By JUDY BATTISTA Published: August 15, 2008 This is what it is like to be Brett Ratliff: ?The other Brett,? Jets Coach Eric Mangini said. ?Like the other white meat.? Brett Favre will be the main course Saturday against the Redskins, and the 10 to 12 snaps he is expected to take may make this the most important preseason performance of his career. But for all the anticipation surrounding Favre?s Jets debut, he is going to have a tough time topping Ratliff?s debut last week. On the night Favre joined the Jets, Ratliff, on his first N.F.L. play, threw a 71-yard touchdown pass to David Clowney. Ratliff later hit Clowney again, for a 70-yard touchdown pass. Less then 24 hours later, Ratliff was in the hospital, where his wife, Shailey, gave birth to their first child, Ellenor Shai ? last Friday, Ratliff?s birthday. All Jets players live in the Hofstra dormitories during training camp, so Ratliff has changed just one diaper. (Shailey?s mother, a former labor and delivery nurse, is in town to help her daughter.) It has been that kind of camp for Ratliff, who has gone from signing a reserve/future contract with the Jets in January ? he was originally signed as an undrafted free agent in 2007 ? to being so impressive in training camp that he has taken snaps with the second team, sparking questions about whether he might be about to supplant Kellen Clemens as Favre?s backup. Clemens was competing for the starting job only 10 days ago and the backup role remains his. With this caveat: ?We?ve got to see how the rest of camp goes,? Mangini said. Clemens has had an uneven camp ? one unofficial count has him with at least 10 interceptions ? but he has the advantage of being a second-round draft choice of the current regime, and it would indicate a startling lack of confidence in him if the Jets were to make Clemens the No. 3 quarterback. Favre is famously sturdy, but he is 38 and coming off a five-month layoff, and a backup could be critical this season. Ratliff is unimpressed by the horse race talk that surrounds him. It is what he imagined when he took off just two weeks during the off-season. He spent the winter and spring in Hempstead, N.Y., studying film and grabbing whomever he could in the hallways at Hofstra ? the former Jets quarterback Chad Pennington, the quarterbacks coach Brian Daboll ? to get in a few extra minutes of work. ?There?s a lot of stuff that goes into being a quarterback and I struggled with it at first,? Ratliff said. ?There is so much you have to learn. I questioned myself a little bit. I knew I had it in me. I knew if I worked hard I could come out and play well.? Ratliff had a familiar malady for many young quarterbacks ? at Utah, he played in a spread option offense, which is used rarely in the N.F.L. It presents a steep learning curve and Ratliff had such a hard time that Mangini quipped early in camp that it used to take ?an act of Congress? for Ratliff to get the play off. Ratliff worked mostly out of the shotgun at Utah, and he said he still felt more comfortable in that formation than under center. But he has a strong arm ? he joked that he would let Favre win a competition to see who could throw the farthest ? and before Pennington left, he served as something of a mentor to Ratliff, teaching him how to study film and prepare away from the field. Pennington might also have inadvertently taught Ratliff how to deal with questions about his job status, which Pennington faced nearly the entire time he was with the Jets. ?Stuff like that can always creep up in your mind,? Ratliff said. ?My wife tries to remind me all the time, control what you can control.? So much of the N.F.L. is beyond a player?s control, though, and Ratliff only has to look at Clemens for the best example. Clemens will follow Favre on Saturday before Ratliff plays. That leaves Erik Ainge, a fifth-round draft pick this year, as something of an odd man out. His snaps have been limited in practice and he has failed to shine when given the chance. Teams are usually loath to cut drafted players, but Ratliff might be making the decision for the Jets. The quarterback with the familiar name is finally getting comfortable with his place on the team ? and maybe Favre will, too. ?I get Rat or Ratty,? he said. ?Every once in a while I get called Brett. But now we have another Brett.?
^ I don't want feel good stories. I want players who will help win games. With that being said...I like all the things I've been hearing about Ratliff.
Well you can't really discredit Kellen's accomplishments for Ratliffs performance in 1 preseason game and a few practices.
Accomplishments??? Wow I would not call anything I have seen from Kellen an accomplishment. He has yet to have a game like Ratty had and he has had many more reps. True Rats has only one outting but he out performed everything we have seen to this point from Kellen.In case you havent guessed no big fan of Kellens here..All I have seen and I am not impressed
Well he has been there fighting for the starting qb job for awhile. I am not a fan but I think its early to anoint Ratliff although I love what I have seen from him thus far. I sincerely hope he keeps it going.
i have to say before we traded for favre i was hoping clemens would become the starter this year. i was hoping that eventually something would click and he would become the quarterback that his natural ability says he can be. except for an outstanding fourth quarter in week two last year clemens has not been impressive on the field or from what i hear in practice either. ratliff has been impressive in his one in game performance and from what i hear in practice this entire camp. so in a matter of a week and a half i have gone from hoping clemens becomes the starter to hoping he gets beat out for the back up role. i am now totally behind ratliff to take over for favre next year or the year after.
That's the thing. I'm certainly not ready to anoint him, but he seems to be developing nicely. I have no expectations of Favre mentoring him in the least, but it will still help Ratliffs development having Favre there.
I have no qualms about anointing him as the heir apparent...short of religous experience (oh wait, that's already happened to Clemens when he met the pope earilier this year)...Clemens is not going to work out. He's had 2 years of training camps and off-season to get better and he still looks incredible uncomfortable under center and in the pocket. Ratliff has demonstrated a much more relaxed handle on the game and he's got an even better arm than Clemens. The politics of drafting will keep Clemens in the #2 spot for another month, but the handwriting is on the wall and it's written in stone.
Ratliff has changed just one diaper. (Shailey’s mother i thought it was about to say that he changed his mother in law's diaper. bad article. to quote 25th hour "fuck the times, i read the post."
It generally takes QB's a year to figure out the pro game and often 2. There's a lot more reads and complication to a pro offense. And especially guys that come from a shotgun offense like Ratliff. They have to get used to taking snaps under center. What I'm really pleased to see with Ratliff is that he's improving. Last year he was not so great. Then after a year of study and film work he's gotten much better. That's exactly what you want to occur with a young QB. I can't say the same about Clemens. He might even be worse than last year. And since he's in his 3rd year in the league, that's bad. The game should have gotten much easier for him. But his practice INT's and otherwise sluggish performance suggest otherwise.
That's what I thought..... Isn't he married? Why is his child's last name "Shai" and not "Ratliff"? That's pretty strange... hmy:
