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In Wednesday’s New York Daily News, writer Manish Mehta had an interesting piece, polling New York Jets players about whether they want Kellen Clemens or Mark Brunell as their backup quarterback.
According to Mehta, the players he polled voted resoundingly for Clemens.
“Don’t expect the Jets’ players to do backflips if Mark Brunell takes over as the team’s No. 2 quarterback this season,” wrote Mehta. “A Daily News poll of more than a dozen starters revealed that the overwhelming majority favored Kellen Clemens over the 17-year veteran if Mark Sanchez misses any time in 2010. The Jets can’t sign Brunell, who visited the team’s training facility in April, until the “Final Eight” rule is lifted on July 22 or they lose one of their own unrestricted free agents.”
I appreciate Mehta’s effort in doing this story, and it was an interesting read, but I don’t agree with the players.
First of all, most of them aren’t objective when it comes to this topic. Keep in mind, not only is Clemens a teammate, but also a very popular one. Clemens is a heck of a guy. It’s hard not to like him. So that could cloud the judgement of some of those polled.
But the fact that Clemens is a wonderful person should have no bearing on whether the Jets sign Brunell or not. It’s irrelevant. You can’t allow personal feelings to cloud football decisions. You just can’t. It’s a bad way to run a sports organization and often gets you in trouble.
The bottom line is that Clemens hasn’t distinguished himself since becoming a Jet. It’s not due to a lack of effort. He’s one of the hardest workers around. It’s about instincts. His feel for the position seems a little off, whether it’s not seeing the field as well as he should or his tendency to take off running when he shouldn’t. He has proven to be a pedestrian quarterback so far in the NFL.
And honestly, he didn’t have a good spring. While you don’t want to put too much stock in what happens in OTA’s and minicamp, there are some things you do notice about QB’s regarding reads, accuracy and when a QB takes off and runs too often. Clemens had issues in all these areas.
Hey, I hate to beat up on the guy because he is such a great person, but as Bill Parcells always says, “I go by what I see.”
I thought Eric Ainge was better throughout the spring.
And if Mark Sanchez was injured this year, I’d rather have Ainge playing than Clemens. Kellen’s performance in Tampa last year would scare me if I was the Jets. And his work in 2007, as a starter over the second half of the season, was underwhelming.
The reason to bring Brunell in isn’t to start him for a long stretch if Sanchez suffered a serious injury. That would likely be somebody else. At his age, Brunell might not be up to a long stretch in the starting role. But to finish a game or go in for a start or two, he can still do that.
But the biggest reason to bring in Brunell is to be a mentor to Sanchez. While the young signal-caller does get quality tutoring from coaches Brian Schottenheimer and Matt Cavanaugh, some information is better relayed from a fellow “cube” not a coach. And Brunell, who is a terrific person, could be a big help to Sanchez. B-Schotty has heard great things from his close friend Drew Brees in New Orleans about how much Brunell helped him the last two years as a backup.
As Sanchez said early in the offseason – there isn’t much any of his current backups can teach him because he’s played more games than all of them combined.
Brunell could really help Sanchez.
The player poll means nothing. It’s based on pure emotion, not pragmatism.