Not once, but two, three, four, even five times Eric Mangini was presented with the opportunity yesterday to clarify what appears to have become a cloudy Jets quarterback picture – but his responses shed little light on the situation.
Kellen Clemens, who has started the last six games, was knocked out of Sunday’s 20-10 loss to the Patriots on the Jets’ second offensive play with a rib injury.
Chad Pennington, who had been benched in favor of Clemens, came in and finished the game, completing 25-of-38 passes for 186 yards and keeping the Jets close until the end.
After the game, it was learned that Clemens could have returned, but that Mangini opted to stick with Pennington.
The question now is this: Will Mangini go with Pennington regardless of how healthy Clemens is, or will he stay the course with Clemens?
“We’ve got to see where Kellen is in terms of the injury,” Mangini said. “I think Kellen has done a lot of good things and there’s a lot of things that he’s still growing into and learning about with experience.
“On the other side, I thought Chad did a really nice job in the role that he has, to have limited reps and come in and execute all the different things we asked him to execute. That to me is classic Chad.”
Fair enough . . . for the moment.
Mangini praised Clemens while throwing in some vague constructive criticism and then praised Pennington for being ready to jump in against New England.
However, the question – If Clemens is healthy enough to play, will he start? – was not answered.
So it was posed again: “If Kellen is healthy enough to play, will you continue the course you’re on (and keep starting him)?”
“Right now we’ve just got to see where he is,” Mangini said. “With any injury, you’re probably not going to know until game time, so . . .” So . . . what?
“Obviously, you have some thought (about who’ll start) in your head, right?” Mangini was asked.
“No, it’s really just about evaluating where he is injury-wise, then we’ll go throughout the whole week, we’ll see where it is,” Mangini said.
Will the decision to play Clemens or not be based on his medical condition?
“Yeah, that will definitely play a big part in it, to see where he is in terms of the injury and all those things,” Mangini said. “We’ll just see how the week plays out.”
It was suggested to Mangini that his reticence to name a starter “muddies the water” and makes it sound as if Clemens is not necessarily still the starter even if healthy enough to play.
“No, he’s got an injury,” Mangini said. “I just have to see how the injury is going to affect his preparation throughout the course of the week, his ability to play, look at both quarterbacks and evaluate at the end of the week.”
Clemens was careful with what he said after the game. The phrase “coaches’ decision” was used when both he and Mangini were asked about whether he could have returned and why he never got back onto the field.
Fueling speculation that Mangini could go back to Pennington is the fact that Clemens’ performance since becoming the starter has been spotty. He has completed 52 percent of his passes, with four touchdowns and 10 interceptions and has a rating of 59.0. Pennington has completed 67.1 percent of his passes, with nine TDs and seven picks and a rating of 85.8.
Mangini said he’d “like to have a good idea” of who’ll be the starter by tomorrow, when the team reconvenes for practice.
Stayed tuned and expect a lot of the same uncertainty for a couple of days.