I think the team was close, 9-7 is what I would have put the team as with Vick as our starter, would it be good enough for playoffs? Depends on tie breakers. There are other factors to consider also, is Brian winters still starting, how different is the play calling, would there be more momentum killing wild cat? Maybe the jets go to a more running oriented play calling system with Vick under center, the dynamics would be so different, and now we will have a chance to see it.
It's a tough call. On the one hand you want to find out if Geno is going to be your future, knowing he will struggle. On the other hand, Vick can be your now and maybe win close games. Despite the redzone issues, Geno did move the ball well in many games. That could lead the CS and FO to think he is close to "getting it", and only needs more time. It sucks to watch it as a fan, but it had to happen at some point. I think (and said so before the season) we would have been much better off, had Vick started. This would afford Geno more time to get up to speed with the new playbook. It would give the defense more time together without Geno feeling he had to carry the team if the D struggled and the O-line time to work out wrinkles. That would take a lot of pressure off the young QB to feel he had to make plays, even if the play was not there. This was also a major factor with Sanchez, with little offensive talent, he tried doing too much, it didn't work for either. Geno is not a great QB. He may be good enough to come off the bench for a few games if need be, but he will always need a good defense. As far as the competition goes... I don't know. If it was close, I'd lean toward the younger player winning, if the mentality is "The Future", but you have to suffer the bad play. On a good team, Geno would have been the better option long term, on this team with so many question marks, Vick should have started. I don't know where bench time ever hurt the development of a young QB.
For the longest time, most rookies including the likes of John Elway were expected to develop in practice and sit on the bench during games until they were ready to start. Now all of a sudden we start these guys as rookies and God forbid we bench them for a game or two if they perform poorly. With a viable veteran as an option, why should any team roll the dice with a second year QB (much less a rookie) starting when they would clearly lose a head up competition with one or more other QBs on the team. Do you really need a whole season of starts for a QB to "show you what he has"? When a guy throws for 200 yards, maybe one touchdown, and a pick six in a game I think you already have your answer.
I can understand why the Jets started Geno to begin the year. I do agree with young QB's being benched for a game or two as needed though. Most coaches seem to shy away from effecting their confidence. If their confidence is that frail, they probably aren't the answer at QB to begin with. The plug could have been pulled quicker on Geno, even if just temporarily. I'll also add that Vick was first viable veteran backup we've had in ages. i don't believe he pushed to compete for playing time at all though. Was very disappointing seeing how disinterested in playing he seemed in his SD and Buff game opportunities. If he's just trying to collect paychecks at this point in his career, we need to find a different viable veteran option for 2015. So really, we have no QB's at all. #1 priority for this offseason.
The Denver Broncos, one of the most pass happy teams in football have run 601 offensive plays this season. 171 of them have been passes to the left sideline or the right sideline. That's 28.5% of the Broncos offensive plays being passes to the edge of the field. The Green Bay Packers, another very pass happy team, have run 537 offensive plays this season. 150 of them have been passes to the left sideline or right sideline. That's 27.9% of the Packers offensive plays being passes to the edge of the field. The New Orleans Saints, pass-happy, 639 offensive plays this season. 140 of them have been passes to the left sideline or the right sideline. That's 21.9% of the Saints offensive plays being passes to the edge of the field. The Pittsburgh Steelers, who we played very successfully last week, 676 offensive plays this season. 149 of them have been passes to the left sideline or the right sideline. That's 22% of the Steelers offensive plays being to the edge of the field. The idea that games are won and lost on the edges of the field at this point is just not valid. They're won and lost on the line of scrimmage and in the middle of the field. If teams are locked up tight there then the edge game can be a tie-breaker but nobody wins games on the edges of the field if they're losing the battle elsewhere. In a nutshell that's why CB is a position of secondary importance in the NFL even in this pass-happy age. It's why a Super Bowl champion is so much more likely to have a great safety in the middle of the field than to have a great CB on the edge. In the old days there was no salary cap. There was no disadvantage to paying a guy on the edge top dollar because it didn't stop you from paying anybody else what they deserved. In a capped era that's just not true any more. Great CB's can help teams win Super Bowls but not if the players in the middle of the field aren't good also. That's why the Jets couldn't get past the Colts and the Steelers in the AFC Championship game. There was nothing a truly great edge player could do in either game that was going to make up for the fact that the Colts and Steelers were better in the middle of the field.
This is kind of a good general question at this point. Rex's teams have been blindsided by a lot of glaring weaknesses since 2011 and they've taken a long time to adjust if at all. Wayne Hunter comes to mind, clearly outclassed as a starting RT he basically destroyed our season in 2011. 2012 turned into a WR fiasco with one guy of any real ability on the field after Holmes went down. 2013 was WR's, LG and secondary based with Geno being a rolling disaster for a lot of the season as well. The talent that Rex has been given has not been good enough but he's ridden some really bad players right down to the bitter end. The Winters/Aboushi thing kind of stands out because Winters was really bad most of the season but it took an injury to make the change.
