John Beck Is Not Dan Marino

It is probably a good idea to get the notion of John Beck and Dan Marino out of your head.  John Beck is not Dan Marino.  In fact, John Beck is not anyone, other than John Beck of course.  The only thing that connects the two together is the Miami Dolphins. Yet as this off-season winds closer to the NFL Draft at the end of April, John Beck is quietly doing something that most fans no nothing about.  In the silent world of the Omar Kelly tabbed “Trifecta”, John Beck is working at shedding the rookie problems that plagued him in his limited time.

Let us make this clear now, you, nor I, are experts.  Let us begin by wiping away the memory of Becks’ horrible rookie season.  Beck was never supposed to play one down last year.  Not one.  Cam Cameron wanted him to sit the entire season, learn from afar.  By Becks’ own admission, he received little one on training all of last year.  In fact, Beck has said he and new QB coach David Lee have spent more time together this off-season than he received all of last year.  A telling sign.

Beck’s misfortunes last year can be directly attributed to the fact that he was never fully prepared to go out and play as an NFL starter.  A 3rd string QB that ran the scout team, Beck as we all know, was thrust into the starter job after Trent Green went down and Cleo Lemon could ignite nothing in the Miami offense.  Even amid reports last year that Beck’s time was coming, Beck himself was still taking only 10 percent of the 1st string offensive practice series.  When his time did come, the offense was so scaled down that Beck was not allowed to do what he does best…make time.

In addition, Beck did not have the services of Chris Chambers, traded, or Ronnie Brown, injured, Jesse Chatman, injured, or for that matter much of anything else.  The play calling was more vanilla than ice-cream and that left Beck with little to adjust to.  Although not much of that influenced the fumbles, the fact that Beck was instructed not to roll out left him vulnerable in a closing pocket.  In fact, Beck’s entire game plan centered around dump passes and TE screens…which of course the TE’s couldn’t catch.

All of that is in the past, this is a new year, a new season, and there are new coaches.  Bill Parcells felt so strongly about the placement of a solid QB that his first hire, before a GM or HC was that of the aforementioned Lee to work with the QB’s.  Beck has been 100 percent open to that challenge.

This off-season, John Beck has put on 16 pounds of what is likely muscle.  He is at the Dolphins training center almost daily working out in the gym, and in his words, “has thrown almost 4,000 passes on the practice field this off-season.”

John Beck is a smart intellectual QB.  He knows that talent alone will not make you great and talent without practice and repetition will do nothing on it’s own either.  Last season after his first home loss, Beck told his wife to go on home.  Instead of joining his family like most other players, Beck returned up the road to the training center and began breaking down film instead of waiting until Monday.  By himself.

This is John Beck.  With no official playbook in place under Sparano and Henning, Beck continues his work on becoming an all around quarterback.  Sometime under the supervision of the team QB coach when allowed by league rules and at other times under the supervision of his own personal trainer which he hired after the season ended.

John Beck is no Dan Marino and there is a better than 90 percent chance that he never will be.  John Beck doesn’t have to be Dan Marino.  Beck may fail as a quarterback at the NFL level or he may end up one of those journeyman backups.  Hell, he could end up being another Don Strock, the backup in Miami for another decade or so.  That is fine too.  Don Strock was a key component to this franchises success.

What John Beck will not do, is fail for lack of trying or preparation.  Beck may be surrounded by questions, some even now in the face of April’s draft, it is his approach to facing those questions and challenges that tells a truer story of what John Beck aspires to be.

Recently, Bill Parcells said, “If you’re asking me directly if we are going to draft a quarterback, that has some possibilities,” he said. “I’m always in the market for somebody if I think he can be a franchise quarterback. It’s a little bit hard to tell (about Beck), not really seeing him under fire. We haven’t decided anything yet, but we will. We’re working on it. There’s not much going on. I can just tell you that.”                                        

Indications are that Beck will have to compete for the Dolphins job, and that is exactly what John Beck wants to happen.  He knows it will make him better.  Even a family vacation to Disneyland could not keep Beck from football.  While his family sat at ate lunch, Beck ran through plays in his head and on napkins.  To Beck, this is more than a job.  This is his life.  Whether he becomes a fan favorite or another in a long string of 2nd round wasted draft picks remains to be seen.  John Beck will do whatever he can to prove otherwise.