Jets fans have endured enough indignity during the past week to last a decade.
To review:
—Â The Jets lost 43-23 to the Bills last Sunday at home in a game that featured so many calamitous moments it was reminiscent of the bygone Rich Kotite era.
— In the process, their supposed franchise quarterback, Geno Smith, was so ineffective (lost?) that he was benched for the second time in the past four games, making it clear to anyone who hadn’t already figured it out that he is no longer the future (or even present) of the franchise.
— The day after the loss to the Bills, the Jets’ seventh in a row, their general manager John Idzik, in a bizarre midseason meeting with media, rambled on like a punch-drunk politician stumping for reelection in a scene that brought to mind the Holiday Inn Express TV commercial campaign.
Cue the commercial:
Question to Idzik: “Are you an NFL general manager?”
Idzik: “No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night.”
This brings us to Sunday’s game between the 1-7 Jets and the 4-3 Chiefs in Kansas City, where yet another potential indignity awaits their beleaguered fans: Michael Vick kicking butt as the starting quarterback.
What if Vick, whom the Jets signed in the offseason to mentor Smith and provide a proper veteran backup safety net, plays lights-out against the Chiefs and leads the Jets to victory?
Sure, that would provide instant short-term relief — even joy — after seven consecutive losses.
But what if Vick plays a turnover-free game, throws a couple touchdown passes and scrambles for a few key first downs to help upset the Chiefs? That scenario can’t help but leave Jets fans to wonder: Why did the team wait so long to replace Smith with Vick?
The Jets do not have to look very far to see evidence that a bold quarterback change can save a season.
Their opponent last week, the Bills, benched first-round pick EJ Manuel, their supposed franchise quarterback who, like Smith, is in his second season. Manuel, like Smith, had been missing open receivers and looking remedial in his reads, and Buffalo head coach Doug Marrone made the change to veteran backup Kyle Orton.
The Bills were 2-2 and hardly at a crisis point, but they switched to Orton and are 3-1 since the change, standing at 5-3 and in the heart of the AFC playoff race.
This is in no way to say or guarantee Vick will help turn the Jets around the way Orton did the Bills, because he has not looked much more effective than Smith when he has played. The jury is still very much out on whether the 34-year-old has anything left after taking so many hits and enduring so many injuries.
However, the two times Vick was brought into games —Â during a 31-0 loss in San Diego and last week against the Bills —Â it was with no notice.
So if there is one compelling element to Sunday’s game against Chiefs for Jets fans it is to see how Vick can do after having practiced all week with the first team — rather than entering the game like he was part of a fire drill. There is a sense of curiosity among the players in the Jets locker room about how Vick will look and how much better the offense can be with him having had a week of practice with the starters.
“I think everyone is really curious about that,’’ rookie tight end Jace Amaro said. “He hadn’t gotten any first-team reps [until this week]. This is his offense; he ran it in Philadelphia. Everyone is excited about him starting a game and seeing how he can take it … from 0-0 instead of when we’re down really big.
“We’re hoping that he can bring a spark to our team and get our offense to where we think it can be.’’
So, too, is receiver Jeremy Kerley, who called Vick “a dynamic player.’’
“Any time he comes into the game, he can be electrifying, anything can happen, he can take a play from the 1-yard line and go 99 yards on one play,’’ Kerley said. “That’s the kind of player he is. Hopefully, he’s the spark everybody’s looking for.’’
If that’s what Vick turns out to be — the spark that ignites a first Jets win since Week 1 — there won’t be a Jets fan alive not wondering why the change was not made weeks ago. And there will irony in that, even in victory, the Jets fan suffers a little bit.