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He is a legitimate threat . . .
. . . to Davis Webb for the Jets #3 QB job behind Sam Darnold and Trevor Siemian.
Talking about Brandon Silvers, who the Jets signed today.
He played well in the Alliance of American Football and was a four-year starter at Troy.
It’s funny how politics even existed in a league that was supposed to give guys a chance, many who got screwed by NFL politics the first time they tried to make the league. But Silver only got to play for the Memphis Express after Christian Hackenberg struggled and Zach Mettenberger got hurt. Silver is better than both of them.
I saw him play a couple times in the AAF, and he looked like an NFL QB to me, at least a backup.
He’s a perfect example of why it’s important for the NFL to have a developmental league, especially for the quarterback position.
While obviously starting NFL quarterbacks or first-round prospects aren’t going to be sent to a developmental league, backups who need reps can be.
Going back to NFL Europe, long-shot quarterbacks like Kurt Warner and Jake Delhomme got a chance to play and earned NFL contracts. Not saying that Silvers is now going to lead an NFL team to the Super Bowl like these two guys did, just pointing out how important developmental leagues are, especially for quarterbacks.
Guys like Silver need pro game reps to help their development, and since they often go into an NFL camps as a fourth arm, they aren’t going to get many in the training camp or the preseason.
Silver got to play extensively in the AAF, played well and showed improvement.
And to show his wares to NFL scouts.
He has an NFL arm and improved his field vision in the AAF.
Remember when the owner of the AAF, Tom Dundon, said a few times before he folded the league, he needed the NFL to commit to send players to his league?
Well, clearly that wasn’t going to happen mid-season when there was no arrangement before the season, but it was a good idea, especially at the QB position.
And Davis Webb would have been a perfect candidate.
He needs pro game reps, especially coming from not one, but two college-spread offenses, first at Texas Tech and then the University of California-Berkeley. Two of those simple systems that don’t translate to the NFL often with predetermined reads.
So Webb needed what Silver did, game reps in the AAF.
He didn’t get them.
So Silver could be a major threat to Webb’s hold on the Jets #3 QB job. Honestly, as we speak, this race has to be considered too close to call.
While Webb certainly looks the part at 6-5, 230, with a strong arm, who really knows where he is at in his development right now.
We will see what he does this spring and summer.
But the advantage Silvers has over him is we have seen him in real pro action, and while the AAF wasn’t on an NFL level, it was pretty good and better than college.
April 10, 2019
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