I couldn't possibly disagree more. What was to be gained by starting Vick? I'll answer it for you...absolutely nothing. Vick isn't the future, and he isn't even or wasn't even the present. Hell, the first two chances he got to play the jackass wasn't even prepared and ready to play. The Jets needed to give Geno every chance to develop.
Who says it wasn't Rex's fault? He was the HC of the team. It was his responsibility to see that they developed. The problem was, he has no respect for the offensive side of the ball, knows dick about offense, yet wants to dictate a conservative, and quite passive style at times. Rex and his CS in general sucked at developing young talent. Eff Rex.
I'm not a fan of Rex and glad that he's no longer Jets HC. But he isn't responsible if a player does not develop. That has to fall on the player. If a Qb gets the opportunities that both Mark and Geno had (and that was primarily coming from Rex) it's on them if they play poorly and don't improve. Again I just think that esp with Mark he stuck with the guy way too long and it hurt the team,
It's nice seeing Chris Johnson, Kellen Winslow Jr, blame their aging, terrible, play on John Idzik. Oh and what do you know, Rex Ryan had nothing to do with the Jets going (4-12). All on Idzik! What a joke. I hate people not being accountable. Kellen Winslow sucked ass, Johnson was not near as good as Ivory, and Ryan was a bad overall Head Coach. Idzik was clearly a bad GM, but putting all the blame on him is pathetic/laughable.
I disagree to an extent. I think they both share responsibility/culpability. Yes, the player has to work at it and retain what he has been taught, but also it's up to the CS to see that they figure out a way to teach and help the player develop. My profession is teaching. All too few teachers/coaches are creative in how they try to help their students learn. They have one basic way of teaching and if the student doesn't get it, then it's the "students' fault." WRONG!!! People are different and have different ways of learning. Some are more visual learners, some are more aural, while others are more kinesthetic, and some are more cerebral. In my experience and reading accounts of former players, many, if not most coaches have one way of coaching...they yell and scream if you don't get things right. Now some players just don't have what it takes mentally to learn the intricacies of their positions. They got through in college because they were bigger, faster, stronger, and their schools pushed them through, gave them easy or fake courses (like UNC). Smith and Sanchez both may fall into that category, but we can't say that definitively, and until we can, then Lee, Mornhinweg and Rex must share a huge chunk of the responsibility for both Sanchez' and Geno's failings. Since Sanchez played under a couple of different OCs with the Jets and has moved on and playing under a HC who is an offensive guru and has a new QB coach, and still looks like the same basic player, then I'd say in Sanchez' case, he definitely belongs in the category of just not having what it takes mentally to maximize his talent. With Geno, it remains to be seen. We do know that Geno plays much better when the games don't matter and things are opened up more. Every young QB is going to make mistakes. If you get them thinking "too much" instead of letting them play instinctively, that makes them uptight and it's like they're walking on eggshells, afraid to make a mistake, which of course causes them to make mistakes. Based on Rex's comments and style of play, imo it's glaringly apparent to all but Rex apologists that Rex was a HUGE part of the problem with Geno and the offense on the Jets. MM and Lee seemingly did little to help with their stupid play calling, lack of screen passes and other short passes to get Geno into a rhythm.
The Packers game wasn't about hiding Geno at all. It was about him not playing well enough to win a game the opposition tried to hand to the Jets. The interception at the 2 minute mark before the half was the turning point in the game and the Jets never recovered from that. This was both a performance issue on Geno's part and a terrible coaching decision on the Jets part. They should have just run the clock out and kept grinding down to the goal line from the 27. Instead they took a risk and Geno screwed up and the game was essentially lost when Rodgers led the Packers to their first TD of the game just before halftime. Somewhere in Rex's Jets epitaph it has to be noted how many games he managed to lose by adopting the wrong tempo for the moment. There were a bunch of those. He lost more games where his team gained 150+ yards on the ground than seems possible. He lost games where they gained 300+ yards on the ground. That's freaking impossible.
