Do other teams’ fans go this apeshit over their second string quarterback?

My guess is that they probably do. Doesn’t make it any less annoying though.

So much drama over a guy who’s not even gonna see the field for any significant time until about week 12 when Coach Payton starts resting his starters, and maybe not even then if Coach decides he wants to let his players go for the 16-0.

Seriously though, people, it’s time to get a grip and start getting used to the fact that Jamie Martin is this team’s second string quarterback at least for this season. Not Tyler Palko, not Jason Fife, not Drew Bledsoe or Jeff George or Guido Merkens. It’s Jamie Martin. Deal with it.

You’ve probably heard all the standard-issue torts and retorts by now. Let’s recap:

• But if Drew goes down, we’re boned anyway
• But you need depth at QB just like any other position
• But QBs are ridiculously expensive, and it’s next to impossible to have a great one starting and another above-average one behind him
• But Martin sucks
• Maybe compared to Drew, who is one of the three best in the league, but by backup QB standards, he doesn’t suck that badly
• But he’s 87 years old
• True, and he’s the only experienced QB on the roster other than Brees
• But Palko and Fife are better!
• Really? Based on sparse preseason minutes against 3rd and 4th stringers?
• But Palko/Fife couldn’t possibly be worse!
• Sure they could. And probably would.
• But they could sign Bledsoe, or [insert all-world unemployed QB here]
• I guess, but that’s a horrible idea this late in the game

…and on and on and on for as long as you feel like belaboring the issue.

What I find ridiculous is the idea that Coach Payton is brilliant in all areas but this one, where he’s a bullheaded jerk. As if Coach Payton has some kind of blind spot when it comes to the performance of his backup QB(s).

It’s driving some people so fucking insane, it’s compelling them to post doozies like this one:

My point is a backup should be pretty close or better than the level of talent the starter or they shouldn’t be the backup.

Guh.

Look, quarterbacks who are good enough to start and lead teams to Super Bowls don’t generally accept backup positions behind demigods like Drew Brees. They kinda… you know… would rather start. And they certainly don’t come cheap enough for a team who fields Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, Dulymus McAllister and Charles Grant.

I know that back in David Robbins’ day, every team was three-deep with perennial all-pros at the QB position (or at least to hear him tell it.) But it just doesn’t work that way anymore (and what I really mean is, it never worked that way. Consider the source.)

When your backup QB is good enough to just step in for your starter and play as well as the starter did, all that means is that your starter is a chump. Or you got very, very lucky with a reclamation project. Neither Jason Fife nor Tyler Palko is that guy. Undrafted rookies and former AFLers rarely are. Kurt Warners don’t come around often.

Now you could argue that the Saints should have gone out and got Bledsoe, or whomever is currently benefitting from your over-optimistic assumptions, far earlier in the offseason. And that’s not an unreasonable position. But that ship has sailed. Bringing a guy in now is a whole different ballgame, and it would do more harm than good.

So Martin it is. Is it an ideal situation? Of course not. But in the meantime, you could do a whole lot worse than Jamie Martin as your backup QB.

To wit, our STARTING QB could be this guy:

 Or this guy:

So. Um. Yeah. Quit yer bitchin’.