Michael Vick knows he was brought in to the New York Jets franchise this offseason in order to play as a backup quarterback to sophomore Geno Smith and help mentor the young player into developing as a potential superstar.
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Although Jets head coach Rex Ryan has yet to officially name Smith as the starter, it has been known since training camp that Smith would be the Week 1 starter barring injury.
Vick, who is now the savvy veteran, knows what it is like to be thrown into the fire as a rookie like Geno was last year. In his opinion, there is no time for patience in this league, and Smith needs to prove that he can win right away this season.
“At this point, everybody’s required to do everything the same way,” Vick told the New York Daily News. “Geno has taken that step in the right direction. I think he’s ready to lead this team. But there’s been a lot of quarterbacks that started as rookies and started young. There’s really no other way but to go out and win. Regardless of the year the player is in, you got to go out and get it done.”
Vick, at 34 years old, believes that he still has what it takes to get it done at the highest level, and will be ready if called upon. He knows that the No. 1 priority is winning, and winning right now.
“There wasn’t patience with me,” Vick continued. “There wasn’t patience with Brett Favre. I’ve seen Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco go in there as rookies. Ben Roethlisberger. They had to get it done and they got it done. There’s really no patience, just being honest. We got to win and we got to win now.”
If Smith can not get the job done in the first few weeks of the season, Rex Ryan could decide to put Vick into the starting slot in hopes of salvaging the season.