I never really fancied myself as an NFL Player Personnel type, and generally speaking l try not to use the genuine platform that this newspaper provides me to simply stir the proverbial pot.
After all, aside from once rushing for an eye-opening thirty-six yards in a Bantam League game in the early seventies, I’m pretty inexperienced and can’t be branded as a football man.
When it comes to recommending how to go about compiling an NFL roster, l certainly would defer to the true professionals when it comes to calling the shots as after all they are “lifers” of the sport and surely they would know more about it than me some ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, right?
But that point nine percent comes in to play every once in a while, and this time it’s a virtual no-brainer when one looks at the recent quarterback strategy occurring on West 56th Street.
You know, where the decision to sign a thirty-nine year old veteran quarterback who can no longer get out of the way of an oncoming shopping cart at the grocery let alone a powerful edge rusher in the NFL, was anointed a backup to a much younger yet injured starter, one who currently is light years away from ever throwing another forty yard frozen rope again due to the recovery from a delicate surgery on his throwing shoulder.
While all this was transpiring, the Colts missed out on the golden opportunity to send what turned out to be nothing more than miniscule draft capital to the Chicago Bears in exchange for Justin Fields who is some fourteen years younger and can actually run with the football when a play call breaks down.
The Fields saga unfolded in a rather precarious way, and when the smoke surrounding the “unofficial” collusion amongst NFL owners and general managers to devalue the rather capable hybrid quarterback had cleared, a tremendous athlete who had virtually no true weapons surrounding him during his tenure in Chicago was left dangling for whatever the Bears could get in exchange for him.
The real question that Colts fans should be asking today is did Chris Ballard even bother picking up the phone as the Chicago asking price tumbled like a tech stock being liquidated via a fire sale on the Nasdaq exchange?
A former number one pick with low mileage was available for chump change and it appears the Head Horseshoe was not involved in a bidding process that could’ve landed the Colts a quality backup QB instead of a guy who can’t even run to the bathroom when he needs to.
For those of you who feel such a move would’ve created a quarterback controversy, l will once again remind you that Richardson can’t throw a nerf football ten yards as we speak, so how does augmenting the roster with a capable, gifted athlete at a bargain basement price truly harm anything?
Fields would be more than simply insurance and the Colts can always introduce Flacco as their new quarterback coach since Head Coach Shane Steichen thinks so much of him as a mentor that Richardson would benefit from.
In all fairness to Flacco, the Colts reached out to him with a one-year offer that is guaranteed for just under five million despite what they saw in his last game against Houston in the playoffs.
The guy has thrown for over forty-three thousand yards and has a Super Bowl ring which requires consideration for his bust to be enshrined in Canton someday, but that’s in the past. He simply can’t help the Colts on the field and Fields could’ve.
With all the uncertainty surrounding Anthony Richardson this upcoming season, acquiring Justin Fields made a lot of sense. Apparently, no one in the Colts organization felt the same, and while that’s mind-boggling to me, they know what they’re doing. Just ask them.
Danny Bridges, who at his advanced age can still chuck a perfect spiral fifteen yards, can be reached at (317) 370-8447 or at bridgeshd@aol.com.
