Sports Time Radio

As a sports fan I start to get excited when the start of a new season is getting close to starting up, but the one thing I don’t do is get to excited about the stats a player puts up in exhibition or pre-season games. Obviously if you’re a fan of that team or that player you want them to do well even in games that don’t count, but you have to take into consideration who they’re laying against.

Now we’re in Week 2 of the NFL pre-season and on Thursday night the New England Patriots beat the Philadelphia Eagles 35-0. I didn’t watch this game as my cable provider no longer carries the NFL Network, but I heard a lot of commentary on it. The on thing everyone kept mentioning over and over was how great Mac Jones looked.

Now Jones completed 13 of his 19 pass attempts for 146 yards and even ran once for 3 yards. Really solid pre-season numbers, but what they forget to mention is that Jones put up these numbers against the Eagles second and third string. Cam Newton started the game for New England and only threw one incompletion against the Eagles first team defense. Would Jones of played well against Philadelphia’s first string defense? Will never know, but how much can you read into what a quarterback does against players that in some cases won’t even make the team.

Now just last night Shane Buechele completed 9 of his 11 pass attempts for 115 yards and 1 touchdown as the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Arizona Cardinals 17-10. I don’t think anyone will be talking about how well Buechele played in that game. If they mention anything at all about Buechele it will be that his father Steve is a former major league baseball player.

Do the conversations go that way because Buechele is an undrafted free agent and Jones was a 1st round pick? Or is it because it’s clear that the Chiefs will be starting Patrick Mahomes at quarterback Week 1 no matter how anybody else plays in the pre-season and while it looks like Newton will be the Patriots starter for Week 1 everyone wants to see Jones unseat him before the season starts.

The contrast is very interesting and there are a few teams who are in this situation. Where I live in Chicago Justin Fields looked good in his his NFL pre-season action, but Andy Dalton appears to be the starter come Week 1. In San Francisco the 49ers used the #3 pick to take Trey Lance, but it appears as though Jimmy Garoppolo will be their starting quarterback when there season starts.

I understand that Patriots fans and the mainstream media are looking for them to replace Tom Brady and it’s clear that Newton isn’t that quarterback, but rushing Jones into a starting role isn’t going to turn him into Brady.

In Chicago the Bears have managed to find their way into the playoffs a couple of times under head coach Matt Nagy, but they where never series Super Bowl contenders. I’m sure a lot of fans would also like to get past the Mitchell Trubisky quarterback era, but even if Fields is the starting quarterback; are the Bears a legitimate Super Bowl contender? Don’t forget 49ers fans that Garoppolo took that team to a Super Bowl just a couple of seasons ago.

It’s kind of a rebirth when a team drafts a young quarterback early in the draft, but remember that a rookie quarterback has never won a Super Bowl. I don’t know what Patriots, Bears or 49ers fans are thinking, but that’s an interesting stat for three teams who’s fans really want to see that 1st round pick take over as the teams quarterback.

While I don’t think that Jones, Fields or Lance start the season as there teams starting quarterback I wouldn’t be surprised to see them take over that role at some point during the season.

Now there are a couple of rookie quarterbacks that should be under center Week 1 for their teams. Trevor Lawrence should be the Jacksonville Jaquars starter and Zach Wilson should be the New York Jets starter. There is an outside chance will see a third rookie get a start in Week 1. If Sam Ehlinger wins the Indianapolis Colts quarterback competition and Carson Wentz isn’t ready to go he could get the nod as their quarterback come Week 1.

Now I don’t know anybody who has either the Jaquars or the Jets making the playoffs this season, but the Colts looked like a playoff team with Wentz as their starting quarterback. Would those expectations change if Ehlinger is the starter?

We should slowly start to get the answers to some of these quarterback question as we draw closer to the start of the regular season. As it is now we’re less than three weeks away from the opening Thursday night game which features the defending Super Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers hosting the Dallas Cowboys.

Well Schaumburg Stu had a rough week with his predictions as he went 1-3 last weekend and this weekend didn’t get off to a good start for him either. Schaumburg Stu had the Tampa Bay Rays beating the Chicago White Sox on Friday night, but the White Sox pulled out a 7-5 win in 11 innings. Now for Tomorrow Schaumburg Stu has the Kansas City Royals beating the Chicago Cubs and he has the Chicago Bears beating the Buffalo Bills in their pre-season game. Then on Sunday Schaumburg Stu has the Cubs and the White Sox combining to score under 8 1/2 runs total between the two teams.

You can listen to Schaumburg Stu make his predictions live on the Friday Edition of the Sports Time Radio podcast. You can listen to the podcast live not only on Friday’s, but any other day of the week on BlogTalkRadio.com. Now if you miss the live version of the podcast all you have to do is head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen to the podcast any time you want to.

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime