Quarterbacking 101: Ramsey is done
Guest Lecturer: V. Lombardi XIX


Good morning class. Today, I want to delve into the making of an NFL quarterback.

I’ve watched Ramsey progress throughout his pro career. He has gone from a rank rookie from Tulane to a rank veteran who is on his way out of the league.

He’ll be with another team next year. He may revitalize his career amid new surroundings, but I doubt it.

Why did it take so long to determine the obvious? Looking back, Gibbs knew early on that Ramsey wasn’t the solution. After just a few weeks on the job, he flew down to St. Augustine to plead with Brunell to join him. In this year’s draft, he traded a bucket of draft picks for a completely unproven QB from Auburn.

Gibbs knew. He just didn’t want to tell us that Ramsey is a mediocre pro QB who will never rise above the Ryan Leafs and Heath Shulers of the NFL.

Don’t get me wrong. Ramsey is a nice kid. Probably a good husband. A moral man. He’s just not a good NFL quarterback.

So, what should the Redskins have done with Ramsey, besides not drafting him in the first place?

First of all, let me say that I decry the methodology used by many NFL teams today to indoctrinate their high priced QB’s. They are brought along slowly. They’re babied in practice. They don’t get hit. They don’t get blitzed.

Then, when they start their first game, the coaches allow them to throw hitches and hand off to the running back.

We don’t find out if the QB is any good until he’s inadvertently thrown into a desperate situation where he has to take the team on his shoulders and make plays himself. That’s when we find out if he can play. But, that might be four years down the road.

That methodology stinks. We need a new paradigm for evaluating the long term potential of the NFL quarterback.

First of all, I don’t care about good character. I want a character, a tough kid who has the will to win no matter what it takes.

Don’t give me a pretty boy. A QB needs some rough edges.

I don’t care about IQ. All I care about is football smarts.

When you bring the kid into camp, throw the playbook at him and tell him to sleep with it for a week, because he’s on his own after that.

Take the yellow shirt off of him. Rough him up a little bit in practice. Tell your middle linebacker to lay him out then laugh in his face.

Start him in his first preseason game and make him call audibles on the first series.

Make him throw deep on first down off play action the first play of his first game.

Make him take seven step drops so that he’ll get the snot kicked out of him.

Let him be a man among boys.

When he’s down twenty one at half, tell him to hang in there and throw on every down.

If he gets nicked up a little, tell him to spit on it and get back out there.

After starting him for four games, tell him he stinks and set him down for two games. Then, start him the next game with the caveat that the first interception will land him back on the bench. Follow up on your threat.

Do the above and you’ll find out pretty quick if you have a quarterback or not. It won’t take you four years to find out. After four preseason games and ten regular season games, you will know for sure. If he survives, you’ve got yourself a quarterback. If he doesn’t, trade him to the Ravens. They always need a quarterback.

But, there is one hitch in this philosophy. It all comes down to the money. If you give the kid an eight million dollar signing bonus, you’re not going to give up on him after ten games, are you?

Yes, you are. The owner is making beau coups of Franklins anyway. What’s eight million to him? It’s a wise investment philosophy really. Treat the kid like he was a bad stock buy. Hey, you screwed up. Cut your losses and go to the next big deal. Certainly, don’t hold your Delta stock when it goes below a dollar. Liquidate and move on.

You say you don’t have a quarterback, then? Sure you do. Trade for Dilfer. Bring in Kordell. Stick your finger in the dike and try again next year.

That’s the bell, class. Your homework is to write a two page, double spaced diatribe on the legitimacy of today’s lecture. Now, get the hell out of here.