Cowards Criticize Mahomes & Jackson

 

With all 32 teams finally reporting to camp, the football takes are finally flying. It's always a special time of year when the media make observations ranging anywhere from players' conditioning to what type of sleeves they're wearing.

Seems as though Matthew Judon is going to roll the red sleeves look into 2022. pic.twitter.com/XdHqZyQd2a

— Michael Hurley (@michaelFhurley) July 27, 2022

 There's not much going on but folks love football, so stories come from nothing. 

Over the past week, two separate defensive coordinators have come out (anonymously) and puffed up their chest by saying that Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes don't belong in the top tier of QBs. Mike Sando of the Athletic recently released a QB Tier List that polled fifty various league executives and coaches. This list has come under a barrage of scrutiny, primarily for two reasons. 

First, one defensive coordinator (anonymously) said "I don't care if he wins the league MVP 12 times, I don't think he'll ever be a 1 as a quarterback." The same coordinator also elaborated that Lamar may "be a 1 as a football player, but not as a quarterback." Lots of folks seem to associate the fact that he's elusive and is absolutely capable of 1,000 yard rushing seasons with bad passing. This is the same unfortunate line of thinking that Jackson had to endure in pre-draft workouts and interviews, despite his historic 2019 UNANIMOUS MVP season. 

A second, very brave soul came forward (anonymously) and had this to say about Patrick Mahomes: "Nothing against the guy. I love the kid. But take his first read away and what does he do? He runs, he scrambles and he plays streetball." Does Mahomes sometimes go into Gunslinger Mode? Sure, he's earned the right to do that and most of the time he does, it's to extend plays and try to get receivers open. I assure you, if Mahomes breaks the pocket and scrambles it's not because this particular defensive coordinator outsmarted him. 95% of the league's quarterbacks DON'T possess the ability to make something out of nothing like Mahomes. It's a classic case of going against the grain just for the sake of going against the grain. He doesn't really mean it, that's why he said it anonymously. This is another league MVP winner and youngest Super Bowl MVP to ever do it, but this coordinator has him figured out and apparently it's as simple as taking away his first read. 

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but if you're gonna say ridiculous things at least attach your name to it. I realize these guys have jobs to do and they don't want extra bulletin board material working against them. But please doon't be cowardly with your bad takes. I also understand that these tiers are purely subjective, there's a ton of bias that goes into these and they're not particularly "accurate", but the point remains. Nothing worse than an anonymous, inflammatory statement - unless these quotes were planted by their own teams for extra motivation, in which case this is a genius angle to take and thus, I approve the anonymity.