I will not play again i want to leave, says san francisco 49ers player…..Read More..

From Michael Crane (@MikeJCzapla): Do you think that the Green Bay Packers sitting their QB behind a veteran winner for several years is a move more teams should do? Why can’t the Bears figure it out?

Michael, you may have seen my chart before on when first-round quarterbacks make their first start. Things really turned in this regard after Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco led playoff teams as rookies in 2008. Including that year, and running up to last year’s rookie class, there were 48 first-round quarterbacks taken over 16 draft cycles.

Only two of those 48—Jordan Love and Jake Locker—didn’t start games as rookies. Another, Patrick Mahomes, had to wait until the final week of the regular season. And those three had a couple of things in common. One, they all played for contending teams and, two, each had an accomplished vet (Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Hasselbeck and Alex Smith, respectively) as the starter in front of him. Which obviously made it easier for the teams to justify sitting a guy.

And, yes, I do think that more guys should sit. It’s an idea that Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur cemented for me last summer.

“I think the league would benefit if more guys took that approach,” LaFleur said. “What happens is these guys, in a lot of situations, get thrust into situations where there’s not a lot of talent around them, and they lose confidence. I’ve seen it happen too many times, and it’s hard to recover from that. I do think that we would be able to develop more quarterbacks if guys were given a couple of years to sit and learn the game, and then go out to play.”

That said, sitting with and listening to Tennessee Titans coach Brian Callahan on this topic a few weeks ago might’ve moved me off my spot a little. His perspective, that a young quarterback can benefit developmentally from being anointed starter, was fascinating to me.

“I think you do a disservice to guys, particularly if you’re drafting them, and you make them compete for a job. Guys need to play,” Callahan said. “They need to be put in a position where they are the quarterback. There’s something about that that matters to a team and a locker room. If you’re going to do it, do it. It all sounds good—he should sit. That’s not the reality. That’s not the financial reality of the NFL, either. You’re trying to take advantage of a young quarterback on a rookie contract; that’s the other part of it.