Tag: Luke Falk

Mother of ex-Jets QB Luke Falk found after disappearing from Utah bar

Former Jets quarterback Luke Falk’s mother, Analee, was found after vanishing from a Utah bar on Friday night.

Analee Falk, the mother of former Jets quarterback Luke Falk, has been found after disappearing from a Utah bar on Friday night.

Falk posted on Instagram that his mom was with his aunt and uncle at the Twist Bar and Bistro in Salt Lake City before disappearing after going to the restroom.

Falk was found at an apartment complex less than 24 hours after her son’s Instagram post.

“The police were tipped off just a little while ago at an apartment complex with somebody matching my mom’s description,” Luke Falk said in an Instagram post. “They arrived immediately and fortunately it was her. They got her the medical attention she needed and she is now at a local hospital getting treatment.

“Thank you to everyone for all of your effort in the past 24 hours. From all of the police officers working tirelessly, to all of your suggestions, tips, information and the search party last night. This was a total collective effort and I got to see the amazingly good and compassionate side of humanity. Words can’t express my gratitude.”

Falk spent part of 2019 with the Jets, filling in for Sam Darnold when he was sidelined with a case of mononucleosis. In three games (two starts) with New York, Falk passed for 416 yards and threw three interceptions without a touchdown. He was released shortly after Darnold returned.

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Mom of ex-Titans QB Luke Falk has been found after going missing

Some great news to share: the mom of former Titans QB Luke Falk has been found.

Earlier in the day we told you about a social media post from ex-Tennessee Titans quarterback, Luke Falk, who was asking for help in finding his mother, Analee, after she went missing in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Well, it appears there’s a happy ending to this story, as Falk’s mother has been found, he revealed on Instagram this morning. She is currently receiving treatment at the hospital, but appears to be OK otherwise.

“My mom has been found,” Falk wrote. “The police were tipped off just a little while ago at an apartment complex with somebody matching my mom’s description. They arrived immediately and fortunately it was her. They got her the medical attention she needed and she is now at a local hospital getting treatment. Thank you to everyone for all of your effort in the past 24 hours. From all of the police officers working tirelessly, to all of your reposts, suggestions, tips, information, and for the search party last night. This was a total collective effort and I got to see the amazingly good and compassionate side of humanity. Words can’t express my gratitude. Thank you.”

Falk was a sixth-round pick of the Titans in 2018. He last played in the NFL in 2019 with the New York Jets, appearing in three games (two starts).

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Ex-Tennessee Titans QB Luke Falk reveals his mom is missing

Analee Falk was last seen at Twist Bar and Bistro in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah.

Former Tennessee Titans 2018 sixth-round pick and quarterback, Luke Falk, took to social media on Saturday night asking for any information on his mom, Analee, who went missing in Salt Lake City, Utah.

According to Falk’s post on Instagram, his mom, Analee, was with his aunt and uncle at Twist Bar and Bistro in downtown Salt Lake City but disappeared after going to the restroom.

Falk’s post reads:

My mom @analeefalk has been missing since last night and was last seen with my uncle Zach and Aunt Kara at Twist Bar and Bistro in downtown Salt Lake.

Address: 32 E Exchange Pl
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
United States

They last saw her at 10:30pm when she said she was going to the restroom. She then disappeared.
She doesn’t have her purse, wallet and cell phone and has no shoes on. She was wearing white pants as well.
Swipe right- This is the only photo I have been given of her last night. Please contact me if any of you have seen her, heard from her or have any information that can help us.
Please reach out to either myself @nataleefalk@alexasheamusic@coach_johns89

Thank you

Falk last played in the NFL in 2019 with the New York Jets, appearing in three games (two starts).

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Joe Flacco needs to be better Sam Darnold insurance policy than his predecessors

The Jets signed Joe Flacco in case Sam Darnold got injured this season.

After two seasons of watching Sam Darnold’s backups stumble, the Jets came prepared this season with Joe Flacco serving as the No. 2 quarterback. With Darnold now out once again, Gang Green is banking on Flacco being a better insurance policy than his predecessors.

