Steve Serby
The Jets are playing with fire and are certain to get burned if they don't name a quarterback soon after tomorrow night's game against the Giants.
Coach Rex Ryan and his offensive underlings are now leaving open the possibility the collective, collaborative choice between Mark Sanchez and Geno Smith could drag into the fourth preseason game against the Eagles on Thursday, a mere 10 days before the regular-season opener.
"We're not putting a timetable on this," Ryan said. "We want to make sure that our evaluation's complete before we make that decision."
Complete the evaluation and make that decision after this game, for crying out loud.
To the best of my knowledge, a Waffle House has never fielded a winning football team.
Quarterbacks coach David Lee: "We're not near ready to name a quarterback yet.
"[When] we know, we'll tell ya. We don't know right now."
This Delay of Game is debilitating and self-destructive to a team that cries out for leadership at the most important position, and a disservice to whichever quarterback wins the job, from a repetition standpoint and, most critically, from a leadership standpoint.
Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg: "This is going to be a decision that's going to be made when, like any other position, one of the players elevates himself."
Quarterback, however, is not like any other position. I asked Mornhinweg if it's possible he will go into the fourth preseason game without a decision.
"I suppose it's possible," he said.
But isn't it beneficial for the rest of the offense to know who its leader is?
"Oh, you can debate some of those things. ... You could debate 'em, certainly," Mornhinweg said. "However, you have to just simply have enough information to be able to do that."
He who hesitates on the quarterback decision is lost, and the Jets will be lost if they operate with this kind of indecision.
I fully understand why, in the interest of justifying a fair and open competition, it is imperative they give Smith, stunted by that bum ankle, his first preseason start and evaluate him when the live bullets are flying.
"It wouldn't be an equal competition had we not played it out this way," Ryan said.
But prolonging the decision compromises both the veteran incumbent, who could be perceived as incapable of separating from the rookie, and the rookie, who could be perceived as incapable of supplanting the so-called buttfumbler the organization is looking to replace.
Ryan: "It'll be a huge decision, but the main thing is that we feel great about the decision, we think it's the right decision, and I think that's why it might have taken longer than other teams or whatever,. But I honestly don't care about any other team. We care about our football team, and that's the only thing that really matters."
Rookie coach or lame-duck coach, Ryan must have the final say — even if general manager John Idzik, who drafted Smith, who inherited Ryan, disagrees.
"Our organization is tied together," Ryan said, "and that's why I feel confident when we say that when it's appropriate to make the decision as an organization, we're going to feel great about it. And I think that's when we will. When it's obvious to all of us that this is the direction we need to move, I think that's when we'll make that decision."
If Smith looks like Phil Simms in the Super Bowl, name him.
"I don't want to say, 'Well, he's got to look like Phil Simms in the Super Bowl.' That wasn't a bad day though," Ryan said.
If Smith looks like Sanchez, name Sanchez.
Lee, asked if Smith does reasonably well tomorrow night in his two-plus quarters whether that would that be enough to name him Opening Day starter, said: "No. We got to keep going. Let's keep letting them compete, let's go to the Philly game. ... There's no hurry. There is to y'all, obviously, but there's not to us."
Why isn't there a hurry so the rest of the Jets know who their quarterback is?
"The only good reason to name one quick is he would obviously get more reps prior to the first game, but it's been too close to call, and I want it clear, I want it cleaner before we make that decision," Lee said.
In Nobody They Trust.
"I think I know exactly where Mark's at," Mornhinweg said. "There's no question that I think we can do some very good things with Mark. Don't quite know where Geno's at yet."
Or perhaps the grand plan is to render Darrelle Revis Sleepless in Tampa wondering which Jets quarterback will come trotting on to the field on Sept. 8.
steve.serby@nypost.com
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