Sunday, September 2, 2007

Who needs Byron?

I appear to be the only one, but I think that Jack Del Rio gave up on Byron Leftwich much too soon. I think there are several teams in the league that would immediately become better by adding Leftwich. By the way, am I the only one who finds it extremely coinciental that Leftwich and Gerrard have battled it out in Jax after their classic 64-61 overtime thriller in college (a game in which Leftwich thoroughly outplayed Gerrard). The following are some teams that should (but probably won't) sign Leftwich.

  1. Kansas City - They say if you have two quarterbacks you don't have any quarterbacks. What do they say if you don't have any quarterbacks to begin with? Damon Huard is a lifetime back-up and Brodie Croyle fell to the 2nd round for a reason. He wouldn't have many pass catchers to work with, but I think Leftwich would be the best qb in KC if they signed him.
  2. Oakland - This is just a thought, but what if the Raiders traded Russell for a future number 1 and signed Leftwich. That way they could have a competition between two rocket armed qb's and let the best man win. I'm pretty confident that either Culpepper or Leftwich has plenty of life left. Additionally, Leftwich fits the Raiders scheme. An immobile missile launcher.
  3. Dallas - I'm not sold (yet) on Tony Romo. If the price is right, why not sign Leftwich to a short contract in case Romo fails.
  4. Detroit - I think the Jon Kitna experiment is a bit of an ego think on the part of Mike Martz. He got an undrafted journeyman to throw for over 4000 yards. If he can take it to the next level (playoffs?) with Kitna at QB, that only adds to the Martz as Mad Scientist legend. Think about it, an offensive coordinator that not only gets some all-time great years from Kurt Warner - an undrafted free agent who nobody had heard of - but he repeats the feat with a QB that nobody else would have started. But, lets put Martz's ego aside and picture what happens if you upgrade the position with Leftwich. You have an outstanding receiving corp and a decent offense all around, and you just upgraded the most important position......I think it would make the Lions contenders in the NFC North.
  5. Jacksonville - Sorry....I had to throw this one in there. I'm not here to be a yahoo criticizing coaches. But, I think Jack Del Rio is in over his head in Jacksonville. I'm not sure what ever made him qualified to be a head coach to begin with.......but this move seals the deal in my mind. He's not qualified to be a head coach in the nfl.
  6. Baltimore - Steve McNair is really old and they're not re-signing Boller.

One more thing.....making this list has made me realize how many teams are "set for now" at QB. In the last 5 years, Buffalo, Cincinnatti, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Houston, Tennessee, Jacksonville, San Diego, Oakland, Denver, Washington (twice), the Giants, Chicago, Green Bay, Detroit, San Francisco and Arizona have all taken QB's in the first round of a draft. Many of those players have already been released. Regardless, that's 18 out of 32 teams that have tried to shore up the game's most important position in the first round. They're not all gonna work out. But that doesn't leave much of a market for a player, like Leftwich, who's looking for a team to lead.

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