Dan Quinn Passively Watches Matt Ryan Take Savage Exhibition Beating

The NFL is absolutely a copycat league, and it's become fashionable to play your starters very little or not at all during the exhibition season.

Younger coaches such as the Bears' Matt Nagy and others are erring on the side of caution in regard to the health of their franchise players.

However, Dan Quinn appears to feel differently.

His Atlanta Falcons hooked up with the mighty New York Jets recently at home in one of those pointless pre-season exercises, which represented QB Matt Ryan's first meaningless outing of the year.

 

Since they decided to keep score, the Jets prevailed, 22-10, but this result is incidental.

We're going to focus on the fact that Ryan played almost the entire first half, with the exception of one drive given to aging clipboard holder Matt Schaub.

 

Yep, he was out there for a while, dropping back to pass and putting himself in harm's way a total of 17 times.

Now, Ryan actually only attempted 14 passes because he was sacked three times.

He was also harassed constantly for the duration of his stay.

 

Look out, dude!

Matthew Ice did put up some really good numbers, completing 10 out of his 14 passes for 118 yards.

But that's most certainly not the point.

We're here to question the dubious strategy of Coach Quinn, assuming there even is one.

 

Even Quinn must understand what happens to the Falcons' season if their franchise slinger is murdered in the pocket during a non-existential exhibition game.

There's also the working theory that every QB has only so many hits they can absorb before withering away.

If this is true, perhaps we should save them for the regular season.

 

Just a thought.