Will Leftwich be left out?

By Darrell Laurant  |   Thursday, September 06, 2007  |  Comments( 1 )

Baltimore Ravens
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It's not every preseason that a four-year starting quarterback gets cut loose in the NFL, so there was naturally a lot of interest around the league when Jacksonville said goodbye to Byron Leftwich.

Interest, but not necessarily monetary interest.

One team that reportedly was thinking of pursuing talks with the 6-foot-5, 250-pound veteran was the Baltimore Ravens, to which the question has to be: Why Leftwich? Another team that declared itself uninterested was Atlanta, which raises the question: Why not Leftwich?

The Ravens already have three quarterbacks -- Steve McNair, Kyle Boller, who just signed a one-year contract extension, and 2006 Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith. Adding a fourth would be like buying a fourth automobile for a three-car garage.

Could the Ravens have re-signed Boller because he looked sharp at times in a 13-10 loss to Atlanta in the preseason finale, especially on a 59-yard TD pass to Demetrius Williams. Or because Smith didn't look sharp?

Or maybe all of this is an ominous sign (for Ravens fans) that the 2006 acquisition of Steve McNair has lost some of its luster. McNair is, after all, 35 -- and a high-mileage 35, at that. His propensity for playing hurt is legendary, but all of those injuries have no doubt taken a toll.

Boller, like any proud athlete, wants to be a starter. That could happen somewhere else, but he's also young enough to wait out McNair's tenure in Baltimore.

So why even think about Leftwich? Can any team afford to pay what a veteran starter would command just to keep him inactive? And what about the signing bonus paid to Smith?

True, Leftwich has decent numbers for his career, completing 51 percent of his passes for more than 9,000 yards and 51 touchdowns, with a QB rating of 80.5. Not Hall of Fame stats, but not bad.

However, like Donovan McNabb (to whom he is sometimes compared), the Washington, D.C. native and Marshall product has lost a lot of his mobility. He suffered a serious ankle injury in 2005, and has been pretty much a sitting target for blitzers ever since. Nor was his performance in preseason anything to send Jaguars fans out into the street demanding his re-hire -- David Garrard, who took his job, clearly outplayed him.

Atlanta, on the other hand, has a chronically underachieving starter in Joey Harrington, a backup (Chris Redman) who has been out of football for two years, and a third-stringer (D.J. Shockley) on injured reserve. Wouldn't Leftwich be tempting as an insurance policy?

Maybe, but the team hasn't cut Michael Vick yet, which may pose complications. (If Vick and Pacman Jones are an indication, NFL teams might need to start publishing an "IL" -- incarcerated list). And Redman played reasonably well last week against Baltimore.

In the end, Leftwich has a name -- but he doesn't have leverage.

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