The Jets are 0-6 in games that Darnold has missed, three due to a foot injury in his rookie season and another three due to mononucleosis last year. Josh McCown was Darnold’s backup in 2018 and threw four interceptions in his three starts. Trevor Siemian, an experienced starter, was Darnold’s original understudy in 2019, but he quickly suffered a gruesome ankle injury in his first start filling in. That left the Jets with Luke Falk and, well, that was a disaster.

Flacco was signed with hopes that he would give the Jets a chance to win games with Darnold out. (Nevermind that they haven’t won any games with Darnold in.) Flacco has a career record of 108-78 as a starter, including a Super Bowl win. Flacco has thrown for 40,083 yards, 218 touchdowns, 141 interceptions and owns a 61.8 completion percentage.

However, the past couple of seasons have been difficult for Flacco. He was the starter in Baltimore for 10 seasons before losing his job to Lamar Jackson in 2018. The following year, Flacco started just eight games for the Broncos before suffering a neck injury that required surgery and a lengthy recovery.

Considering the trials he’s endured in the late stages of his career, it’s no wonder that leading the Jets offense gave him some jitters during Wednesday’s practice.

“Just to get out there and practice today was a lot of fun,” Flacco said, per SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano. “You feel like a little kid again. I think I have a lot left. I want to show my teammates I can play.”

Flacco will get that opportunity this Sunday against the Cardinals. While his main focus is on winning the game, he knows that this could determine his future in the league.

“I think I’d be lying if I were to deny that,” Flacco said. “I want to play quarterback in this league.”

As for the Jets, this is exactly why they signed Flacco. Going even further back than Darnold’s tenure, the team is 2-12 in games started by its backup quarterback since 2015. They’ve rarely had a No. 2 who gives them a better chance to add to that win column.

We’ll see if Flacco can deliver in Week 5.

Report: 49ers to work out trio of WRs and QB

Tavon Austin, JJ Nelson, Donte Moncrief and Luke Falk are all set to work out for the 49ers.

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The 49ers’ question marks at wide receiver have only gotten bigger thanks to a pair of offseason injuries and an opt-out. Deebo Samuel suffered a Jones fracture in his left foot that’s expected to sideline him for all of training camp. Richie James Jr. broke his hand and isn’t expected back until later in camp, and Travis Benjamin opted out. In response to those new developments, San Francisco will work out a trio of wide receivers and a quarterback on Friday according to ESPN’s Nick Wagoner. WRs Tavon Austin, Donte Moncrief and JJ Nelson, along with quarterback Luke Falk, will all participate in the workout.

Austin was a No. 8 overall pick by the Rams in the 2013 NFL draft. He has 215 receptions, 2,006 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns in five years with the Rams and two with the Cowboys. He also has 196 carries for 1,340 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. Austin has also served as a punt returner in all seven of his NFL seasons.

Moncrief was a third-round selection of the Colts in the 2014 draft. He spent four seasons there before playing in Jacksonville for a season and splitting his 2019 campaign between Carolina and Pittsburgh. Moncrief had an impressive first five years when he averaged 40 catches, 509 yards and four touchdowns per season. Last year he put together a disappointing campaign in which he caught four balls for 18 yards in eight games.

The Cardinals selected Nelson in the fifth round of the 2015 draft. He played four years in Arizona before spending last season in Oakland. Nelson has 1,475 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns on 85 receptions across 58 games.

Falk’s inclusion in the workout could mean San Francisco is aiming to add another quarterback for training camp, although that’s difficult to imagine given that snaps are already limited and the 49ers have three quarterbacks on the roster. The Titans took Falk in the sixth round in 2018 out of Washington State. He lost both of his starts for the Jets last year and tossed three interceptions with no touchdowns.

While all three receivers are vertical threats with good speed, Austin is probably the most intriguing option for the 49ers because of his ability to return punts. Nelson has four punt returns in his career and Moncrief doesn’t have any. With James sidelined, it stands to reason San Francisco would add a player who can contend for a roster spot as a receiver while also providing special teams value.

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Report: Jets replace head athletic trainer

On Tuesday, the Jets replaced longtime head athletic trainer John Mellody, who had been with the team since 1996.

