Selective memory sure is nice. The guy not only remembers things wrong, but he conveniently leaves out other stuff.
First off, Mark Brunell had an 85.9 QB rating last year, led his team to the 2nd round of the playoffs, helped Santana Moss gain like 1,500 yards or something...and to this guy, Brunell is simply "that guy that is stinking it up in Snyderville".
Second, yes...Drew Henson and Billy Volek were two guys who were also available. Drew Henson has done nothing in Big D and now is going the way of the dodo. But the dude simply ignores how in 2004, the same year Feeley was stinking it up and throwing more interceptions returned for a TD than I've ever seen before, Volek came in for McNair for 10 games, grabbed an 87.1 QB rating completing 61.1% of his passes with 18 TDs and 10 INTs.
The guy also conveniently forgets that Jeff Garcia, Kerry Collins and Kurt Warner were three veterans that were set to be available. And, while I would not exactly hang my hat on any of them as franchise performers, all three have performed better than Feeley did since the time in question. Garcia, the worst of the three, had a 76.7 rating in Cleveland in 2004 then a 65.1 rating in Cleveland. Collins put together ratings of 74.8 and 77.3 in Oakland. Warner, probably the most successful of any of the options discussed aside from maybe Brunell, put together an 86.5 rating in NY, and a 85.8 rating in ARI.
When Feeley got his big chance, he coughed up a 61.7 rating. When he got more chances prior to 2005, he got busted down to third string. Then when he got more chances with San Diego this off season, he got busted out of the roster altogether in favor of two rookies, Charlie Whitehurst and Brett Elliott.
Nothing will ever vindicate Rick Spielman for his decision that year. He paid the highest price among all of the QBs discussed, and got arguably the worst one of the bunch (depending on how you feel about Henson).
Plus he forgot an extremely important lesson when it comes to making these decisions. Not only are you not guaranteed to pick the right one among a group of QBs available in any given year, there is no guarantee that ANY of them are the franchise player you hope...because any given year there is probably only a 1/3rd or 1/2 chance that ANY QB that changes hands, turns out to be a franchise guy within a few years.
Spielman's an idiot, end of story.
