Jets coach Rex Ryan started his postgame press conference by apologizing to Jets fans, “those that are left,” and said that the 31-0 loss to the Chargers was on him.
There would be strong arguments for the blame to be spread around to General Manager John Idzik and the team’s quarterbacks as well, which leads us to Ryan’s next pronouncement in the wake of the colossal disaster that was the Jets in Week Five.
Ryan said Geno Smith would start against the Broncos despite being pulled at halftime after going 4-of-12 for 27 yards and failing to lead the team past midfield in the first half of the game. The decision is sure to have its detractors, but Michael Vick didn’t make the decision a difficult one by going 9-of-20 for 47 yards after the break.
One could argue that a full week of practice with the first team would make it worth checking out Vick as a starter, but the Jets offense is so short on talent that it probably wouldn’t amount to much more than superficial differences against Denver. Ryan made that argument himself when he said that it wouldn’t have made a difference if the Jets had Joe Namath on Sunday.
Ryan didn’t specify if he meant the Namath of the past or present, but it’s probably the same outcome either way. And, for Ryan, it will take something even more unexpected than Namath making his Super Bowl III guarantee come true to save his job when all is said and done this season.