Mike Vick, veteran quarterback and slightly less than super-human athlete helmed the New York Jets to a 20-13 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. It was the second week in a row that Vick played (relatively) well - 10 of 18 passing for two touchdowns and no interceptions - in place of the now-benched, one-time franchise savior, Geno Smith.
Afterwards, Vick admitted that he believes deep down in the cockles of his heart that he can still be a starter in this league, and had he started out the season under center for New York, the team would have won more games, according to a report from Darryl Slater of NJ.com.
"In my heart, I feel like on any team, I can be the starter, as long as it's not an Aaron Rodgers or a Ben Roethlisberger," he said. "I'm not saying that those guys are better quarterbacks. I'm just saying that I'm confident in my abilities. But the (Jets) coaches made the decisions, and I totally understood everything that was taking place. It was all about developing a young quarterback (Smith), mentoring a young quarterback and giving him every opportunity to succeed."
Vick, when asked by reporters if he thought the Jets would have a better record had he been the starter Week 1, replied emphatically, "In my heart, yes."
"Yeah, I mean, to sit here and say no would show a lack of confidence in myself and my teammates. But absolutely, I think if I was starting from Day 1, then maybe it would've been an opportunity. But that wasn't the case. I wasn't put in that situation. The team wasn't put in that situation."
Vick is known for his in-interview honesty - or at least for his inability to hide the truth and offer rote, team-friendly answers when speaking to the media. Jets coach Rex Ryan would, no doubt, prefer Vick to defer the chance to answer such a question and, instead, offer some useless platitude about his teammates and showing resilience and whatnot.
But, that's not Vick's style. And while he did his best to smother the flames of the small fire he had just started with his comments, there's no taking back what he clearly meant - Vick was a better choice to quarterback the Jets than Geno Smith.
"So me saying that, please don't get it misconstrued. Please don't go out and say, 'Mike Vick felt like if he was the starter, then we would be winning,' because that's not what I'm saying right now. I'm saying in front of all these cameras that, if given an opportunity, yeah, I believe our team would've maybe won some games. That's speaking from experience and playing in the league for a long time."
Vick will be given another opportunity next week to prove his thesis as he is slated to start against the Buffalo Bills, according to a separate report from Slater.
