No Right Answer Between Geno Smith, Michael Vick in Jets Quarterback Controversy

Multiple choice: A) Geno Smith or B) Michael Vick?

How about a write-in candidate: C) None of the above?

Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News suggests that it's time the "foul-mouthed, movie-goer quarterback" gets his "time-zone challenged derriere planted on the bench," but at a time when the New York Jets desperately need leadership, at the quarterback position most of all, neither Smith nor Vick is doing enough (read: anything) to state his case as the right choice. 

Never mind the fact that neither man is playing well enough to earn the job on the field. Neither one is acting mature enough off the field either.

Player	Cmp %	TD	INT	Rate
G. Smith	58.1%	4	6	69.3
M. Vick	40%	0	0	47.9

Vick admitted as much when he said he "wasn't prepared" to go into Sunday's blowout loss to the San Diego Chargers.

"I felt like I, for some reason, being a quarterback in his 12th year, sometimes you take things for granted," Vick said Wednesday, according to Mike Mazzeo of ESPN. "I think I took the scout team for granted."

Let's pause to analyze this for a moment. Vick came to New York, knowing the Jets had a struggling quarterback in the starting lineup, and basically acquiesced the starting spot to Smith from the get-go. That should never have been the case given the way Smith played last year (apart from a strong four-game stretch to finish the season).

But Vick should have smelled blood in the water the minute Smith began struggling in 2014. A competitor would have pushed himself—and his teammate—to the brink for the betterment of the team.

Instead, Vick admitted that in the first week of a real quarterback controversy in New York, he threw in the white towel before the competition ever got going.

Smith's on-field play started the discussion, but he moved the conversation forward with a profane outburst directed at Jets fans at MetLife Stadium.

And his actions spoke louder and more distastefully than his words when he missed a team meeting the night before the Jets' loss to the Chargers—he was watching a movie and got the times mixed up, thanks to the Jets' trip to the West Coast.

Smith's teammates were ticked, according to Manish Mehta, and rightfully so.

"It doesn't just affect one person, it affects us all," Smith said, "and in that moment I apologized, and the guys told me to move on, so that's what I did."

It was an honest mistake, according to Darin Gantt of Pro Football Talk, but it's a mistake that simply can't happen. Smith knows his actions affect the team, yet he allows them to happen anyway. Maturity problems would be excusable if Smith were still in his college days at West Virginia, but as a professional quarterback on the big stage of the Big Apple, he has to know better.

But let's get this straight: Even if Smith had made it to the meeting on time, his poor play Sunday (4-of-12, 27 yards, interception) means he would still be facing an equal level of doubt about his long-term viability as the Jets' starting quarterback.

Despite that, Jets head coach Rex Ryan continues to stand by his man, Smith, for now.

But in the throes of a four-game losing streak—the longest of Ryan's head coaching career—one has to wonder how much longer he can keep the faith in Smith as the starter. Perhaps he feels keeping Smith as the starter will earn him valuable brownie points with general manager John Idzik—the man who selected Smith in the second round to be the quarterback of the future.

Those brownie points appear to be enough for Smith to keep his job, but will brownie points save Ryan's job as head coach if the Jets' season continues on this landslide?

Ryan has at least one thing working in his favor: The players love him. If the Jets were to fire him midseason, it could cause a locker room divide among those who feel he was unfairly blamed for the shortcomings of the roster. The potential for divide may be enough to keep the Jets' decision-makers from pulling the trigger.

But all of this can go away if someone, anyone, stands up to claim the starting job at quarterback by being both a dependable leader off the field and even a competent player on it.

Unless otherwise noted, quotes obtained via team news release.

Follow @ErikFrenz