You never rush to judgment in the first preseason game. But let’s just say Geno Smith is lucky this isn’t a fair fight with Michael Vick.
Vick has been the good soldier, here to mentor young Geno, blah blah blah. And to be fair and balanced, he was working against the Colts scrubeenies Thursday night when he entered to a warm MetLife Stadium ovation early in the second quarter, after Smith was pedestrian working against the starters.
“It gets the adrenaline going,” Vick said.
But there is no denying that the good soldier looked more like the field general than the organization’s Chosen One during Jets 13, Colts 10.
You saw enough in Vick to imagine how sharp he can be if he is the one getting 80 percent of the practice reps in camp.
It is clear he hasn’t forgotten how to play quarterback. He was slick, he was quick, darting left around 323-pound Jeris Pendleton, then cutting back sharply for a 15-yard romp.
“Looked great,” coach Rex Ryan all but giggled. “Looked great.”
Vick completed nothing longer than 6 yards, but converted a third-and-5 to Jace Amaro and a fourth-and-4 to Tommy Bohanon to set up a 1-yard Chris Johnson TD run. Fourteen plays, 80 yards. “It only builds your confidence,” Vick said.
Vick’s second series, ruined by a sack, was a three-and-out. Yet his teammates couldn’t take their eyes off him.
If he isn’t resigned to his fate, he is doing a terrific job of hiding it.
Asked about earning more first-team practice reps, Vick said: “Nah, I don’t expect that.”
Nor would he relish a package for him that would take Smith off the field.
“It’s cool, but that disrupts the timing of the offense,” he said. “I think it has to be done at the right time, I experienced that in Philadelphia with Donovan [McNabb] at times. You want to go out there and let the quarterbacks get into a rhythm and not try to do too much, I think that’s doing too much.”
Smith (4-for-6, 33 yards, 1 rush for 10 yards) engineered a field goal drive from his 40 on his second series only because Nick Folk nailed a 51-yarder. Under pressure, he threw a third-and-6 pass over the middle that fell at David Nelson’s feet. Nelson considered it a sign of Smith’s growth, not risking a pick or taking a sack.
He was accurate on other short throws — nothing longer than 11 yards — and ripped off a Vickian 10-yard scamper around left end off a fake handoff to Johnson.
“I played two series and did OK, but [I’ve] got to do better,” Smith said.
His decision-making was highly suspect on his second attempt, when there was a defender at his feet ready to drag him down. He was fortunate his Hail Geno across the field to his left to Bohanon by the Jets sideline was not intercepted by Delano Howell. These are the kind of decisions he can no longer afford to make. Ryan, who hasn’t been to the playoffs since the 2010 season, won’t excuse them, not with Vick champing at the bit to resurrect his career.
Again, Smith is in no immediate danger here, and if you prefer to go strictly by passer rating, he owned an 80.6-56.2 edge on Vick.
But if nothing else, Vick (3-for-6, 17 yards, 3 rushes for 19 yards) provided a reminder — to GM John Idzik, to Rex Ryan, to Geno Smith, and maybe even to himself — that he can still can be Vick.
Again, there is no controversy. Only a friendly competition. Vick was signed to push Smith.
Smith should consider himself officially pushed.
There is nowhere to go for Smith but up, but he better go up fast, and he has had the benefit of an entire offseason to master the intricacies of Marty Mornhinweg’s playbook, and he is bigger and stronger and faster, not so much able to leap tall buildings in a single bound but more inclined to use his legs as an added dimension.
With Idzik supplying him with playmakers in Johnson and Eric Decker and Amaro once he takes off his Huggies, there will be no innocent climb this time around for Smith.
Smith is the one behind the steering wheel of the Green-and-White bus, and Vick is riding shotgun. Ryan and Idzik are all aboard the Geno bandwagon, and a fleeting cameo in the preseason opener won’t change anything. Nor should it.
It’s Smith’s job to lose. He won’t be losing it anytime soon. But a sign has been posted over the Quarterback Competition:
BEWARE OF VICK