That is undeniably true. It's mind boggling to me how any Jets fan can still love Rex, think he was a great HC and wanted him to still be the HC of our team. Rex doesn't have a freaking clue how to be a HC. He's too undisciplined, he doesn't understand timing and momentum, he doesn't understand offense, he doesn't understand how to develop young players, he doesn't understand the clock, he doesn't know how to have the team prepared, he doesn't know how to accurately gauge where they are mentally, and he doesn't understand when to shut his effing fat mouth. In short, he's a stupid blowhard and not competent to be the HC of Pee Wee football team much less an NFL team.
I can see Rex trying to do the same thing in Buff if he can manipulate the press the way he did in New York. If things go poorly they will blame the GM and you will get all of these anonymous quotes on how Whaley is micromanaging and not getting poor Rex good players.
I know a great teacher can make the difference. But it's still up to the student to learn even if the teacher is mediocre. There are many avenues to improve yourself. If you have the initiative. Sometimes the talent just isn't there. The important thing for an athlete is getting the opportunity. Which for a Qb is playing and starts. Both Mark and Geno got that whereas many great college Qbs never even got a start. Mark got over 60 and Geno so far about 30. I think that Lee and Cavanaugh and Brian and Marty and even Sparano are all good teachers and guys who go the extra mile for their pupils.
It may be up to the student to learn, but if they're overwhelmed how are they supposed to learn? Geno never should have stepped on the field in his rookie season. When one is learning a game plan and preparing to face a team (play), one can't be focused on working on fundamentals like footwork, reading Ds, taking snaps under center, etc. Some football players are very intelligent, but I'd be willing to bet that at least half of the players in the NFL are below average in intelligence. Geno may be one of those players. Those players have to be brought along slowly. It's difficult, if not impossible to focus on or work on improving two or more things at one time. I disagree with your statement that it's about playing and starting. It is common knowledge that Geno had lots of fundamental issues that needed to be corrected. Those can't be corrected while you're playing. He needs to practice/focus on those things without any distractions of learning game plans or preparing to play. I TOTALLY DISAGREE with you about Cavanaugh and Sparano being great teachers, and only a lesser extent regarding Lee and Marty. Cavanaugh has never developed one QB in the NFL. Sparano showed what a clueless dumbass he is. Perhaps Marty would have had more success with Geno if left to his own devices and not dictated to by Rex, but based on his other failures in the NFL, I can't possibly agree that he's a good teacher.
In retrospect Geno shouldn't have started. But at that time there was a trend to start rookie Qbs because of success with a couple of guys the previous year. Plus there were circumstances: Sanchez got injured (and was coming off of a bad season) and there was no adequate fall back. They signed Garrard who was not physically able to play. After that Simms and Geno. Idzik did not adequately prepare for the Qb position after Mark went down.
Yes, you're right about the trend to starting rookie QBs, but prior to their drafts everyone was saying that both Sanchez and Geno needed to sit for a minimum of a year, and maybe two. It is totally Tanny's and Idzik's fault that they didn't bring in a vet FA to start. Rex didn't help Sanchez any by predicting the Jets would win the Super Bowl his rookie season, either. Sanchez got injured because of Rex's stupidity. It was a freak thing, but stupid to put Sanchez in at that point in the game. I didn't like Sanchez at all prior to the draft. I never wanted him drafted, but rooted for him once he was drafted by the Jets. Still, even though I and other Jets fans were sick of him, he would have been a better option as a starter than Geno. Sanchez was already pretty much ruined, or it was evident that he would never amount to anything more than a backup or jag QB. They should have let him take the pounding while Geno had the time to work on his fundamentals and maximize whatever chance he had at succeeding. Idzik should have cut bait with Simms before TC and brought in a vet, let him start, Sanchez be the backup and Geno hold the clipboard. Once Sanchez was hurt, I'm not sure which if any vet QBs were still available, but if it meant signing one off the street, I would have done that, let him take his lumps and not risked interfering with Geno's learning and development. Signing both Brunell and Garrard was idiotic. Neither was able to play. Hopefully, those days are behind us. Mac seems much more intelligent than that, but I guess we'll see very soon just how smart/good he is.
