A different take on John Beck

By Hugo Guzman  |   Wednesday, October 31, 2007  |  Comments( 6 )

Miami Dolphins
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South Florida is up in arms about head coach Cam Cameron's apparent disregard for conventional wisdom. You see, conventional wisdom suggests that rookie quarterback John Beck should start when the Miami Dolphins return from their bye week and face off against the Buffalo Bills.

After all, Miami is 0-8 and incumbent Cleo Lemon has been pedestrian at best. Furthermore, the bye week would afford Beck an extra week of preparation and first-team reps. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the coaching staff has intimated that the 26-year-old BYU product has demonstrated a solid grasp of the offense in recent weeks.

It's only Wednesday, but Cameron has already been bombarded with questions relating to the playing status of his most important draft pick. While the first-year coach has not even come close to denying that Beck could line up behind center when the Dolphins return to the field in Week 10, local media pundits have already begun to rip him.

Greg Cote and Armando Salguero, two well-known columnists for the Miami Herald, are questioning Cameron's decision-making process regarding Beck, with Cote going as far as saying that owner Wayne Huizenga should intervene if the coach fails to name Beck the starter.

And as expected, the majority of fans and radio personalities have fallen right in line with this knee-jerk line of thinking.

Jorge Sedano, a host on Miami's 790AM and the local poster boy for unsophisticated sports analysis, has used Cameron's apparent indecision as further fuel for his antagonistic rants while the various online discussion forums are abuzz with "start Beck" sentiments.

So at this point, I think that most everybody is well acquainted with the so-called "conventional wisdom" surrounding Beck.

So let's take some time to formulate a different take.

For starters, Cameron may very well have already decided to start Beck in Week 10. But let's assume for a moment that isn't the case.

What would be the motivation for leaving Beck on the bench a little longer? One surprisingly logical reason would be to afford the coaching staff a few more games to gauge whether Lemon will be worth re-signing as the team's backup. Another good reason would be to give Beck a few more weeks to familiarize himself with the playbook and the offensive system.

Perhaps Cameron is eying a Week 13 matchup, at home, against the struggling New York Jets. If he waits to pull the trigger until then, Beck would have an extra three weeks to prepare himself for the NFL game but would still get five full starting outings to build on for the future. Incidentally, the idea that 2007 would serve as a gauge for deciding whether to draft a franchise quarterback in '08 is mere fantasy, especially when you consider the plethora of holes Miami must fill on defense.

Therefore, there really is no hurry to start Beck, because in essence, he'll have the entire '08 season to prove himself. Of course, all of these assertions fly in the face of the aforementioned conventional wisdom. The fans and the media don't want to hear about alternative opinions. They want Beck, and they want him now.

So for Cameron's sake, fans need to hope that all of these theories and observations become moot points and Beck lines up under center in Week 10. Otherwise, South Florida is going to turn into even more of a media circus than it already is.
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About Hugo Guzman

Trying to bring an objective approach to NFL analysis.
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CommentsComments: 6  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
Swifty		08:22 AM
10/31/2007
Thank you for some common sense that is totally lacking in the Miami media. The idea that giving Beck eight starts will tell...
No.2
Ryan		10:07 AM
10/31/2007
I am a huge fins fan. And why I see the point of maybe sitting beck untill the jets game makes some sense. I think sooner the...
No.3
Dave		11:24 AM
10/31/2007
all good reasons for not starting Beck, but i remember Shula starting a rookie QB in late 83 and the rest is history. Beck is...
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