Is it just me or does replacing Harrington with Leftwich at QB seem like a bad idea to anyone else too? Now, I'm not what you'd call a Harrington fan by any stretch of the imagination but to be fair to him I don't think anyone could have done any better in the situation.

We have receivers who still drop catches time and time again, we still have possibly the league's worst offensive line, and our defense can't stop anyone from scoring. Joey has come in, struggled while he learned the offense and over the last few weeks has started to play ok.

So now lets start Leftwich? What gets me is he won't know the entire offense, he doesn't have any sort of rapport with his receivers and he's carrying an injury, which behind our offensive line won't get any better.

So, why start Leftwich? I just don't get it.

This move makes no sense to me either. I can understand them reaching for a spark, but that's what this is to me--a reach.

This makes perfect sense! Joey is not a starter! He has had 3 opportunities to be a quality player with good talent and he has botched every one of them. Leftwich has been serviceable and with his big arm and toughness, I think he can be better than Vick and Harrington for this team.

Good Talent? In the Falcons Offense? With the possible exception of Crumpler, I can't find anyone else on that offense who is actually good talent! Dunn is past it now (sorry, but its true - look at his figures so far this year), Joe Horn doesn't look like the same guy he was at the Saints, the rest of the receivers drop more balls than they catch and our offensive line looks more like swiss cheese than a decent blocking unit.

Leftwich will do no better, and probably worse, than Joey.

I agree. Leftwich may make the occasional bigger play than Joey, but then he'll make the bigger bonehead play too....

Also, who's even gonna catch Leftwich's big throws? No doubt Roddy, Joe, Michael, Laurent or Adam will contrive to drop it somehow or another.

He is worse than Joey. He was released from a team for being slow, immobile, inaccurate, and having a release that can be measured with a sun dial. Petrino's trying to create a spark, but this time I think he made a mistake. THis is a winnable game with Joey under center. By removing him, Petrino's disrupted the flow and probably created the reverse effect of what he wanted on the rest of the team. I can't fault the guy for trying to make something happen, but this early in the season it does seem like a panic-driven move.

As for Joe Horn... just watch the Saints, and you'll see how much they miss him. Other than the Giants game, I have been impressed with the play of Atlanta's WRs. The problem is that if Joey Checkdown gets hit more than once he stops looking down the field altogether. Roddy White has suddenly become a decent NFL receiver. Laurent Robinson was a steal. Michael Jenkins can play in this offense, too.

Dunn could be an effective back for another team, but he doesn't fit what Petrino wants to do on the ground. He's a zone runner who avoids contact. Petrino needs backs who can make yards after contact. In July, I felt like this would be Dunn and Keith Brooking's last year in ATL b/c of their age and not fitting in with the new regime. My hope is that Dunn will reach 10,000 yds this season and give us something to be proud of.

It's not even November and I'm already in off-season mode. We should have loads of cap-room (Vick ruling and cuts) and draft picks (five first day picks), so the Super Bowl can get over fast enough.

By the way, I'm curious... where did you first hear him called Joey Checkdown?

I think it simply comes down to this: Leftwich is a higher caliber football player than Joey Harrington.

Leftwich is a starter in the league, and in the right system, could do quite well. Harrington is a 2nd stringer at best. The only difference between the two is that Leftwich didn't get signed until after the season started, and Harrington had the luxury of learning the playbook a little earlier than Byron. Now that Byron is caught up, I'm sure he'll be the starter for this team. Who knows, this might be a fantastic decision for the Falcons. But at the same time, it might be a terrible one. But speaking as a Lions fan, and a guy who has seen way more than my share of Harrington, I can safely say that Joey would have screwed it all up, given more time.

Adam,
That was a joy to read! LMAO!!

Interestingly enough I've just read my original post and I never actually called him that. I did wonder when I read it, but there we go!

The other point with this decision is our 2 offensive tackles both made their 1st career starts last week and now they face the Aints pass rush of Grant and Smith. Surely we could do with a mobile QB (ie not Leftwich) just to avoid being sacked about 10 times? I don't think we will put up many points today.

I would've agreed with you at 10:00 this morning, but so far they've been okay.

Regardless of what anyone thinks about either QB, they're basically in a season long audition for a spot on next year's team. We will draft or sign a legit QB this offseason, and one of these two guys we have now willl be cut b/c their contract has zero guaranteed money for next season.

Isn't Marc Bulger a FA at the end of the year?

Donovan McNabb could be on the market if you believe the rumor mill, which I don't. Delhomme or Carr possibly. Who knows?

The Falcon brass has been high on Andrew Walter and Chris Simms, so I expect one of the two to get a serious look in free agency as back up candidates. It seems that we've finally come to a consensus blue print that you don't throw rookie QBs into the first in Week 1, so whomever we draft could and hopefully will start 3rd on the depth chart.

I'd still rather use that early 1st pick on a tackle, but whomever we get will help.

If we had a left tackle and a playmaker at MLB, we'd be .500 even with our crappy QBs.

Anybody else see Brooking peel Lewis Sanders off Reggie Bush today on the play he scored the go ahead TD?

I'm going to confess, I was pleasantly surprised by Leftwich in the 1st half. I didn't expect him to throw as well as he did. However, the injury - now that's not a surprise. Looking at where we're likely to be in the draft next year, we've got to consider taking a tackle in the first round - we desperately need the protection. Then we can take a QB in the second, or possibly package both our second round picks (we have Houston's from the Schaub trade) and move up again if one of the 1st round QBs falls like Quinn did this year.

I agree. We'll be getting a 3rd and probably a 5th in comp picks, so the 2nd round pick we'd lose by moving up wouldn't cripple us.

Where are those 2 compensation picks coming from?


Apparently, Leftwich is still the starter.

Sorry, I left this hanging so long.

The comp picks should be for Patrick Kerney (definitely a 3rd, he was the 2nd biggest F.A. on the market last year) and Justin Griffith who got a huge deal from Oakland that shuold warrant a 5th or 6th round comp pick.