Beck and call: Stalwart QB awaits his moment
At 33, backup quarterback grateful for ‘every day I that come here and get to be in a locker-room’
Rookie receiver Stephen Adekolu will always remember last Saturday’s game in Calgary, though for most of his B.C. Lions teammates it was one to forget.
Making his first start on offence, Adekolu took a 13-yard pass from backup quarterback John Beck in the fourth quarter to record his first catch in the Canadian Football League, a footnote to a dreary performance by the Lions’ offence in a 14-7 defeat at McMahon Stadium.
“Hopefully, it will be the first of many more,” Adekolu said this week, as the Lions prepared to fly out for Saturday’s game in Hamilton against the Tiger-Cats.
On the next play after Adekolu’s personally historic catch, however, Beck short-hopped what should have been an easy throw in the flat to Manny Arceneaux. Beck was sacked on the next play for another twoand-out, and you could almost hear the palpable sigh from Lions fans across the mountains — those hoping that Beck would spark the offence and give cause for head coach Mike Benevides to leave him in.
There is no quarterback controversy with the Lions. In some circles that’s not considered a positive development. Kevin Glenn, who shares the lightning rod with coordinator Khari Jones for everything perceived to be wrong with the Lions’ sputtering offence, is comfortably the starter on Travis Lulay’s team. Beck, who would be the No. 3 quarterback if Lulay was healthy, seems happy to contribute where he can: holding for field goal kicker Paul McCallum, relieving Glenn in garbage time or taking snaps in instances such as Saturday, when Benevides parked his starter for a couple of series to allow him to get a better feel for the game.
“You’d obviously like to complete a few more balls, have it go a little different,” Beck admitted. “There was a ball I threw too low (in Calgary). I would like to have had it back. At the same time, when I flew home on the plane that night, I thought about those five plays (he threw four passes, gaining positive yards on just one) and I was grateful for the opportunity. I want to do better. But I’ve learned, throughout my career, that you can only do so much.”
Exactly two years ago, Beck was released by the Houston Texans, his fourth stop in the National Football League after being drafted in 2007 in the second round from Brigham Young University (his fouryear contract with the Miami Dolphins contained $3.25 million in guaranteed money). But he never took a snap for the Texans.
Neither did he get to play for the Baltimore Ravens, where he landed after the Dolphins released him.
In Washington and Miami, where he did get to start, Beck was put in difficult situations with underperforming or dreadful teams. He relieved Cleo Lemon — who later flamed out with the Toronto Argonauts — in his rookie season with the Dolphins, the year Miami went 1-15.
With the Redskins in 2011, Beck was sacked nine times by the Buffalo Bills, in a game played at Toronto’s Rogers Centre.
“I wouldn’t say those experiences tainted me,” Beck acknowledged. “It’s made the road a lot bumpier than I would have hoped. But I’ve learned a lot. I learned to perform in situations that were not ideal.”
The Saskatchewan Roughriders, who held Beck’s CFL rights at the time, wanted him to attend a mini-camp last year. Beck declined, he explained, because he was going through a similar camp with the New Orleans Saints, and head coach Sean Payton held out the possibility of an invitation to training camp.
“Ottawa (Redblacks) held my rights for a while (after that),” Beck explained. “When they dropped my rights, I sent an email to Neil McEvoy (the Lions’ player personnel director). I told him, ‘ Hey, I still feel I have a lot of football years in me.’ I’m still chasing the dream.”
Conventional wisdom has long held that quarterback controversies can be ruinous to a football team’s chemistry, but Beck has done nothing but throw his full support behind Lulay and Glenn. He said he came into his current situation with eyes wide open.
“I’m grateful every day that I come here and get to be in a locker-room,” Beck said.
“To still be here at 33 years of age, putting on the pads, prepping for a game, being in meetings in the morning … I’m just enjoying it for what it is. However long it goes, it goes.”
He was brought in to fortify the Lions’ quarterback depth, insurance against the wholly unpredictable events of a long, gruelling season, not to be a No. 1 starter.
He’s exceedingly comfortable with the set-up, as much as some hoped for more — to have him turn that original premise on its head.