Relax, Anthony, you’ll play again this season

It’s tough when your employer changes your job responsibilities and demotes you.

While it’s better than a pink slip, it still stings and sets off a number of thoughts in your head as you attempt to reconcile the matter and think about what went so wrong in your current workplace.

The reality is, while you’re still getting compensated pursuant to your employment agreement, there is now a high degree of uncertainty regarding your future.

Are you still part of the plan for tomorrow or just awaiting the other shoe to hit the ground, which signals the end of your up-and-down tenure to date?

While thinking about what you might have done differently, there’s also the logical tendency to ponder what your employer’s fault was and how that, too, affects the situation. 

Were you given all the tools you needed to succeed, and have all your performance evaluations been fair and reasonable in terms of meeting your goals and objectives, along with their lofty and unreasonable expectations?

Did your employer conduct a thorough and complete check of your previous work history? If not, have they provided all the necessary communication regarding a reasonable plan for improvement? Or have they delegated your work to a fellow employee and not taken any responsibility for what they see as your overall lack of improvement and their inability to develop you even further?

Sure, being an NFL quarterback is a tough gig, and while your obvious physical skills and outlandish athletic ability may have floored them in your numerous pre-employment interviews, perhaps they indeed misjudged just how long a young man like yourself would need to fully develop and blossom.

Now, it’s quite possible they were hasty in how they went about filling the open position and put too much pressure upon you, compounding the situation by not surrounding you with the type of fellow employees that could help you shoulder the workload.

Did they allow ample time for you to get up to speed and take total control of this extremely important leadership position?

Then again maybe they have in their opinion, determined you aren’t what they thought you were and are finding an easy way to say sorry while admitting they made a mistake in hiring you and putting you right to work with virtually no real experience in a personnel move that was clearly not thought through entirely by those who are paid a ton of money to make decisions.

Here’s a thought or two worth considering Anthony, just put aside your ego and recognize the fact that your current successor will be under the same scrutiny and will undoubtedly at some point play poorly or sustain an injury that’s commensurate with today’s NFL, giving you yet one more opportunity to excel and improve your future stock. 

In the interim, study the play book and dissect a ton of game film in addition to evaluating your play to date. Be the first player to arrive at practice and the last to leave the weight room as well.

Be the best teammate you can and support Daniel Jones as he embarks on his journey as well.

Show everyone that the youth and inexperience that your current supervisors are citing as problematic is indeed something you can overcome with just a little bit more patience and a ton of support from everyone else. 

Remember, those dictating your future are on the hot seat and may be looking for employment after this season, so help them out by being ready when you get your shot to come off the bench. 

Use your head and your legs to make something out of nothing on busted plays, and please slide instead of taking those big hits.

Throw it out of bounds to avoid taking sacks, and don’t be afraid to take over the huddle, as that’s what good quarterbacks do.

You’ll get your chance to play this season and whether you make your case here or show other NFL executives that you still have the chops for the position is without question up to you.  

You’re 23 years young and coupled with your size and athleticism, there’s a place for you in the NFL. Whether you change the play at the line of scrimmage or you change your zip code, your career clearly isn’t over, and that’s something your employer should be emphatically telling you each day you show up to punch their time clock.

Danny Bridges, who thinks Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen have chosen job security over player development, can be reached at 317-370-8447 or at bridgeshd@aol.com.