The reason Tim Tebow is not playing QB in the NFL right now is that he's just not an NFL QB. It has nothing to do with what John Elway did. It has nothing to do with what Rex Ryan did. It has nothing to do with what Bill Belichik did. It has everything to do with what Tim Tebow did, which was to play away his shot at a QB job in the NFL by performing poorly in practice and often very poorly in games. I'm not saying Tim Tebow isn't a great athlete or a good person or a great teammate, because the evidence is firmly that he is all of those things. He's just not an NFL QB, and for the same reason that Geno Smith is not an NFL QB. Neither of them plays the game well enough to be a QB in the NFL. I used to think that if Tebow just adjusted his mechanics to get rid of the hitch in his throws and learned to make reads and acquired better footwork that he might be a good NFL QB or at least a passable one. What I was thinking at the time was if Tim Tebow was just a better QB he might be a good NFL QB with all the other intangibles he brings to the field. Silly me. Why would we look at anybody with the skills that Tim Tebow was displaying and think anything other than "man that guy sucks at throwing the ball?"
I can't stres your last point enough. I have little confidence that our staff will put the best players on the field because I'm not sure if they even know who the best players are. That's almost as bad, if not worse, than Idzik's talent evaluation.
I'm not saying the guy's a good NFL player. But I am saying that he gave the Jets a better chance to win in 2012 than Mark did. How do I know that. It's simple. Because it happened already. Mark was terrible and we lost games directly due to that. We can't tell the future but we do know what happened in the past. If I could go back in time I'd have started Tim. Who knows maybe he would brought the team a little of the "magic" he brought to Denver in 2011. The worst he would have done is lost. And we already did with Sanchez. What did Rex have to lose. Except maybe winning.
Whatever your beef is with Tebow. You can say he doesn't have an NFL arm. Of course Ryan Leaf and a million other guys who couldn't play had great arms. When given a chance to start his team won games. And a playoff game. Just like Mark in 2009 whose stats were worse than Tim's in 2011. But his team won. So don't tell me Tim shouldn't have been given a shot in 2012. Or that in 2014 he isn't even entitled to a try out.
Yeah let's find out if we have our QB of the future before we even know if we have a decent WR corps...makes sense...
Rex, from what I have read recently, is unfailingly loyal. Loyal to a fault. It could be he did not feel the backup talent was good enough to real help. Or it could be that he is crazy loyal. I suspect the latter.
Belichik got himself some TE's because he has a major hard-on for TE's and has had that since he took over the Pats. Look at his early picks with them and you see big body with hands lust on display repeatedly. The Jets having a great CB certainly didn't change his mind on that.
That's why it only really seems logical for teams that are close to go all in on signing All-Pro cornerbacks and on limited deals like the Patriots did. That's why I think Sherman and Peterson's deals may ultimately cost the Seahawks and Cardinals later on in their contracts if they can't keep the nucleus of their team together with a ton of impending free agents. You make a very good point in regards to the safety play and also equally importantly linebackers that can cover. With a lot of teams switching to the 3-4 looks it's imperative to have a run stuffer and a coverage backer which may have been our fatal flaw in those AFC Championship runs. We loaded up with run stuffing linebackers, corners and absolutely no one to cover the middle of the field. David Harris is absolutely horrible in pass coverage and Bart Scott was a blitzer. Our two outside linebackers had no coverage skills at all and we manned the middle of the field with average coverage safeties who lacked a knack for forcing turnovers which hurt us in the big games.
1. Calvin Pryor is out of position. Maybe if he plays with a free safety who can be rangy and doesnt have to play cover corner he has a chance 2. Jace Amaro - I would not call it a bust at all. Rookie tight ends rarely are good. Most make a jump in year 2. Kelce, Gronk, Jimmy Graham pop into my head to name a few. 3. Dex McDougle - is injured 4. Shaq Evans - Injured 5. Dakota Dozier - Developing The draft class still has a decent chance to be average to good.
Surely you aren't talking about the 2014 Jets. A minute upgrade at QB would not have changed anything.
I'm not really sure how you can consider Vick a minute upgrade over Geno. I supported Geno at the beginning of the season but did you watch the games this year? He'll be lucky to float around the league as a backup.
Dozier was a fourth rounder. You also forgot Saunders (our first fourth rounder) and our other six picks (I think one might be on the active roster). Also, Gronk and Hernandez looked pretty good as rookies. For us Kyle Brady and Anthony Becht started right away.
I'm not saying that it was overall good. I knew about Saunders but if those players pan out the draft will be fine.
