I do not agree that Smith blows, but I also did not get the sense, and I felt I was following it closely, that Simms got any real shot at the starting job in camp last year. I wonder how it might have gone down if he really did, and a truly objective assessment was made, who would have been the starter. From the games it looked like Simms moved the ball better than the others. How he did filling in a couple of games in the regular season was both a mixed bag and probably not much of a measure, since he did not get snaps with the first team.
No he took the pic with his dick in his hand AFTER he got drafted. I do think that Simms should have gotten equal time against Geno. I'm ok with Simms, Smith, Schaub/Sanchez, draft.prospect/other.Vet, as the QB lineup for the upcoming spring.
i prefered mcelroy, and the fact he threw for two tds over the top of rex's defense in the green/white game was a precurser of what happened after he joined the bengals and advised them on how to best attack the jets defense. as for simms, he will end up the same as mcelroy unless he gets the real chance to " open competition" for the starting job. hold a real competition and let the chips fall where they may. belicheat did that, and his 6th round pick ended up with 3 rings. jets gm and coaches seem to have a problem with favoring high picks and expensive free agents over having real competition. guys like chrebet and even woodhead are having to overcome extremely long odds with playing for the jets.
I voiced my opinion about Matt Simms during last pre-season and all through the regular season. I'm done talking about it. The ONLY thing we can hope for is that he gets an actual shot in Training Camp. Considering what I know of the NFL...that isn't going to happen either. He might as well be happy with earning crap loads of cash for doing absolutely nothing. We, the fans, do not factor into the conversation.
i was at training camp four times last year, once per week, and plan to do likewise this year in cortland. you can tell by watching the reps who the coaches favor and whether or not the competition is truly open. everybody watches the preseason games, but practice tells you a lot more about he coaching staff and their opinions/attitude towards certain players. mezz, how about doing a road trip to cortland?
The only thing you can really say about Simms in that in his limited action last season he did about the same as Geno. Does that mean He is good or they both suck I have no idea. Until the coaches really give him a chance it does not really matter. When they do I will pay more attention.
I wouldn't say he did the same as Geno. He only played like 3 quarters. Geno was up & down all year, a few great games, but a few terrible ones. He didn't really seem comfortable until the end.
For whatever reason, the Jets don't think Simms is anything more than a 3rd string qb. I respect that...on the other hand, I don't think that they are particularly good at developing offensive talent...especially at the quarterback position.
I don't think people are down on Simms. Most of what I have read on the forums is positive and, Rex and MM have spoken very highly of him. Of course, on this site, maybe it IS all negative.
Because people here think Simms is more than what he is. He's a backup QB in this league and that's okay. He can develop and learn the system and when needed he can step in and play.
I never understood why so many fans have this obsession with preseason 3rd string heroes. Every year there's at least one of them. Last year it was Spadola & Simms, before that McElroy, Jordan White, Danny Woodhead etc etc. Funny, how it's always the Jets fault that they are not starting and people are baffled as to why they never play in the real season as if they are amazing talents being intentionally suppressed by the organization. They are playing against 3rd stringers in a vanilla offense against a vanilla defense. There is nothing confusing really going on. It's a bad way to judge somebody's NFL potential. Stop worshiping preseason heroes!
Really? Is it that hard to figure out? Sometimes the grass is greener. Tell me that letting Woodhead go was the right move.
To clarify, sometimes the grass really is greener. We know that Rex has a tendency to rely on vets, and to stick with players who are not performing. Why that is the case we can speculate about. Perhaps he's too loyal. Perhaps at least when it comes to Qb's and the O in general, he simply does not know how to manage the roster as well as he should. Perhaps he feels insecure and that changing out a player he had put in the starting position looks like he was wrong in the first place. I think there may have been some of the last reason in the past, but last season we saw him bench Milliner three times, I think in the end to good effect. And he did sit Smith, too, although probably not enough here and there. The Jets did sit Ducasse after too many penalties and bad plays (too bad Winters did not play better, but still...). Finally I would like to note that when we see especially a Qb do well in the second half of pre-season games, the usual knock on them is they are going up against third stringers. Yes, but they are also working with third stringers. That needs to be kept in mind. If they are effective, they are effective. Put it this way - I am not going to assume that when players are not being played when the ones who are are playing badly, that the CS is always right to not change out the poor performer, presumably on the notoin that the guy on the bench is even worse. Sometimes that is not the case.
Those are some good point, Blocker. Rex is learning. What you described from last year is exactly the reason why extending him, at least the one more year, was the right thing to do. It would have been a shame to let him walk and take all that valuable experience AND his defensive prowess to another team. Having said that, I think people saw a little "something" in Simms. You are right that the 3rd string guy ALWAYS looks better when the two in front of him are stinking up the joint... I, personally, didn't see Simms that way. He showed some skills, stones and an overall understanding of what he was doing...and he is a very young player too. Who knows... The one thing I will point out about Woodhead, since it was brought up, this wasn't some fly by night guy. At one point he was the All Time, All Division leading NCAA rusher. I don't care if you are D I, D II or D III...if you are all time anything across the board then you have something. The fact that he continues to hang around, despite his size, speaks volumes. Trust me...the Chargers LOVE the guy. In my opinion, he was Rex Ryan's biggest mistake that he had 100% hand in. It was Woodhead or Connor. Now that is just my own humble opinion.
^It was actually Woodhead vs McKnight. Woodhead didn't fit in our G&P system. It was the right move at the time. He fits in much better in systems with good QBs that don't rely as heavily on the run. Obviously hindsight is always 20/20, so seeing him have some success with Brady and Rivers isn't really that surprising. It's not like he's the type that can rush 1000 yards, he's flexible and can catch the ball as well as use his size to his advantage, he's a great brad smith type utility guy (minus the wildcat), but put him on the Chiefs or Raiders and it's a completely different story. He isn't a feature back or even close to it. This past season was his career best. On the Jets he doesn't come close to the numbers he saw this year or any year on the Pats.
