Jets coach Eric Mangini didn’t give Chad Pennington a vote of confidence yesterday. He gave Kellen Clemens a vote of no confidence.

Despite an ugly start to the season that has fans begging for change, Mangini announced that Pennington will keep his job as the Jets’ starting quarterback and that Clemens will stand on the sidelines when the Jets host the Buffalo Bills on Sunday at the Meadowlands. In explaining his decision, Mangini cited Pennington’s understanding of the Jets’ offense and praised his ability to change plays at the line of scrimmage.

But while Mangini can spin his decision as a sign of continuing support for his incumbent quarterback, make no mistake: This is just as much about Clemens as it is about Pennington. It’s now been 18 months since the Jets spent a second-round draft pick on Clemens, and he still can’t get on the field unless Pennington gets hurt, even though the team is 1–6. If Clemens had shown as much promise so far in his tenure with the Jets as the team thought he had when it drafted him, he’d be playing by now.

The one chance Clemens got, when Pennington had to miss the Week 2 game against the Baltimore Ravens with an ankle injury, he played about the way you’d expect a young quarterback to play. Which is to say, not very well. He often looked hesitant and confused, especially when the Ravens blitzed him.

But he also showed that he can do some things Pennington can’t. Clemens has a much better arm than Pennington, and in the fourth quarter, as the Jets attempted to come from behind, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer finally allowed Clemens to air it out. When he did, he showed the promise the Jets saw when they drafted him. Mangini’s refusal to give Clemens the chance to fulfill that promise indicates that he’s in denial about what kind of team he has. Last year is over, and this isn’t a playoff team. This is a team that has earned its 1-6 record and shown no signs of turning things around over the second half of the year.

After the Bills game Sunday, the Jets’ season will be half over. They play the Washington Redskins the following week and then have their bye. That week off, which would give Clemens extra time to prepare with the first-string offense, now seems like the most likely time for the Jets to make the quarterback switch. That would give the Jets the final seven games of the season to see what kind of quarterback Clemens is.

But why not do it now? Maybe Mangini thinks he’s sending a message to the rest of his team that he won’t listen to the fans and the press, that he’ll stand firm in the face of outside pressure. Maybe Mangini thinks he’s showing that he’s not concerned about anything beyond winning the next game, that he’s not giving up on 2007, and that he’s not in rebuilding mode. But that would make sense if the Jets had won more than one game this year. When Pennington is on pace to lead the Jets to a 2–14 or 3–13 record, standing firm looks a lot like stubbornness.

It’s not that Pennington is a bad quarterback. He’s certainly better than any of the four starting quarterbacks who have been benched so far this NFL season: Buffalo’s J.P. Losman, Cleveland’s Charlie Frye, Atlanta’s Joey Harrington, and Chicago’s Rex Grossman. But this is a rebuilding team with a second-round quarterback on the roster. Keeping that quarterback on the bench sends a message that the coaching staff has no faith in him.

Sometimes young quarterbacks’ confidence gets shot when they’re thrown to the wolves before they’re ready, and Mangini might be motivated by a belief that he could do more harm than good by putting Clemens on the field now. But Clemens seemed perfectly confident when he played against the Ravens. And if he’s going to lose his confidence when something goes wrong, he’s probably not cut out for being an NFL quarterback anyway. If that’s the case, it would be good for the Jets to find out sooner rather than later.

Replacing Pennington with Clemens is a move Mangini has to be sure about, because it’s a move he can’t go back on. Once he’s declared Clemens his starter, Pennington is effectively finished as a Jet. Although Pennington has four more seasons on his contract, he seems unlikely to stick around as Clemens’s backup. Like most NFL contracts, Pennington’s is a deal that the Jets can get out of without too much trouble if they choose to trade or release him after this season.

Pennington sat on the bench for two years behind Vinny Testaverde after the Jets drafted him in 2000, but the Jets were a playoff team in 2001. It was understandable not to play Pennington until his third year, but it would be foolish to fail to find out how good Clemens is until his third year. The Jets spent a second-round pick on Clemens last season, and he’s holding a clipboard for a 1–6 team. It’s time for the Jets to find out whether Clemens is their quarterback of the future.

Mr. Smith is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.