Photo courtesy of Ed Yourdon, Flickr Creative Commons
Surprise, surprise, the New York Jets are involved in another quarterback debacle. The ineffectiveness of the Geno Smith, Mike Vick duo was magnified by an embarrassing 31-0 loss to San Diego on Sunday.
The shutout loss was the NFL’s first this season. It was a tough one for Jets fans to watch. Junior John Farella said, “I couldn’t believe the lack of production, it didn’t even look like an NFL team was out there. Zero coordination.”
The Jets have a long history of failing to produce a successful quarterback. In fact Peyton Manning has thrown more touchdown passes since 1998, than all of the Jets QB’s since 1987.
Sunday’s offensive performance against San Diego was one of the worst in Jet’s recent history. Smith was benched at halftime and Vick finally got to see some action, as many fans demanded.
The 14-year NFL veteran had no impact on the game and threw for eight completions on 19 pass attempts.
The quarterback situation in New York seems to be just the beginning of the team’s worries. The team now has to head home and play the Broncos, who are coming off of a huge win against the Arizona Cardinals, who were one of two NFL teams left undefeated.
All of their problems, however, do not lie in Geno’s hands. It starts with the front office.
The Jets had plenty of salary cap space to afford numerous players in the skill positions, which is where the Jets lack the majority of their talent. Instead, new General Manager John Idzik decided to build through the draft.
Out of their 12 draft picks in the 2014 NFL Draft back in May, only one is starting, first round safety Calvin Pryor.
The Jets organization not only failed to make important moves in the offseason, but also stressed to their fan base that they have in fact built a playoff caliber team. Jets fans would disagree due to their 1-4 record to start the season.
It is evident that the Jets need to make some sort of change. It is still early in the season, but fans have to wonder after just one win in five weeks and a shaky rookie season last year, is Smith the guy?
The demand for instant success on young quarterbacks in the NFL continues to rise, making this even more difficult for New York. Geno, at times, has shown clear traits of being able to lead his team to victories, but the Jet’s faithful are not impressed with his play this year.
“It’s important to play to our strengths right now. Although we don’t have many, Geno is still the guy we need to have faith in. If he continues to fail then we address a change, but until then we need to watch him grow,” said Jets fan, junior Brady O’Connor.
The road ahead doesn’t get easier for New York as they take on the Broncos at home Sunday and travel to New England for their first matchup of the season with Tom Brady and his Patriots just four days later for Thursday night football.
cmay2@ramapo.edu
