Friday Night Lights has come and gone, but the picture at quarterback has only gotten murkier. Every quarterback made his mark--be it positively or negatively. In his two series with the first team, Chris Redman, who is commonly projected to start the season at the top of the depth chart threw exactly one completion--to linebacker Michael Boley. Matt Ryan's first series went three-and-out and included an unspectacular intentional grounding penalty when Boley (again) came through the line and applied pressure. Ryan rebounded in the first series of the second half, finding Roddy White for a 60-yard TD pass.
While this last play gave fans some hope for the future, Ryan did not demonstrate clearly the kind of consistency in decision-making that one looks for in a franchise-caliber, or even a starting-caliber quarterback. The best thing one can say about him is that he's learning. meanwhile, Joey Harrington had the strongest game of them all, going 5 of 8. But while Harrington showed consistency at the scrimmage, we've all seen what happens when he gets on the field on Sunday. In other words, the Falcons quarterback situation--even with quarterback of the future, Matt Ryan--is sketchy at best going into the regular season. I'm not saying that no one will distinguish himself during preseason, but having a bona fide team leader in training camp is important in developing a quarterback. Whoever takes the field against Detroit in week one will not have had a full camp to work with his receivers. While there is hope for the future, this season has a lot of questions on offense.
