The New York Jets don’t want to win. They want to entertain us. First it was the butt-fumble with Mark Sanchez. Then it was the Tim Tebow circus. Now we have the Geno Smith Experiment. The Jets say they want to win through a bunch of lip service. But when it comes to put up or shut up time, New York usually take the back seat to common sense.
Common sense would have led the Jets to keep Sanchez, who is now thriving in Chip Kelly’s Philadelphia Eagles offense. Common sense would have told them that Michael Vick realistically gives them a better shot at winning ball games than Geno Smith any day of the week. But it seems to me that the Jets have very little of that.
Accountability starts at the top. After watching the New York Jets play some semblance of ice age football on Monday night against the Miami Dolphins, it is clear that they have very little. When the Jets mapped out a game plan strategy earlier this season against the San Diego Chargers, the team looked inept and ill-prepared for the onslaught that resulted in a 31-0 butt-whipping that prompted head coach Rex Ryan to even said as much afterward in his postgame conference on Oct. 5.
The real problem for Ryan and the Jets is that they have babysat quarterback Geno Smith since they drafted him in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft, thus handicapping the rest of the ballclub’s ambition to win ballgames. The way the Jets’ season has turned out falls squarely on Ryan’s shoulders. For all the bravado talk and character play, Ryan, in this writer’s opinion, failed the team he leads, the city of New York and the fans and longtime ticket holders by putting out a product that was not worth investing in.
And if you have a coach who don’t trust his quarterback to get the job done, regardless who it is, then perhaps you’re in the wrong industry.
I don’t care what all the pundits and Ryan says about how Geno Smith gives the team the best option to win. Geno Smith can’t carry Michael Vick’s shoelaces, let alone wear the iconic No. 7 jersey, which Mr. Electricity has worn all throughout his career. If Ryan really wanted to win, he would have inserted Vick into the starting lineup before the San Diego debacle blew up in his face.
Making matters worse, Ryan kept playing us like we’re all fools. Anyone with a dose of common sense can see that Vick is heads and shoulders above Geno Smith as an NFL quarterback. What was the point of bringing Vick there in the first place?
And if he had not gotten injured last season, the 34-year-old Vick would still be leading the Philadelphia Eagles offense. Vick is the same guy who put up nearly 500 passing yards against the Chargers last season, so you know he can still ball out at a high level. Rex Ryan’s quest to keep Geno Smith as the starter has cost the Jets the 2014 season. It was an embarrassment to watch the Jets-Miami game with New York’s playcalling taking us back to the days of the stone age as Smith attempted just six passes through the first three quarters.
The joke is now on Ryan. And nobody is laughing. First, you announce to the world about this so-called quarterback competition between Vick and Smith when there was no such thing. Then you hancuff Smith from being a real quarterback ( or the guy simply can’t produce). Now we get to watch the byproduct of this whole charade play out every week after a game where Ryan entertains the media with some bombastic remark or two.
That’s not the recipe for winning. I mean, my gosh, a high school quarterback would have attempted to throw the ball more than Geno Smith did against the Dolphins Monday night. That was simply ridiculous. And everyone knows it. If I were a season-ticket holder I’d asked for a refund. The New York Jets are not a good product to watch or invest in, and they haven’t been for a while.
If there are people I feel sorry for its for the fans. There is little sympathy here for Ryan and the Jets because everything they have manufactured the last couple of seasons have come back and bit them in the rear end. That’s not a joke, just the punch line.
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, race, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Email Dennis at dfreeman@news4usonline.com