The good news is with the McElroy release it looks like Simms will be a Jet for a long time and will be developed. Hell I wouldn't be surprised to see Simms play this season if Geno is turning the ball over too much. Rex did say he was choosing his starting QB week to week. Either way I haven't been this excited for a Jets game in a while, can't wait for tomorrow. Sent from my HTCEVODesign4G using Tapatalk 2
This really IS the question. I don't fault for starting Geno Smith...it is what it is and that's how the NFL rolls. The big problem is do we, for sure, know we have a diamond in the rough, firstly? Then the next question is will he ever get that chance? Many do not... Conventional logic says that Matt Simms never gets the opportunity to start while on a NY Jets roster. The ONLY way is if Geno Smith gets hurt and nobody, sane, wishes that the young man gets hurt. So...there you have it. Even IF Geno shits the bed...it's better than 80% odds that even if he's struggling the Jets start him, if healthy, the entire season. So there you have it.
Simms has a chance to play and could be in the game tomorrow. Geno still has an injury to his ankle and just one twist or hit and he might have to be sidelined. But Simms will be on a very very short leash. Unlike Mark if he screws up that could be it for him. If he throws picks and is horrible (like many rookie Qbs in their first 10 to 12 games are) there could be no more chances for Matt. So he will have to go out and play good football. I think Geno will do alright.
I agree that he would be on a short leash. This is the first time he has ever been on an NFL active roster, and he is a virtual unknown. He would probably have to do VERY well in the scenario you described to be able to stay in the starting lineup. Rex isn't going to tie his job security to a guy that few people have heard of unless he is either the real thing or everyone else is injured. And I may be in the minority here, but I think the kid could turn a thousand heads in that scenario. Even with a limited playbook.
College football is not a level playing field. College QB's rarely have to lead men. College football is a coaches game. Coaches who are leading boys, pimpled hormone driven boys of questionable intelligence and in some cases great athletic ability in a game where the competition is grossly uneven week to week. Being a pro-QB is about maturity and leadership coupled with great mechanics and the ability to slow down the action in your head in order to make good physical decisions. There are a handful of can't miss options that come out every decade. There is another handful of guys who mature at the pro level and turn into great NFL QB's. Simms like Geno and Sanchez has to be developed and then it's up to them. Sanchez wasn't developed and clearly hasn't turned into a leader of men who can slow down the action in his head to make the most of good, not great physical tools. Both Geno and Simms have to be developed. Their college resume's are meaningless at the pro level. Neither one of them is a guy who is ready. Simms at least has had to face some adversity just to stick around and maybe that's actually a plus at this early stage? It might not be but both or these guys are a complete crap shoot which is why the Jets had a competition for the starting job. Simms got lucky, Geno got hurt and he got an opportunity. Should we discount what he did with that opportunity because he doesn't have a big time College resume? Only if you believe Geno is a can't miss prospect who doesn't need to develop and mature. Brady sat, we sat Pennington for a couple of years, a guy who mentally was miles ahead of Geno and Sanchez. Arguably the best QB in the NFL right now sat for a couple of years. Chances are that both of these guys are going to suck. Stop telling me Geno deserves to start because of his college resume. The NFL isn't college football.
Good Point The door is open for Simms, but I don't think there's going to be a hair trigger on Geno. The real concern is going to be whether Sanchez is allowed back into the mix
I re-watched it too. The skill that Simms displayed had little to nothing to do with the talent around him. Behind Mangold & Co., he may even look better. I hope he gets a shot soon.
A good post indeed. An interesting possibility here is that Simms, not Smith is penciled in as the future QB. If this is the case, Geno starting would be considered a stop-gap while a more promising QB is developed. If you consider starting Sanchez right away, without development to be a mistake, then Jets are in the process of repeating the same mistake again. Stupidity of the FO? Possibly, but current FO is different from what was 5 years ago and it's unlikely that the same mistake is repeated by 2 different sets of OC+GM. So lets assume that (1) throwing a rookie QB into the games right off the bet is a mistake and (2) mistakes are not repeated by two different FOs..... Can I reasonably conclude that putting Geno in is not a mistake. Does it mean FO believes Geno can handle the pressure -- doubtfully with such a lousy preseason. So can it be that Geno is actually a stop-gap until Simms is ready with outside chance that he might actually be good? In other words, can it be that Jets are NOT repeating the old mistake and actually developing their prime QB? Except that the QB they are developing is Simms, not Smith! IMO, this is the case. Throw Geno in to find out what you've got over the course of a throw-away season. If he tanks -- draft another QB next spring and set up 3-way competition. If Geno does well -- so much the better.
