Sometimes, you just have to evaluate the talent on your roster and make a move. When the Baltimore Ravens signed Ryan Mallett earlier this week, that was exactly what they had to be thinking. Because when you get behind Joe Flacco at the quarterback position, their players are not the most prominent names in the game of football. Let's take a quick look at the different ones still on the roster behind Flacco.
Matt Schaub
Schaub is getting up there in years as he is 34 years old and will be 35 at the start of next season. For his career he has thrown a total of 130 touchdowns and 86 interceptions. His best season easily came several years ago though in 2009, when he threw for 4,770 yards and 29 touchdowns compared to 15 interceptions. He just isn't necessarily known for anything special about his talent, and with him getting older, having someone younger behind the former Super Bowl winner in Flacco should be something important to the Ravens.
Jimmy Clausen
When you are 28, and have only thrown five career touchdowns, you might be the former quarterback of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Charlie Weis must have masked his lack of talent quite well in college, and despite being a third round pick of the Carolina Panthers initially, he was replaced by Cam Newton and then ended up with the Chicago Bears last year before following Marc Trestman from Chicago to Baltimore. Clausen has 12 career interceptions and has lost two fumbles so it is clear that Clausen should not be a backup in the league much longer. He's not someone that this writer would trust to win a few playoff games if the starting quarterback went down due to an injury.
Ryan Mallett
He's the newest quarterback on the roster, and the Houston Texans originally had him this year as their starting quarterback over journeyman Brian Hoyer. He is only 27 years old so he would be the youngest backup on the roster. The main knock on Mallett historically has been off the field issues. For example, earlier this year it was reported that he was late to practice because of traffic. As an NFL player, that is simply a pathetic excuse and should be able to get out and try to be there before the traffic gets heavy. He hasn't had as much of an opportunity, but Bill Belichick had trusted him to be the quarterback behind Tom Brady, and he has five career touchdowns and seven total interceptions, which makes him far less interception likely than both Schaub and Clausen. Less interceptions, more youth, and to be fair, he has the strongest arm of the three backups, which puts him to be most similar to Flacco. He simply is the best option as the backup of the team.