If You're Worried About Your QB's Surgically Repaired Knees, Don't Have Him Run The Read Option. Period.

Or have him go play golf. Seriously. I’m not here to defend Terrell Suggs’ reputation or his morals as a person, but he owes nothing to the Eagles or Sam Bradford here. We’re playing these preseason games in preparation for 16 hard-fought regular season contests. This hit was assignment football. Suggs job on this play is to hit the QB, simple as that. There isn’t even a decision-making process. That’s the entire concept of the zone-read, Bradford either keeps it or hands it off based on where Suggs comes off the edge. I don’t think I should have to explain that when a QB sees the DE coming directly at him and hands the ball off, he’s accepted that he’s going to take a hit. The rules even state as such.

The fact of the matter is Suggs was coming in with a full head of steam and was a step away when the handoff was made. He came in at Bradford’s thighs and wrapped up. Bradford tried to twist and lunge backwards to avoid contact and it made the hit look a lot worse than it actually was. The “gray area” seems to be how necessary it is to go 100% in preseason. To that I say you have to be the biggest loser on Earth to complain. Sure, I wouldn’t be thrilled about this if I was an Eagles fan, but the Ravens have a season to prepare for too. Far be it for Suggs to do his job and give a full effort there. The Ravens have the Niners, Seahawks, and Chiefs on the slate, and may have to deal with Johnny Manziel’s scampering ass twice this year. Shit, even the Bengals love to run a read-option with Dalton that seems to burn us for a first down every fucking time. So these reps matter.

Eagles fans need a dose of reality, so here it goes: If his knees are as fragile as they’re making them out to be (and they are), he’ll be lucky to make it out of the month of September. This was the 6th play of the game. It was also the 3rd time they ran the read-option. He won’t survive if Chip Kelly keeps playing those odds, and he’d be smart to consider this a lesson learned. But we all know he’ll continue to roll the dice and end up paying the price so this is all moot. If it wasn’t Suggs, it’s going be someone else and that hit will be legal too. The Ravens play hard-nosed football and that’s nobody’s problem but the rest of the league’s. There’s a reason why the Ravens contend year in and year out. Suggs won’t apologize for it, and neither will I.

PS: Love all the Patriots puppets to coming out of the woodworks and calling this a dirty hit. Ask your boy Willie for his thoughts.