Marty Mornhinweg Says Geno Smith Will Not Be Benched

According to Chris Nimbley:

Marty said they're way past the point of contemplating benching Geno. Says he's going to have ups & downs they just need to let him develop

— Chris Nimbley (@Cnimbley) September 25, 2014

Marty Mornhinweg went further:

Mornhinweg clarifies that he put too much on Geno Smith's plate in the red zone. #nyj

— Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) September 25, 2014

Mornhinweg on if Vick is a consideration: "Geno's going to be just fine. We're going to go thru some ups and down." #nyj

— Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) September 25, 2014

Mornhinweg on Geno Smith's 5 turnovers: "This is an issue now. Good QBs take care of the ball... He's simply been too loose there" #nyj

— Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) September 25, 2014

Mornhinweg on Geno Smith: "You have to go through some bad stuff to be great." #nyj

— Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) September 25, 2014

To me, this makes sense. Mike Vick has always been known as a turnover-prone quarterback, so the team won't simply be eliminating turnovers if they switch to him. Furthermore, Vick is not a long-term solution. Geno Smith may be, so the team needs to find out for sure what they have with him and if he can continue to develop. The team was also willing to give Mark Sanchez four years; surely it isn't unreasonable to give Smith two to state his case. What also hurts Smith is that the toughest opponents come in the first half of the season, so I'm glad the team is willing to give him some time to straighten things out. Smith has also been hurt by a weak receiving corps, which has made it more difficult to judge him fairly.

I'm glad the team has no intention of dumping Smith and is standing behind him. Let's just hope he rewards them by getting better.