The Jets have replaced John Mellody as the team’s head athletic trainer, according to ESPN’s Rich Cimini.

In the meantime, the Jets have promoted Mellody’s longtime assistant Dave Zuffelato to the head trainer position, per Cimini. Mellody, a fixture in the Jets organization under eight different head coaches, will stay on as a consultant. Mellody originally joined the Jets organization in 1996 as an assistant. After a decade with the team, he was promoted as the head athletic trainer in 2006.

According to Bleacher Report’s Connor Rogers, there had been some tension building up between Mellody and Adam Gase. In 2019, the Jets led the NFL with a whopping 21 players placed on injured reserve. Quincy Enunwa suffered his second neck injury in three seasons and C.J. Mosley was rushed back from a groin injury, which cost him 14 games. The organization also had two injury grievances filed against it by Kelechi Osemele and Luke Falk.

New York will now turn to Zuffelato, who has been with the team since 2006, to help change its misfortunes with injuries.

The worst NFL quarterback for every type of throw

The best NFL quarterbacks give their coaches all the confidence in the world, no matter the situation. Here are the quarterbacks who don’t.

While it’s true that the smartest coaches and player personnel people will try to tailor their schemes to their quarterbacks, they’ll also look at which things those quarterbacks do best. That was the subject of my recent piece on the quarterbacks who are best as making several different types of throws — everything from different drop lengths, to play action and not, to under pressure and not, to broken plays and all kinds of other situational excellence.

With that bit of good feeling out of the way, it’s time to turn that concept on its head and reveal the quarterbacks who, throughout the 2019 season, couldn’t seem to hit the broad side of a barn in those same instances. Some were scuttled by inexperience, or by being thrown into starters’ jobs they weren’t ready to take, or by mysterious physical and mental gaffes that happened over and over.

For these quarterbacks, there’s nowhere to go but up.

The three-step drop: The Bengals in general

(David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports)

If you want to know why the Bengals selected Joe Burrow with the first overall pick, this is a good place to start. The three-step drop is the epicenter of the modern quick-passing game, and neither Andy Dalton nor Ryan Finley were very good with it. Dalton posted a three-step passer rating of 66.6, completing just 53.8% of his quick passes, while Finley had the league’s worst three-step rating at 64.0, completing just 47.2% of his. Finley was the only NFL quarterback to complete less than 50% of his three-step throws last season. Clearly, it’s time for a new franchise quarterback in the Queen City.

The five-step drop: Daniel Jones, New York Giants

(Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports)

Jones was fairly decent in his rookie season on quick passes — he threw 11 touchdowns to six interceptions on three-step drops, and he was the league’s most efficient RPO thrower last season… but as the drops got deeper and the demand was for more vertical throws, things got more complicated. Jones had a league-worst passer rating of 54.9 on five-step throws, and 65.8 on seven-step throws. Which wasn’t nearly the worst on seven-step throws. Let’s get to that next.

The seven-step drop: The Steelers in general

(David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports)

This would probably not be the case had Ben Roethlisberger played the entire season as opposed to 95 snaps before he was lost for the remainder of 2019 due to injury. In 2018, Big Ben completed 15 of 30 seven-step drop throws for 323 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception, which is decent enough on what is a dwindling play in today’s NFL. But the 2019 Steelers, between Roethlisberger, Mason Rudolph, and Devlin “Duck” Hodges, had three of the five worst seven-step passer ratings in the NFL (Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tom Brady were the others) for a total of four completions on 17 attempts for 52 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Let’s assume Roethlisberger is able to set this right in 2020.

The designed rollout: Kyle Allen, Carolina Panthers

(Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports)

Allen is now Dwayne Haskins’ backup in the nation’s capital, but he put up some really bad numbers on 24 designed rollouts as Cam Newton’s injury replacement for the Panthers last season. Then, he completed 10 of those 24 passes for just 59 yards, just 21 air yards, two touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 59.7. Haskins completed four of seven passes on designed rollouts, so it’s entirely possible you’re not going to see a lot of this from the Redskins in 2020.

