One of the hidden pleasures of watching preseason football is watching the battle to be the backup quarterback. While some might not call this viewing a pleasure--let's face it, some of these throws and the accompanying footwork and positioning is brutal to watch--it does tend to bring out the best and the worst of the combatants in some fascinating ways.
This particular preseason had some head-spinners, too. We learned some pretty strange things about guys like Trey Lance, Zach Wilson and the others floating in the same backup QB boat, so let's cover our eyes and summarize.
Trey Lance can still give an owner/GM headaches
Lance's unique combination of seemingly unlimited potential and very limited actual performance seemed to drive the 49ers crazy, but now this problem belongs to the Cowboys, specifically Jerry Jones.
Jones loved watching Lance play well at times, until a five-pick game against the Chargers made him realize that if he keeps Lance he's on the hook for $5 million for a guy who might still be a QB lemon.
Zach Wilson now knows how to be a standup guy
Wilson was acquired by Denver to make his last stand as a potential star QB, and while he didn't show enough flashes to convince anyone that he's all that, at least he said all the right things when coach Sean Payton chose first-round pick Bo Nix to be the Broncos starter.
After being told he'd made the roster, Wilson thanked the Broncos for the opportunity, and he proceeded to praise Payton, QB coach Davis Webb and as many assistant coaches as he could fit into a single quote.
It was a bravo performance that's easy to give when you've just been informed that you're going to make almost $3 million a year, but it was still impressively strange seeing Wilson acting like the adult in the QB room and showing out as a standup guy.
Was Jarrett Stidham promised the starting job by Sean Payton?
Jarrett Stidham, on the other hand, seemingly has no idea how to be a standup guy. After Payton named Nix the starter prior to the final game of the preseason, Stidham insisted he was still a starting quarterback in the NFL. Which was a mighty strange thing to say considering that he was eminently cuttable based on his performance and his salary of $4 million represented a potentially significan cap savings if he was.
All of which makes us wonder if Sean Payton promised Stidham a starting position when he signed him to a two-year deal. Stidham had other options back then, and he doubtless knows full well that the NFL definition of a promise isn't the same one you'll find in your dictionary. Still, it's a fair question to ask given how surprising it was when Payton suddenly declared Nix to be the man.
The Cleveland Browns are still doing Browns things
We now have "Chargering" as an established term in the NFL lexicon, and doing Jets things has been part of the league's clown car vocabulary for years. Historically, though, it's important to remember that the Cleveland Browns helped set the standard for this sort of thing back when Art Modell shuffled the original Browns off to Baltimore.
Thankfully for those of us who appreciate great NFL humor, they're still at it. Only the Browns can keep four quarterbacks, none of whom can actually play, while their coach claims that they did it because they had "four good quarterbacks."
The Browns are already paying DeShaun Watson an immense amount of money to post mediocre numbers, and now Tyler Huntley, Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Jameis Winston will join Watson on this impressively uninspiring list of mediocre quarterbacks.
Tom Brady was right about the state of NFL quarterbacking
Brady makes his first appearance in the Fox booth in Week 1, and he's been making a series of "get off my lawn" comments about the state of NFL quarterbacking these days. Spend a weekend watching some of these backup QBs, though, and you'll realize he's right. You'll also understand why Brady is always considering making yet another return to the field, no matter how much he says otherwise.
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