New York Jets Need to Stay Committed to Michael Vick Through 2014 Season

Following their biggest win of the season over the favored Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, the focus has shifted to the New York Jets' decision back in training camp to never give Michael Vick a realistic chance to win the starting job. 

There is no more room for debate: Vick should have been named the starter far before the Jets' season was lost or at least have had an authentic enough competition to garner the possibility. 

Even Vick, who is no stranger to media controversy, could not hide the fact that he believes the Jets would be a much more relevant team with him under center all season:

For the Jets, however, debating decisions made in retrospect is a precious waste of time. If Rex Ryan and his staff want to have any chance of surviving beyond this season, they must learn from their mistakes of the past and keep the veteran under center for the remainder of 2014. 

Obviously, the Jets were holding out hope that they would never have to tap into their $5 million quarterback insurance policy, but they may as well get the most bang for their buck with jobs on the line. 

The Jets' original intention with Vick was to use him as A) a mentor to the young Smith as someone who has seen the NFL from every angle imaginable and B) act as a sort of "relief pitcher" who can spell Smith through inevitable rough patches. 

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Sitting at 2-8, the Jets are no longer in a "rough patch." They are in a minefield, where one more mistake on this scale will almost certainly spell their doom.

There is a reason why the 34-yard-old Vick was in the backup quarterback market this offseason. While still effective as a thrower and a runner, he has flaws, namely his turnovers and heartbreaking decisions in the red zone, that no self-respecting team would invest in over the long term, especially at his age.

For the Jets, however, Vick is far and away the best option on the roster, and a few inevitable shaky performances down the stretch should not cause them to sway their faith in Vick. 

After failing in the Smith and Mark Sanchez experiments, the jury is still out as to whether Rex Ryan is capable of ever developing a young quarterback. A recent report from NFL Network's Ian Rapport that claims Ryan and his staff predetermined Smith's reads prior to his three-interception quarter against the Buffalo Bills all but confirms that when it comes to molding young passers, Ryan is more or less guessing. 

What Vick can prove is that Ryan is capable of fielding a winning team when his quarterback position is eventually established—preferably through the channel of a proven veteran who is not in need of a significant amount of development—and that all he needs is one player—a quarterback—to field a winning team.

Credit: StatMilk.com

The difference in the Jets offense in just two Vick starts has been dramatic. While far from a juggernaut, the Jets are sustaining drives, generating explosive plays and, most importantly, winning the turnover battle—bucking a long-lasting trend of Vick's career. 

It is difficult to undersell the impact Vick's mobility has had on the Jets offense. When pass protection has broken down, Vick has bailed the Jets out of poor situations to not only avert disaster, but turn negative plays into positive ones—while breaking a few ankles along the way:

Vick has already established a chemistry with fellow newcomer Percy Harvin. Despite being in the Jets offense for less than a month, he is already putting up numbers at a pace he never saw with the Seattle Seahawks:

Team	Games	Receptions	Yards	Average
Seahawks	5	22	133	6.0
Jets	3	17	184	10.8

The coaches know Vick is the better player, as do the players as well as the fans. You can bet owner Woody Johnson, who knows football well enough to call a penalty a "foot fault," can see that Vick is the superior option to Smith. 

What kind of self-respecting head coach would play the lesser player and lose games to find out what they already know about Geno Smith?

If Smith truly was the answer the Jets have been looking for at the position for the last four decades, they would not have needed to rig a competition to put him in the starting lineup. Nor would they have had to tell him exactly where to throw the football as if he were playing in a Saturday morning over-40 flag football league—sweatpants, Rec Specs and all. 

Even if the Jets were to play Smith again this season, allowing him to regained his momentum from the preseason to look like a serviceable NFL starter during the easier stretch of the schedule. In this case, the Jets have convoluted intel on him—no longer armed with the justification of using a high draft pick on another passer—if they should choose to play him. 

Kathy Willens/Associated Press

Is Geno Smith's career over? Of course not—but the odds of his being an inconsistent player for the remainder of his football career are a lot higher than him ever reaching the heights the Jets are expecting out of their eventual franchise quarterback. 

Meanwhile, Vick does not have to be a Band-Aid, one-year solution. Bringing him back for an encore performance in 2015 makes plenty of sense, especially if the team plans on using a high draft pick on yet another young quarterback to groom. 

As Dom Consentino of NJ.com points out, the marriage between Vick and the Jets makes too much sense for a breakup to occur. The Jets will be back in the quarterback market, and Vick will certainly be looking for more than a backup gig. 

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Wherever he plays next year, Vick's going to want to start. The Jets, as presently constructed, can give him that opportunity. If their 2-8 record has proved anything, it's that the roster has far more holes than just quarterback...by sticking with Vick, the Jets could buy themselves at least another year to develop with a proven (if flawed) quarterback, at which point they can better re-evaluate where they're headed.

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While Vick's only job is to win as many games as possible for the Jets in the short term, he solves a lot more problems for Ryan's club than just making the team more difficult to defend over the next two months. 

Vick's future will largely be determined by who remains in charge after the dust clears this offseason, but there is no question that he needs to stay under center as long as he is healthy. If nothing else, that will prove the Jets brass are willing to move on and learn from their past mistakes.

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