As soon as the Atlanta Falcons signed Jack Strand as an undrafted free agent, it didn't take long for him to generate a cult following among the fanbase. Playing behind two injury-prone starters in Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa will tend to do that, especially as he competes for the QB3 job.
When Trevor Siemian got released, his new competition became Cooper Rush. And while Rush threw two picks in the Falcons' preseason opener, Strand had a solid debut, completing 50% of his passes and was responsible for their lone touchdown--but that doesn't mean he's some type of QB savior.
For an undrafted rookie with no D1 or NFL experience to date, the 22-year-old looked solid, especially for a kid who was thrown into the fire. But there are too many people looking at this performance and his strong showing in training camp as evidence that he's their next franchise QB.
Jack Strand is being set up to fail by Falcons fans' unrealistic expectations
Falcons fans are putting a lot of heightened expectations on Jack Strand's shoulders, and by doing so they're setting him up to fail. Too many people are labeling him as a "face of the franchise" or "future stud" and it's way too early to be jumping to conclusions, even with the QB woes we've seen.
Can I fault the fanbase for clinging onto the hope he'll turn into something? Not at all. But acting like the Dirty Birds found the next Tom Brady is crazy unrealistic. He's still dealing with a huge learning curve, and no amount of broken records at Minnesota State-Morehead is going to change that.
Rush was flat-out horrible on Friday night, but that doesn't mean that Strand is the answer to this team's problems. All this means is that he should be the frontrunner for the QB3 job, but unless both Penix and Tagovailoa are injured, he has no business seeing the field for any meaningful snaps.
We spoke about that cult following. This time of year every single fanbase roots for the stories of these UDFAs, and while some become success stories, it's incredibly rare to see one develop into a star--let alone a solid starter. And that is even rarer when it comes to quarterbacks, snce most reasonable franchises would rather use a first-rounder on their guy.
He's a guy Atlanta evidently has high hopes for after they hosted him on a 30 visit before the draft, and he's very accomplished, but he's already exceeded expectations in terms of what he'll become. At this point, anything else Strand accomplishes is the cherry on top of a great brownie sundae.
Jack Strand is an intriguing long-term developmental piece for Kevin Stefanski to work with, but the more that Falcons fans continue to assert he's the answer, the more likely it is he'll fall under the weight of expectations.
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