Luke McCown > Chris Redman? Come On Man!

First, before I kick off my diatribe, I want to thank Chris Redman. He's not the most talented guy in the world, but he was a great veteran presence on this team. I will miss him. And I'll miss his nickname.

Forgive me, if you will, because I'm going to acknowledge and - to an extent - embrace the elephant in the room. We signed McCown for one reason and one reason only: he's going to tell us about the Saints. And guess what? We want to know about the Saints, because that helps us beat them, and beating them is awesome.

Look, it presents as an underhand move. Once the television-shooting masses over at Canal Street figure it out, we're sure to get some guff. Heck, maybe your stomach turned a bit when you put two and two together. But it is what it is. This is the NFL. Any obtainable and legal advantage is aggressively pursued. Every team does it. We need to beat the Saints twice this year, and McCown knows their offense. There's no real opportunity cost, so why not? Besides, it's not like we recorded opposing coordinators, filmed sideline signals, et cetera.

I don't buy the "McCown is familiar with Koetter's scheme" argument for a second. These aren't high school quarterbacks. They can learn an offense. Besides, any gain derived from McCown's familiarity with the vertical attack is drowned out by his absence of skill. Assume for a second that Nique Davis won't be our number two quarterback. Assume McCown actually plays in a regular season game. And assume that game is early in the season. He's completely unfamiliar with our offensive weapons. Plus he sucks.

I'm not being harsh, and I'm not being irrational. I'm giving Dumbo an enthusiastic hug. Nique Davis is our new backup and McCown won't make the team. Don't kill the messenger.