In the 34-3 blowout loss to the Carolina Panthers, the Atlanta Falcons' quarterback woes got so bad that Kevin Stefanski gave fans exactly what they were clamoring for: he benched Cooper Rush for undrafted rookie Jack Strand in the third quarter, but it was too little too late, and nothing changed.
Unfortunately, Strand's NFL debut hardly went according to plan. He competed just eight of 15 passes for 59 yards while his first career pass attempt was a pick-six that deflected into the arms of Devin Lloyd--while his 35.1 passer rating wasn't much better than Rush's. Instead of dicing up backups in the preseason, facing a first-team defense offered him (and fans) a reality check.
If you look at the numbers, it was awful, but box-score watching never tells the whole picture. You never could've expected anything else. The offense was unable to move the football all afternoon long, and it isn't Strand's fault Stefanski chose to put him in when the game was already out of hand.
Given the circumstances, it's like they wanted him to fail--or at least didn't set him up for success.
The Atlanta Falcons set rookie QB Jack Strand up to fail in his NFL debut
The play-calling was putrid, the offensive line never held up, and the pass-catchers were non-existent. By that point, the Falcons took out all of their starters anyways, so it's not like Jack Strand was throwing to Bijan Robinson, Drake London, and Kyle Pitts. It instead was Brian Robinson Jr., Chris Blair, Olamide Zaccheus, Jahan Dotson and Austin Hooper. That's a pretty major downgrade.
The 22-year-old was meant to be a long-term developmental piece in the QB room. Stefanski never intended for him to see the field this early, but with Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa hurt and Cooper Rush serving turnovers like the Pillsbury Doughboy, the Dirty Birds never had a choice.
And the worst part? Strand didn't get any first-team reps in practice this week, as he was the scout team QB and worked behind Rush and Penix. That isn't his fault, that is all on Kevin Stefanski.
Even still, Strand showed some promise for a kid thrown into the fire in a horrible situation. His mobility gave the Atlanta offense some juice in the fourth quarter, and offered an element that even Rush couldn't--so you have to give the kid some credit for weathering the storm at the very least.
As far as the pick-six goes, the former Minnesota State-Morehead standout wasn't even at fault. Jahan Dotson had his hands on it, and bobbled it right into Lloyd's hands. You don't have to be a genius to tell me that bad receiver play is going to hold a quarterback back from impressing.
It's safe to say the Passtronaut doesn't have anyone new joining the Strand-wagon right now, but that's on Stefanski and this coaching staff. They saw how Cooper Rush looked last week. They knew Penix and Tua were both hurt and unlikely to play, yet they still didn't prepare him to enter the game.
Considering the Falcons never even prepped Jack Strand to start, it was insane coaching malpractice. And given he was throwing to backups in a game Atlanta gave up on, it's hard to ding him too much even for the mistakes he did made considering the defenses he's faced before to now.
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