FanPost

Should The Chiefs Grab John Beck?

Worth a look. Thanks for putting this together, UCrawford. -Primetime

Dolphins coach Tony Sparano today denied a media report that quarterback John Beck has been cut.

A sports Web site, profootballtalk.com, carried the story today based on what it called an "unconfirmed tip."

But Beck participated in this morning's practice and will be on the field later this afternoon, Sparano said.

"There's a lot of rumors in this business. John will be at practice today," Sparano said in his post-practice press conference.

The team has four quarterbacks in camp - Chad Pennington, Chad Henne, Josh McCown and Beck - and Sparano has said he might keep all four on the roster.

But teams usually keep only three quarterbacks. While Pennington and Henne are likely safe, Beck and McCown probably are battling for the third spot.

Beck is the only player with no ties to the Dolphins' current regime.

So, if the Dolphins end up cutting their second round draft pick from last year, the important question is, should the Chiefs pick him up?

Beck certainly did little to impress when he was pressed into service during his rookie season after Trent Green went down with a season-ending concussion.  But a closer look at his numbers reveals that Beck's performance last season as a rookie was roughly comparable to Brodie Croyle's performance as a second-year player, while playing for an even more disastrous offense (Miami had almost every one of their running backs go down with injuries and their offensive line was a sieve for pass-blocking).  A quick analysis of college statistics shows that Beck's performance in college at BYU (a program that has turned out three very solid NFL QBs in the last two decades) was significantly better than Croyle's at Alabama (a school that hasn't turned out an NFL QB of note since Ken Stabler in 1968)...particularly in the area of completion percentage, where Beck's completion percentage his senior year (2006) was 10 points higher than Croyle's senior year in 2005 with a markedly better TD/INT ratio throughout his college career.  It should also be noted that Beck's injury history during his playing time has been significantly less storied than Croyle's.

My own opinion on the matter is that Beck's certainly worth a gamble as a backup QB and possible starter should Croyle get injured or fail to improve.  We'd likely be able to get Beck fairly cheaply, he offers at least the same potential as a QB that Croyle does, he carries no more risk to us than any other undrafted free agent, bringing him in would allow us to release or trade off Damon Huard (who is not in our long-term plans) or Tyler Thigpen (who has done little to impress during his time with the Chiefs), and should Beck turn out to be a decent starting quarterback in the NFL we'll likely have pulled off the steal of the 2008 season.

What are your thoughts?

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arrowhead Pride's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Arrowhead Pride writers or editors.