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Some takeaways . . .
. . . from Joe Flacco’s conference call today with the New York media.
I want to start with something he said in the middle, that some people might consider just a throwaway line, but I think was a very significant quote.
He was asked how he can help Sam Darnold. He said a bunch of things, and then he threw in this:
“I would say the biggest thing is to just to get him to play as fast as possible, after talking with him, so he can use all those things that he has in his tool box, all those natural talents that he has to be able to play football the way he knows how to.”
This is something that isn’t talked about enough, but is so important for Darnold to take the next step as a quarterback. He must process what he’s seeing from a defense faster and make quicker decisions with the football. This is common for young quarterbacks. Darnold must improve the sophistication of his eyes and speed up his internal clock.
Another important answer that stood out to me that might not get a lot of attention, was when Flacco was asked about how tough will it be to get ready to play, if he must, with so little reps.
“It’s never ideal to not get a ton of reps and then play in NFL games, but I would say being in the league as long as I have, I would say maybe I have a little bit of an advantage over someone who doesn’t have very much experience,” Flacco said. “It’s not like I haven’t seen most things that you are going to go out and see on game day and things like that. The thing that you naturally deal with is conditioning, and game shape, and the speed of it all, that you haven’t seen for a while. It’s ideal, but I think maybe I have a leg up on most guys that aren’t able to get a lot of reps.”
This is huge. You saw what happened to the Pittsburgh Steelers who didn’t have a good backup last year after Big Ben got hurt and it cost them a playoff spot. Last year, you saw with the Jets, a reserve quarterback, who didn’t get enough reps leading up to the Philadelphia game, and it hurt his performance a great deal. Flacco has seen so much in his career, he can go into games with limited reps, and still function. What will also help him is that he was signed in May, and will three months to mentally absorb the Jets’ offensive system. That is why it was smart to get this deal done now, and not in, let’s say, August.
And he’s a heck of an insurance policy for Gang Green at the QB position. It sounds like his neck is going to be fine. He had surgery last month for a herniated disc that he said wasn’t bothering him that much, but he knew he had to get it fixed to get signed by another team, that would have seen a bulging disc on the MRI. So he did it and feels fine now.
What a terrific backup plan if Darnold gets hurt. This guy is still a starting quality QB.
“I obviously still believe I’m a starting quarterback,” Flacco said. “You never know what three years down the line is going to look like. So I still have that confidence and I still have the want to, to do that. But at this point, that is not my role, my role is to help the team get better and to help a young QB see things as clearly as possible and help him with his journey to being a long time NFL quarterback.”
May 28, 2020
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