Reality – what a concept

Some people just don’t get it. They just don’t. The most important thing to do when you are running an operation is to deal with reality.

Look, I’m not thin-skinned. I can take the heat on social media. But I’m getting a little tired (not angry, but tired) of some fans who refuse to acknowledge the current NFL QB landscape.

It’s really, really bad. In my opinion, the NFL has a crisis. It’s a QB-driven league. There are 32 teams, and about 6-7 elite quarterbacks. Don’t you think that qualifies as a crisis?

The NFL is in dire need of a developmental league. NFL Europe uncovered QB talent like Kurt Warner and Jake Delhomme. They both went to Super Bowls. It’s hard for quarterbacks to truly show what they can do in practice (no tackling, no touching quarterbacks). Not only do the NFL need a developmental league for quarterbacks to show what they can do, but also for their development. Quarterbacks need to play in games to get better, and reserve quarterbacks, or long shot quarterbacks, usually don’t get this chance in NFL. It seems like when these guys get a chance, if they have a couple bad games, people write them off. That is just awful in terms of player development. Look at baseball. Guys spend years in the minors honing their craft, learning, getting the kinks out, before they get called up. In the NFL, a reserve or longshot QB, gets a few preseason games, or a regular season game here or there, and if they don’t shine in that small window, they are often discarded. That is a terrible development system as far as I’m concerned.

Look, I understand teams would never send a first-round QB to a developmental league. I get that. But guys drafted the first round and undrafted free agents, if you gave them a ton of game reps in a developmental league, more guys would emerge.

The current set-up stinks.

Okay. I got my NFL QB development rant out of the way.

My issue with some fans is when I bring up names like Jay Cutler and Chase Daniel. I get attacked like I’m wearing a tin-foil hat.
Look, I’m not putting guys like Cutler and Daniel in Canton, but these fans need to get real, and stop taking a myopic view of the NFL QB landscape, which stinks.

If the Jets think either Cutler, Daniel (or A.J. McCarron) can help them this year, they should go get them. Lean heavily on the Jets’ new offensive coordinator and see who he thinks fits what he wants to do.

To me the Jets can’t start Bryce Petty or Christian Hackenberg this year. They have missed the playoffs the last six years, and got blown out six times last year. I’m not saying Cutler, Daniel or MacCarron will take them to the promised land, but they need to try to be competitive this year. As a franchise they can’t afford another embarrassing year. It would be awful for their culture. They need to compete; be in games – win some, lose some, but compete. If I were them, I’d be afraid of an 0-16, 1-15, -14, if they started the kids, who are know going to have new complex playbook thrown at them, after finally getting down Chan Gailey’s system.

Get real people – there is no Tom Brady tree farm.

The Jets might need Cutler, Daniel or McCarron this year. And I’m not overrating any of them.

March 13, 2017

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