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When it comes to evaluating quarterbacks
most NFL teams don’t get it.
“Very few people can coach the quarterback, and even fewer can evaluate them,” said the late, great 49ers coach Bill Walsh, who drafted two Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks – Joe Montana and Steve Young.
Look at the mess in Atlanta. They get rid of Matt Ryan for a third-round pick, and sign Marcus Mariota, who can’t read defenses. The Steelers sign Mitch Trubisky to replace Ben Roethlisberger who retired. He can’t read defenses either.
And by the way, Mariota and Trubisky were both high first-round picks, who are both now on their third teams.
There are so many first-round misses at this position. For every Joe Burrow, there are many other first-round quarterbacks who don’t pan out.
NFL teams are just really bad at evaluating this position.
And that brings us to Mike White.
He’s officially back with the Jets. He signed his fifth-round tender and will make $2.54 million this year.
In a league where half the teams don’t have a legit answer at QB, no team thought it was worth giving up a fifth-round pick for that player who lit up the AFC’s rep in the Super Bowl last year – the Cincinnati Bengals. Nobody thought it was worth a fifth-round pick to take a flyer on a player who took the Jets down the field in the first quarter against the Colts on a long TD drive, before leaving the game injured. No team thought had interest in the player who threw a perfect TD pass to Corey Davis on his first-ever NFL throw against New England into tight coverage. Or the player who has looked good in Jets camp two summers in a row, outperforming two anointed starters.
He has great size (6-5, 225), sees the field well and throws with anticipation.
He had a bad game against the NFL’s #1 defense, and that was the last time we saw of him.
But because of how bad NFL teams are at evaluating the position, White is back with the Jets, and if for some reason Zach Wilson doesn’t work out, they have another promising young QB in the fold, kind of like when the Washington Commanders had Kirk Cousins behind Robert Griffin, and eventually turned to him due to RGIII’s injuries and inconsistent play.
Look, I’m not putting White in Canton, but your telling me, Carolina, Pittsburgh, Seattle shouldn’t they have at least tried to grab him from the Jets, with let’s say give him two-year deal for $9 million with $4.5 million guaranteed – nothing crazy, but something the Jets might not match?
I’m not saying another team should anoint him the starter, but bring him in and let him compete for the job. He’s a good guy to have in the room to compete for a starting job.
How can you watch the tape from this year, see the Patriots game where the showed flashes in his first-ever NFL game, and then the Bengals/Colts games, and not say, “Let’s get this guy in our building and let him compete for the job.”
Stunad.
But hat-tip to Joe Douglas for pulling this off. Perhaps it was smart to put White in the Witness Protection Program after the Bills game, and then give him a low tender. I think it helped create the impression that the Jets weren’t that high on him, which probably led other teams to not be that high on him.
You know what also helped.
“Very few people can coach the quarterback, and even fewer can evaluate them,” . . .
March 23, 2022
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