Atlanta Falcons should stay away from Jake Fromm and the QB position

Atlanta Falcons should not consider drafting a quarterback to sit under Matt Ryan, who will be 35 years old when the 2020 season kicks off.

With the Atlanta Falcons and the University of Georgia 90 minutes apart, naturally, there is a crossover between the fandoms of both programs; the same can be said for Alabama fans as well given they have no professional sports franchise.

Alabama is seemingly split into two halves with western Alabama predominantly Saints fans and eastern Alabama is predominantly Falcons fans.

So of course, when you have two (or three quarterbacks depending on your view of Jalen Hurts) quarterbacks entering the draft from both schools, this gets fans talking and wanting one of them to represent the Atlanta Falcons for years to come.

Back to back days saw both Tua Tagovailoa and Jake Fromm declare for the 2020 NFL draft.

However, we should consider neither prospects.

For starters, both guys are leaving school early and have no intention of sitting behind another quarterback for three-plus years. While it is considered old to be 35 and playing in the NFL, Matt Ryan still shows he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the league.

For Alabama fans wanting Tua (or Hurts), Tua won’t get past the top 10, let alone Hurts won’t even be available by the time the team has drafted other key positions first and foremost.

On the other hand, Georgia fans have a much better chance of seeing Jake Fromm in an Atlanta Falcons uniform. Fromm is the sixth-best quarterback in the draft and can fall to a team in the third, maybe even the fourth, round.

While Jake Fromm did take his team to the national championship game his freshman season in 2017, it was largely on the backs of both Sony Michel and Nick Chubb. Fromm only passed 25 or more times in five of the 15 games he played that season. Two were losses.

Fromm is also 2-6 in his career when he has to pass over 30 times in a game. In 2019 alone, Fomm had five straight weeks where he never passed higher than 48.5 percent in a game.

Earlier in 2019, he only passed for 51 percent in the loss to South Carolina. Most importantly, his pick-6 right before half proved to be the deciding play of the game as Georgia held USC scoreless in the second half and the offense only reached the end zone once in the second half to tie the game and force overtime.

It is also inaccurate to use the skillset he had on the perimeter as an excuse for his poor performances. Year in and year out, Georgia gets the best athletes in the country.

So while Jake Fromm maybe throwing the ball to young guys like George Pickens and Dominick Blaylock, they’re not lacking the talent required to make that offense successful.

Sure, Jake Fromm has a lot of areas where he needs to improve upon. However, he is more NFL ready than not. Staying at Georgia could have done him a better deal because this 2020 NFL Draft class is pretty deep on talented quarterbacks.

Even if the Atlanta Falcons select Jake Fromm, he didn’t leave early to sit for years to come and Matt Ryan is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Which also brings me to another, and possibly the most important point.

NFL quarterbacks don’t like when their heir apparent is on the roster.

Tom Brady wasn’t ready to retire and forced Jimmy Garoppolo to get traded to San Francisco. This isn’t to say that there was any ill-will between the two quarterbacks. Simply put, Garoppolo wanted to start and Brady wasn’t ready to give that up.

Alike Brady and Garaoppolo, Aaron Rodgers grew unhappy with Brett Favre after Favre refused to retire when Rodgers was ready to play.

Even after retiring and unretiring, Favre proved he still had the ability to lead his team to the Super Bowl. Two seasons after being let go from the Packers, Brett Favre took his former rivals the Minnesota Vikings to the NFC Championship game.

Drew Brees came back from injury early because of the success of Teddy Bridgewater in the stretch of games he had to miss.

While Bridgewater wasn’t putting up big digit numbers, he was still leading the Saints to victory. When you’re 40 years old, last year of your current contract, and coming off of an injury, you’re not going to want to sit idly by as your replacement is winning games.

There were even rumors of Ben Roethlisberger upset that the Steelers drafted Mason Rudolph with the idea that he will replace Roethlisberger in the near future. Roethlisberger was caught off guard with the third-round choice and felt the team wasted that draft selection.

Albeit, Rudolph has since shown he cannot be an NFL quarterback.

Joe Flacco failed to return any texts or calls from Lamar Jackson after he was drafted. Another veteran quarterback, Robert Griffin III, brought Jackson under his wing and mentored him.

Even when going to Denver, Joe Flacco was quick to say his job isn’t to mentor or develop rookie quarterback Drew Lock. And while he is correct, that isn’t his job, he does seem to get rattled and unsupportive when a rookie is hot on his heels.

Steve Young even forced the 49ers to trade Joe Montana to the Chiefs because he wanted to start and the dynamic of him and Montana together wouldn’t work anymore. The 49ers were hesitant to deal off Montana, but Young gave the organization an ultimatum that it was either him or Montana.

A quarterback controversy stretching from 1988 to 1992 saw the Montana era end in April of 1993. This came after Montana was coming off of an injury sustained in the preseason of 1991 that kept him out for all of that season and most of 1992.

To sum it up, drafting the heir apparent for the quarterback position simply does not work and can easily sour relations with the guy currently at the helm.

Why would the Atlanta Falcons go with Jake Fromm, or any quarterback for that matter, when the Falcons have a guy in place for the next five or so years. It just wouldn’t make sense and is not a common practice for a reason.

The only time it makes sense to replace a guy like Matt Ryan will be when it is almost certain it is his last year or two. This example can be seen with the New York Giants.

It was very much clear that the Giants needed to move on from Eli Manning, who was heading into the final season of his contract. With the team having no will to resign him for another season or two, they promoted Daniel Jones to the starter and let Eli work with him behind the scenes. This makes a much easier and clean transition for both parties.

The Atlanta Falcons have great needs on both sides of the ball, the quarterback position is not one of them.