Let me start off by saying I am not a Landry Jones fan.

I am also not a Landry Jones hater.

Am I the only one who remembers how BAD (and I do mean bad, god awful, stink up the joint bad) the offense was with Mike Vick running the show? In five games in which Vick played last year he completed 40 of 66 passes (60.6%). He had 2 TD’s and 1 INT. He was sacked 10 times, and had a passer rating of 79.8.

That was with Heath Miller, Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown, Markus Wheaton and DeAngelo Williams. We are killing Landry Jones over preseason games that have him playing with Fitzgerald Toussaint, Daryl Richardson, Eli Rogers, and Cobi Hamilton to name just a few.

To be fair to Vick, he had moments when he looked good, but what everyone seems to forget in the haze of their Landry Jones fever is that more often than not, he looked lost.

• He was put in a bad situation.
• He didn’t get the time he needed to learn the playbook, and get comfortable with the players.
• He didn’t trust AB to make plays, and just would hold the ball too long unless somebody was clearly wide open.
• He didn’t, as the saying goes “throw the guys open.”

The offense stagnated under Vick, and all because he was late to camp, with little or no time to be absorbed into the system. What makes anyone think, that doing the exact same thing to the guy this year, would bring a better result?

As much as it dismays me, I have to defend Jones for now. I don’t want to rant, and I’ll try hard not to, but I need to address some of the constantly resounding calls concerning Mr. Jones.

We Have the Wrong Jones

I have repeatedly heard people saying “we should have drafted Cardale Jones in the 5th round. Why didn’t we? – he’d be so much better than the Jones we have.”

No, he wouldn’t have been.

You know who we drafted in the 5th round? Nobody – we didn’t have a 5th round pick… so the idea that we could have drafted Cardale in the 5th round is, well, uninformed. It also leaves out an important fact – that Jones was drafted in the fourth round by Buffalo. Cardale is third on the depth chart in Buffalo behind Tyrod Taylor, and EJ Manuel.

Simply: we couldn’t have taken Jones, unless you’d prefer to have Jones instead of Jerald Hawkins? (Note: I wouldn’t!)

Get Anyone Else, They Have to be Better

https://twitter.com/MarkMaddenX/status/766653720734105601

No, they don’t. In fact, it’s worth noting that in all likelihood, whoever they can find, would be worse.

Bob Labriola had this to say in his Asked and Answered Column for August 18th:

“NFL backup quarterback is its own position.”

The value in a backup quarterback, especially a homegrown one, is that they know your system: they know your language, the players, the locker room, and the head coach. That is what the Steelers are trying to do with Landry Jones, grow a backup quarterback. Three is no “Miracle-Gro” for quarterbacks, especially quarterbacks who are going to get almost no game time, limited practice snaps, and what practice snaps they do get, will usually be with the second team.

It’s not something that happens overnight.

When you do get a backup quarterback, they understand their place. They are not here to start, to contend to start, to ever be the starter: they are here to provide continuity.

Bring Back Charlie Batch

Everyone keeps saying we want Charlie Batch back: why do you think he was good as a backup? He spent 10 years here, and yes it was a great move to bring him in in 2002. Here is a news flash – he took 0 snaps in 2002, threw 8 passes in 2003, and again had 0 snaps in 2004. The lack of playing time also put zero pressure on Charlie to perform. It also gave him the time necessary to learn the system. By the time he was here for 6 or 7 years (longer than most other NFL careers) he was capable to operate as a backup, primarily because he was ingrained and understood the system!

Look, I’m with the rest of the Nation on this: I love Charlie Batch! I, like everyone else, remember him holding the fort for those first four games in 2010, when Ben was suspended. Of course, we all remember the improbable, unbelievable victory against Baltimore in 2012… but let me reiterate my initial point: Batch came to the Steelers in 2002. That means by the time he had the chance to create all those great memories for us, he’d been in the system for 8 – 10 years.

We are throwing Landry Jones under the bus because he’s not competent after 3 years with limited playing time?

Charlie Batch was a great guy, a great teammate, and a solid backup quarterback for the Steelers. Batch’s best performances all came after he had been with the team at least 4 years and beyond. That’s not even mentioning that he had 4 years in Detroit as both, a starter and a backup, before coming to the Steelers.

Charlie Batch has a career passer rating of 77.2, while Landry Jones currently has a career passer rating of 77.3. It’s evident Landry is not Ben, and he’s never going to be Ben; that’s not what the Steelers want him to be.

They want him to be a backup. This isn’t the age when teams can sit on a star, having an Aaron Rogers or Steve Young waiting in the wings. The way rookie contracts work, backups could find themselves a new home within 3, 4 or 5 years, depending on a variety of factors.

Frankly, the people saying we should have found a way to draft Carson Wentz (2nd overall pick in this year’s draft) Paxton Lynch (also a first rounder) or Christian Hackenberg (who went in the 2nd round) are delusional. Those players, at the minimum, should compete for a starting job. That’s the expectation when selected with a high pick; that’s not going to happen in Pittsburgh, at least at the quarterback position. The Steelers have a future Hall of Fame quarterback, who is playing some of the best football of his life.

He’s not ready to be replaced. Not even close.

On the other hand, Landry Jones is improving, despite what people think. The simple truth is, quarterbacks get most of the praise, and all of the blame. For three of Jones’ interceptions in the Eagles game, the receivers said it was their fault.

It doesn’t matter that on two of them, those players are probably right.

It doesn’t matter that Jesse James failure to block effectively set up the fourth interception.

None of that matters: it’s all Landry Jones fault. (Well, even if it is, it’s the kids 3rd year: In his first two seasons, Jones got exactly zero snaps in live games.)

Paraphrasing what Bob Labriola said in his follow up to the ugly Eagles game: blame Landry Jones if that’s what you need to do to get through the preseason. Make him the scapegoat. Just know, there is no better option right now. There wasn’t going to be one in the draft, and there won’t be one in the draft next year. It takes time to develop a quarterback, and it takes time to develop a backup quarterback as well.

Let me finish by once again quoting Mr. Labriola:

“…it’s time for everybody to get off Landry Jones’ back. The Steelers see Landry Jones as a legitimate NFL backup quarterback, and there isn’t going to be any scanning the waiver wire to look for a replacement…”

So I failed to not rant. Sue me.

Enough about Landry Jones.