Despite their great win over the Steelers on Sunday afternoon, the Jets are not going to make a run to the NFL Playoffs this season. They're just 2-8 on the year and have next to no chance of making it to the postseason. But at the very least, Michael Vick made the Jets look respectable against Pittsburgh yesterday. And when asked by reporters after the game if he thinks he could have led the Jets to more victories than Geno Smith this season, he didn't hesitate to say that he does believe he could have done it.
"In my heart, yes," he said. "In my heart, I feel like on any team, I can be the starter. As long as it's not Aaron Rodgers or Ben Roethlisberger. And I'm not saying those guys are better quarterbacks. I'm just saying that I'm confident in my abilities. If there's an opportunity there, then, yeah."
That being said, Vick also said that he understands why the Jets coaching staff chose to start Smith instead of him at the beginning of the season.
"I totally understand everything that was taking place," he said. "It was all about developing a young quarterback, mentoring a young quarterback, and giving him every opportunity to succeed. And now he has a chance to do it from afar and I think it's going to help him."
It's hard to argue with Vick here. After all, the Jets only won one game this season under Smith—a 19-14 Week 1 win against the Raiders, who have lost to everyone they've played this season. And if you're a Jets fan, you probably wouldn't mind going back in time and plugging Vick into the starting lineup over Smith sooner just to see how the season would have played out.
But at the same time, Vick is not the Jets franchise's future quarterback. So you can't really fault the Jets for playing Smith over Vick just to see what they had with their young QB. It's just a shame they didn't pull the plug on him sooner to try and salvage their season.
[via USA TODAY Sports]
