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Of Rankings And ESPN: Quarterback Edition

If you have Insider, you can look at ESPN's positional rankings, this one about quarterbacking. For those of you who can't read it and are dying to know where the Falcons are, I've got you covered:

18. Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons once boasted one of the deepest collections of QBs in the the NFL, with hugely talented Michael Vick as the starter and the best backup in the league in Matt Schaub. Not any more. Schaub is now the starting QB in Houston and Vick has some huge off-field issues that could affect his future availability. As talented as he is, Vick is still widely inconsistent and you just don't see the progress expected for a guy entering his seventh season. New coach Bobby Petrino has a great reputation of developing QBs. Two things he's working on with Vick is having him throw more deep passes, which Vick is capable of doing well, and coaching him on calling audibles and reading defenses. Make no mistake about it -- this is a make-or-break season for Vick. The backup will be Joey Harrington, who teases you with good skills, but has never taken over a team when given the chance. The No. 3 QB will be young D.J. Shockley. He's a Vick clone, but still needs a lot of development.

Sadly, this is actually higher than I expected ESPN to rank them. I agree with almost everything said here. This is the year Vick has to prove himself, Pet Rhino does have a great history with QBs (albeit at college), and the stuff about Joey Harrington being a filthy tease. I do take issue with the characterization of D.J. Shockley as a "Vick clone." He doesn't have the same kind of cannon arm as Vick, but I think he's much more adapatable as a pocket passer in the long term. I still say the team couldn't do any worse putting him as the backup instead of forking over money to a proven mediocrity like Harrington, but I guess we're stuck with him.

So in a nutshell, I can't dispute this ranking. Would you put the Falcons lower or higher at QB?