Melty Ice: NFL's version of Houdini! Makes himself disappear in 2nd halfs of postseason games.
While I think Matt Ryan is a good QB I feel as though he was one of those QBs who is above average but far from a star who would probably end up demanding star money (Flacco,Cutler or Stafford). Call me what you want but I still think Tannehill behind a good O line, if he ran for a few more first downs and with a more competent coordinator who gets him on the move and in the right situation can still become one of those psuedo star QBs like a Phillip Rivers who is more than capable of outplaying the few true star QBs in a playoff game.
Ryan tannehill will have a better career. I'd stat with long and just would of resigned him and chances are we make the playoffs last year.
Ryan is good, not great. Long was among the best 3 in his position, even as a rookie. That cannot be said for Ryan. I would have had Chad P over Ryan most of the time. Chad, in his one non injury ravaged career, was more of a leader that what ryan ever will be.
This wasn't that far removed from the Jamarcus Russell disaster in Oakland. The Big Tuna apparently had Ireland, Henning and Sparano run private sessions with Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco and Chad Henne. They came back with the unanimous answer that the difference between the 3 was very small and so the call was made to take Jake Long as the safe pick, because we also needed a RT to protect the QB. Remember this was before the reduction in the payment to rookies in the collective bargaining agreement, so there was very high risk.
Big Tuna was scared sh**less of another Jamarcus Russell and when the Three Stooges returned saying Henne was as good as the other guys, he was just following their collective recommendation. He valued Dan Henning's judgement most of all and Henne got the unanimous star of approval.
I agree Honey B. The problem with Henne was that he could play well some days and give false hope. (He's still doing that in Jax). It would have been better to know for certain that he was a bust, much earlier. I'm also of the view that they may have messed him up further with the clock, trying to speed up his release. The intention was good but it had the effect of denting his self confidence.Basically, in the NFL, there's nothing wrong with taking a chance on a guy, but you don't double-down on the stupidity.
There's always more rounds, more years of drafts to fix mistakes. Holding onto Henne when he was clearly not the answer was a mistake. And installing the wildcat to inflate your numbers, when you have a lousy offense, was also a mistake. If we dropped those 2 things, all the drafts would have gone differently and we wouldn't be in the position we're in today.