It always starts at the top, with the head coach and the quarterback, and owner Woody Johnson and general manager John Idzik have this five-game season that starts Sunday against the Dolphins to reach a verdict on Rex Ryan and Geno Smith, because the jury is still out on both.
Which means they are exactly where they were in the summer.
As it stands today, Ryan is a favorite to come back, and Smith is a favorite to watch the Jets draft their next franchise quarterback in the spring.
So both of them are on the clock, the alarm clock, and both of their futures hinge on whether Smith wakes up from this disconcerting slumber during which his growing pains have been more pronounced than anything Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had to endure.
It is why Ryan and everyone else involved in the quarterback decision-making should stick with the kid the rest of the way.
It is a nice little story these Jets have authored. Giving themselves and their fan base an unexpected season beyond Thanksgiving, but no one should be seduced or blinded by it, because as important as it is to win football games on Every Given Sunday, it is more important to define the direction of the franchise and who its leaders — head coach and quarterback — will be tomorrow.
If Smith is having another hard time of it, making the mistakes that cause you to lose, there is nothing wrong with turning to Matt Simms during the course of a game to see if he can provide a spark.
But stick with Smith as your starter, keep working with him, keep trying to get him right. Because if you get him right, if he comes out the other side, then you have yourself something. You have yourself a fighter.
I asked Smith how important these next five games are for him to prove to the Jets he is The Quarterback of The Future.
“I’ve never been out to do that,” he said. “I’ve been out trying to help my team win games. They drafted me here because they felt I can contribute to this team in some way. So now that I’m on the field, I just try and do my best to lead us in the right direction, make the right plays and go out and win games.
“It’s not out here to prove anything to anyone, other than myself and my teammates.”
You still believe that you’re The Quarterback of the Future here?
“Yes sir,” Smith said. “I have tremendous confidence in myself. I know that this is only the beginning. I’ve got a ton of room to grow. But it’s not about talking about it, it’s about going out and proving yourself on the field, and you got to do that first by doing it in practice.”
With so much at stake now, Marty Mornhinweg must take the handcuffs off Smith and he and Ryan must stop being as paranoid as they have been, because when you play not to lose, invariably you will lose.
Of course it is imperative to emphasize the hazards of careless disregard for the football, but not at the expense of showing a blatant lack of trust in your quarterback, old or young.
This won’t be a road game in Baltimore. It’s OK to sprinkle in the Wildcat. But not to utilize it as the staple of your offense. And what if Smith happened to get hurt on that pass he caught from Josh Cribbs? No más! Eight in the box? Let the kid take some shots.
“Me throwing the ball down the field is not ever a high-percentage pass unless a guy’s wide open, so it takes a ton of precision, and something that, quite honestly, I haven’t been as precise as I was the first couple of games, so I’ve just got to get better with that,” Smith said.
Ryan may or may not give Simms some first-string reps Thursday or Friday. He did not on Wednesday.
“I think the toughest part is just knowing that I can play better,” Smith said. “Obviously, at the position that I’m in, every play that I make can either affect the game in a negative or a positive light, so [I’m] just trying to eliminate those few mistakes that I do have in games.”
Backup quarterback David Garrard and quarterbacks coach David Lee have been excellent mentors for Smith. “Mentally, I’m always in a pretty good state, I usually put things into pretty good perspective,” Smith said.
The Dolphins will come in licking their chops. “My eyes are going to be key, seeing both safeties, seeing all 11 defenders, and throwing in rhythm, throwing it on time, putting it in the right spots for my guys and allowing them to catch it,” Smith said.
Smith will be at the Jets facility most of Thanksgiving Day. It has been one of his favorite days. “Sitting on my grandma’s lap, watching the Cowboys or the Lions, eating turkey,” Smith recalled.
The veterans on the 2004 Giants didn’t appreciate Tom Coughlin waving the white flag by yanking Kurt Warner and handing the ball to rookie Eli Manning at a time when the Giants were 5-4, but most understood the first overall pick of the draft that year was the future, and Coughlin decided the future would be now. He lost the battle but won the war — two wars.
Eli Manning isn’t sitting behind Geno Smith, Matt Simms is.
Matt Simms is not the future quarterback of the New York Jets.
Geno Smith may not be either. But benching him now robs you of the opportunity to find out whether he might be.