I'm not saying Simms should not be the back up, nor am I saying I want to see Sanchez if Smith falters terribly after being given a significant opportunity. I am saying that Smith deserves the start over Simms because his body of work over his college and pro career thus far make him a better prospect than Simms. I know college football does not always translate to the NFL, but I am not aware of a singe even marginally successful NFL QB who performed poorly in college. And Simms was a poor college QB. Given that long track record, I take Smith over Simms and trust the college career and the practices over three quarters in the most meaningless of preseason football games - the 4th game. I can give you tons of examples of QBs who had good preseason games that went on the stink it up in the NFL. If someone can point out a successful NFL QB who stunk in college like Simms did, I'm all ears. And Brady is not the answer. Brady played almost two full seasons in college and was successful. Simms couldn't even throw for 200 yards in a game and hold down a starting job for more than a few games. And Matt Cassell is not the answer either.
Close decision whether to root for Smith to twist his ankle again tomorrow to get Simms in for a week or two. That would have to be better than having Smith dropping a Sanchez sized shit out there for the team's long term prospects. But on the other hand it would still increase the likelihood that Geno is going to be injury prone in the league and sidelining him again could also make evaluating the rest of his season less clear. That would make it harder to make a good decision about whether to draft a QB in the first round next year.
If Smith goes down, Simms will get his shot and he must be perfect or they will relegate him behind Quinn come Monday. Can't believe I had to actual write that. Still is a horrible dream that this team not only signed Quinn, but must like him.
That's the main threat, that the organization will make another bad decision and go with Quinn if it comes down to it. If Smith sucks or goes down and Simms isn't good enough I think it would be better for the team to just take their lumps and suck for the year rather than trying to eek out 7 wins with another proven bum. Then the problem with that is it could cost Rex his job without necessarily proving that the new regime can't succeed offensively with Rex still at the helm. It's a pretty dicey situation the more you think about it, but Simms still looks like our first whiff at a classic successful QB since before Pennington got hurt. It might be worth the risk to see if Simms can pull off a miracle.
Quinn was released today and will not be on the roster Sunday. By doing so and resigning Quinn on Monday, the Jets only have to pay him $45,000 a week rather than $750,000 for the season (the vet minimum for players on the roster for game 1). But Idzik and the front office are idiots according to most of you! Simms is the back up tomorrow.
Fine. But there is less justification in starting Simms because of a performance in the fourth preseason game with the scrubs of the scrubs. I agree that college football stats are not an accurate predictor of pro success. There are some predictors from college that do predict success, however, and one of them is number of college starts. And Smith was a four year starter and Simms started less games than Sanchez. But my point on Simms is this. I do not trust nor do I put stock in preseason games. I think Simms performance against the Eagles is virtually meaningless. And I am not aware of a single NFL QB who was a poor college QB, and Simms was a poor college QB. He was just plain bad. I am not willing to give the keys to an NFL franchise I follow and root for to a player who has not had success as a QB since he played High School football. Name me one - just one - NFL QB who has a college resume similar to Simms and was a quality NFL QB? I don't think such a player exists. So you can all talk all you want about Simms passing the eyeball test against the Eagles third stringers in the 4th preseason game where there are no game plans, scouting, etc. When he played top competition in college in games that counted against defenses that were playing schemes and trying to confuse him, Simms stunk. Did he find the magic elixir between 2011 and today? So who is Simms comparator? Who has followed a similar path and had success? I can name dozens of Jets QBs that lit it up in preseason and either stunk when the lights came on in September or were never heard from again. If I am wrong, prove me wrong. But Simms performance on August 29 meant nothing other than what that game was for - who gets the last few spots on the roster. He beat out McElroy and is on the team. He does not deserve to start. As for Smith, I think we would all prefer that he sit for 8-9 games or longer. But Garrard retired and Sanchez is hurt. If your thought is to "sacrifice" Simms so that Smith is not ruined, I would not be against that. But on merit, there is no contest here. Smith gets the start over Simms every single time on every NFL team faced with the same circumstances and the odds overwhelmingly indicate that Smith will be a better NFL QB than Simms, notwithstanding the Eagles scrub scrimmage.
The greatest fall back to a statement like that is Kurt Warner: He started 12 Games his senior season and was 8 - 4. He was 173 of 296 for 2,747 yds. .584% Completion percentage with 17 touchdowns. All at the power house of University of Northern Iowa. Not only that but it took him 4 years to break INTO the league. Talk about an epic fail...of an NFL team to see this HOF bound QB just floating around out there. There are more...but I don't want to start down that path. You get the idea.
I can give you tons of examples of pro-prospects washing out at the NFL level. Kevin Clemens had a release that Geno Smith would die for and he washed out. You say that Simms stunk? He played on a crappy team in the toughest division in College Football. You don't think he could have put up huge numbers if he played at Deleware the college that the SB MVP played at for 1 year. How do you think Simms would have done throwing to Randi Moss against Youngstown State? That QB was the best thing the Jets drafted at QB since Namath and he sat for a couple of years. Young guys mature at different times. Most top College QB prospects are going to wash out at the NFL level. Being a prospect means very little. This was considered a poor QB class, particularly at the top of the draft. You think the Jets pass on Geno twice if they believed he was a top QB prospect? It's a toss up Geno generally sucked in camp and in his one game. Simms showed something against backups and didn't get any real reps in camp with the 1's. The Jets aren't prepared to open the season because they completely mishandled the QB position while installing a new O.
