Will Schaub love ‘em and leave ‘em?

By Darrell Laurant  |   Thursday, February 15, 2007  |  Comments( 9 )

Atlanta Falcons
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The relationship between the Atlanta Falcons and their two top quarterbacks is almost like a teen romance novel.

Michael Vick is the archetypal bad boy -- an exciting and sexy heartbreaker. Still, he's a habit the Falcons can't seem to break.

Then there's Matt Schaub, the quiet boy next door who's always there to pick up the pieces.

In the movies, the girl always sees the error of her ways and winds up with the boy who really loves her. Real life isn't always like that.

Nevertheless, the Falcons want to keep this triangle intact again in 2007, implying that they'd make it worth Schaub's while to roam the sidelines again and watch Vick drive the coaches crazy. Besides, he looks good in a headset.

Schaub, the three-year veteran out of Virginia, is a restricted free agent this offseason, which is sort of like being on a retractable leash. He can escape, but whatever team signs him will have to beat the Falcons' first-right-of-refusal offer, then cough up a draft pick.

Everyone seems to think Schaub will make an excellent starting quarterback. This is not based on performance, however, because the 6-foot-5, 230-pounder hasn't delivered a whole lot of that. In his three years of service as a Falcon, Schaub has thrown six touchdown passes and six interceptions, completed a pedestrian 52 percent of his passes and earned a rather low 69.2 quarterback rating.

He was solid in college, however, and he looks like a pro quarterback -- the classic pocket passer with a strong and accurate arm. There is also precedent for backup QBs blossoming once they move out from under the incumbent's shadow -- Brett Favre and Matt Hasselbeck are two who come immediately to mind.

New Falcons coach Bobby Petrino has already announced that he was removing the shackles from Vick at the line of scrimmage, allowing him to call audibles and change plays on the fly like a regular Peyton Manning.

"We're going to put it all on him," Petrino said. "It's new to him, but he's excited about the challenge."

Of course, this isn't really the gamble that it seems. This experiment will be tried during the exhibition season, and then no doubt evaluated. It shouldn't take long before Vick either proves once and for all that he's a "real" quarterback, or he's exposed as a running back who happens to have a strong left arm.

So what to do with Schaub? You can almost hear the wheels turning in the front office:

"You know Vick's going to be the starter."

"Yeah, but what if he gets hurt? He gets hurt a lot."

"How much can we pay a backup quarterback?"

"We need that insurance."

"What about D.J. Shockley (the third-string quarterback)?"

"We need that insurance."

For his part, Schaub would no doubt like to go somewhere he can play every Sunday. And the Falcons could use him as trade bait to help fill any number of the holes that have kept them out of the playoffs the last two years.

The plot thickens. Stay tuned.

D.J. Shockley? Stay ready.
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