Ramsey/Brunell: a closer look

[LRT]

Being overseas I don't get to see as many games as I'd like, but I did see some of the preseason and I saw the Bears game.

Ramsey looked better in the Bears game than he did last year; he did not make as many bad decisions and looked a little more confident than last year. He had much better pass protection and the difference showed. That said, there are still two things that hamper Ramsey and, I think, indicate that he will likely spend his career as a journeyman quarterback. First, even when he is standing in the pocket he has jittery feet and doesn't seem to set well. Yet, when he tries to move, he can't seem to get in gear. Second, he sometimes simply throws the wrong pass to the wrong guy. I can see where coaching might help the second problem, but I think the first is his forever.

Ramsey is going into his fourth year, and while they've been turbulent years, he has worked with some decent quarterback coaches. Certainly the changes in system have hurt him, but if he were the quarterback I think we all wanted him to be, I don't think they would have held him back this much.

As for Brunell, he looks like a different quarterback this year. Apart from one ball that hit the turf, I did not see any of last year's classically bad throws. And as for dumps and dinks, last year's dumps and dinks were often 3 - 7 yard routes. In the Bear's game, his dumps and dinks seemed to be in the 11 - 13 range and he did hit several longer routes, including hitting several receivers in stride. This was clearly not last year's Mark Brunell.

Nor, of course, was it the Mark Brunell of his Jacksonville heyday. In the end, however, Brunell played well enough to win. He did not make any killing mistakes and he moved the ball well and got us into scoring position three times against a tough defense.

Brunell may not be the best quarterback out there, but like Mark Rypien, I don't think he will kill us and he will be good enough to complement our running game and defense. Ramsey would be flashier, but, as much I've always liked the kid and as much as I wanted him to be our guy (he's having a Hall of Fame career for me on Madden), he will cost us games if he starts.

Just my two cents (or, I guess, more like a two bits)...