give but there's a point to stop making excuses when he's putting out some of these poor performances routinely... basically 2 games for every 1 good game, at best..

As far as already downplaying any possible Vick success... he has been thrown into 2 disasters this season and has looked better than the guy who prepared for the start the entire week. Not that it's saying much as Vick looked bad too but I easily believe Vick would have looked better than Geno and gotten us at least 1-2 more wins, almost by default really, had he been prepped as the starter and started every game this season.

Also, the secondary was obviously gonna be trash and the LB's truly are bad in coverage, I've been saying since Week 1 how teams can just get anything in the middle of the field vs. them. But, especially by your own logic in defense of Geno, your critique is way too harsh on them considering the QB's they have faced...

I've gotta stop getting on here from work to post though... I've almost been caught a couple times now.

Comical how Jets fans think Vick gives them "the best chance to win" when he turned the ball over more than Geno did. How long before they call for the FO to get McElroy back to "save" the team?

Y'all just gotta accept y'all are garbage regardless & are only getting 2 wins at best like us Jags fans

The only other team the Jets could possibly beat are the Vikings

I will respond to this later but you basically said Geno should be carrying the offense when you guys have no running game and that's fucking stupid. He's obviously not going to do that. If that is the plan yall deserve to go 1-15 tbh

^ That's not what I said at all. For some reason you put a LOT of praise on Geno when the Jets win or lose a close one that Geno played well in... and a lot of blame on everyone/anyone else when the Jets lose / Geno plays like shit.

I'd also honestly like to know how we have no running game??? We actually have arguably one of the best running games in the league this season.. Ivory is playing pretty damn well, CJ is doing alright when he actually gets more than 3 carries. You pointed out literally ONE game where we didn't have a running game due to both our running backs getting no carries that game, partially due to bad play calling and partially due to Geno playing like garbage. Geno greatly helped put us in the hole where we could no longer run after a rare bad start by Ivory... Geno wasn't an innocent bystander to that trainwreck or something... You are making no sense to me now and pulling straws to defend Geno even more so than your original argument (which that one honestly made some sense and I could relate to doing the same).

Señor Drächen wrote:

Comical how Jets fans think Vick gives them "the best chance to win" when he turned the ball over more than Geno did. How long before they call for the FO to get McElroy back to "save" the team?

Y'all just gotta accept y'all are garbage regardless & are only getting 2 wins at best like us Jags fans

Come on Drachen, don't even start.

For one, are we really gonna judge on one game?

2) Geno had 3 turnovers in 2/3 of a quarter. Vick had 3 turnovers (+ another fumble that we recovered) in 3 1/3 quarters. Which is better? I'm not even gonna say anything else cause it's just one game and obviously neither were good, but let's be real, Geno was as atrocious as it gets in that start.

Oh and maybe not one of the BEST running games in the league but it is surely well above average and enough where a 2nd year QB doesn't need to be protected from blame. The RB's are doing their job. A fair excuse is that Geno hasn't had many good targets to throw to, but it simply doesn't change the fact he has plenty of flaws himself. He's a young QB and that's fair too but that doesn't make him immune from criticism, everyone knows he's just in his second year but a QB that's any better than decent at best could do more than he has so far.

Jags might get more wins than the Jets this season.

We'll win some games now.

And I believe that whether Geno or Vick was our starter right now, but more so with Vick in there. Regardless, it doesn't matter... after being 1-7 I'd rather we start Matt Simms now. The only thing I like about this switch is that Vick will make things entertaining for me in a season I was otherwise just about done with, but meh, I'd rather have a better pick.

They're both garb, there.

Yall didn't lose a single game during that stretch that you were more talented then.

Your backs not getting carries isn't Geno's fault.

I don't mean to make it sound like Geno is great, but he's not terrible. If you put him on the Chiefs roster and let him start in place of Alex Smith I don't think you see much difference. He has very little impact in terms of wins and loses IMO - and he shouldn't. You guys should be running 30+ times a game because that's really the only developed area of your offense. The scheme doesn't really fit Geno's strengths and he should be playing a marginal role like he is.

I'm not saying he's terrible either, although he does look like it sometimes, but a large majority of the team truly is bad this year so I definitely don't solely blame him on the losses either... not even close. However, he does deserve a good amount of the blame for a few of these losses.

I don't think the Chiefs would be as good with Geno starting but I wouldn't count it out either as Geno does typically look pretty good when he has others playing well around him. The rest of that I do agree with 100%.