It’s the sports equivalent of trying to understand modern art.
(Which, as an aside I literally saw at a gallery in Athlone, Ireland last summer.
But I digress.)
Football coaches work in mysterious ways.
At the same time, I’m an old.
So I remember a time when there was a definite pattern to these things.
You got some work for your starters.
You gave the bulk of the time to your depth guys to sort out your depth chart.
Established veterans play a little.
Unestablished guys and rookies use these games to get established.
Coaches then get film they can use for evaluation.
And that’s more or less how it’s been done around the league through one week of preseason.
Generally speaking, rookie quarterbacks have been playing.
So what gives in New England?
Damned if I know.
What exactly is the goal here?
Are you trying to develop him?
Try not to embarrass him?
Bring him along slowly?
Because if it’s the last explanation, I’m wholeheartedly in favor of it.
In the regular season.
Right now is precisely the right time to be putting him in the simulator and giving him flight hours.
I mean, if not now, then when exactly?
That’s fantastic news.
But no one’s saying that.
We’ll see how it looks going forward.
But I expect Drake to get more reps than he did in the first game against the Eagles.
Like the way they introduced Thanos into the MCU with a post-credit scene?
Well, that IS a plan, I suppose.
It’s wasting precious time.
And that time is the entire point of having these games in the first place.
It’s certainly not because preseason is fun to watch.
Because it’s the equivalent of watching highway death videos in Drivers Ed.
A necessary evil that no one enjoys.
And I don’t see how six snaps and three dumpoff passes are supposed to get him ready.
Then again, right now I don’t understand a lot of things about this team.
Not yet, anyway.
Saying anything more just seems to do more harm than good.