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Jets’ 6 biggest areas of concern entering the offseason

Offensive Line and Cornerback are among the Jets’ six biggest areas of concern entering the offseason.

As the Jets enter the offseason. the team has glaring holes throughout the roster.

After finishing 7-9, the Jets aren’t exactly a team that is a couple of pieces away from being a Super Bowl contender. New York is in need of remodeling on the offensive line and lacks a No. 1 cornerback and wide receiver.

While Joe Douglas has his work cut out for him, he doesn’t have the most cap space in the NFL readily available, nor does he have copious amounts of premium draft picks. Despite improving by three wins, the Jets are in a similar place this offseason as they were last.

Here are the Jets’ biggest areas of concern entering the offseason.

Offensive Line

(AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

The offensive line is the Jets’ top positional need as they enter the offseason.

Once Gang Green made some much-needed changes to a battered front, the team’s offense started to play better. The changes, which involved moving on from Kelechi Osemele, placing Ryan Kalil and Brian Winters on injured reserve and benching Brandon Shell, paid dividends.

Unfortunately for New York, that isn’t enough to compete next season. Kelvin Beachum, Alex Lewis and Jonotthan Harrison all played relatively well, but they can’t all return as starters. It is likely that the Jets will have at least three new faces on the offensive line.

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Jets should invest in solid backup QB in 2020

Joe Douglas and Adam Gase should invest in a solid backup quarterback behind Sam Darnold to insure their 2020 season for injury.

Backup quarterback isn’t a sexy position in football, but it can be an incredibly important one if a team wants to make a run and their starter goes down.

The Jets, however, haven’t had much success with their backups the past two seasons. The trio of Trevor Siemian, Luke Falk and Josh McCown went 0-6 when Sam Darnold went down with injury or illness.

Luckily, the Jets won’t need to worry about Darnold getting mono twice, but Joe Douglas and Adam Gase should take a hard look at the backup quarterback market and pay a higher premium for a better No. 2.

A good backup can equate directly to wins if they’re needed. Just look at the numbers: The Jets invested less than $3 million in 2019 in their backups between Siemian, Falk and David Fales, and that netted them a grand total of zero wins. The seven other backups who weren’t on rookie deals made less than $2 million annually and started at least one game combined to finish 6-15. Five of those wins came from Panthers backup Kyle Allen.

Meanwhile, the highest-paid backups for teams have either won or were competitive in games they were forced to play in. 

Ex-Jet Teddy Bridgewater went 5-0 for the Saints when Drew Brees injured his hand. That was after New Orleans made Bridgewater the highest-paid backup with a one-year, $7.25 million deal last offseason. Chase Daniel makes $5 million annually for the Bears and went 1-1 as a starter in 2018, beat the Vikings in 2019 after taking over for Mitchell Trubisky early in the first quarter and came within two minutes of beating the Raiders in his first start the next week.

Ryan Tannehill is a weird exception to the rule. He tied Siemian for the 13th highest-paid backup in 2019 with a $2 million annual salary, but he has 73 more career starts than Siemian and led the Titans to a Wild Card and an 8-3 record.

Paying for a backup means insuring your season. It will cost you, but it’s worth it if your team has aspirations for contention. The best backups in the NFL aren’t no-name players, either. They’re guys who have legit starting experience. Tyrod Taylor has 46 career starts and makes $5.5 million annually for the Chargers. Chad Henne, Colt McCoy and Drew Stanton make $3.25 million each and have combined for 98 career starts.

Are these players full-time starters in the NFL? Absolutely not. But that’s why they’re backups on short-term, low-risk deals. Teams don’t want them to play, but they’ll be happy to have them if called upon. 

The best example is the team Douglas previously worked for, the Philadelphia Eagles. Starting quarterback Carson Wentz missed the end of both the 2017 and 2018 seasons with injuries, leaving Nick Foles to lead the team. Foles ended up making $16.025 million in two seasons, but the Eagles barely missed a beat with him. He finished with a 6-2 regular-season record, a 4-1 playoff record and a Super Bowl ring. Foles was the ultimate backup, and he is the perfect reason why teams should sign veteran players to slightly larger contracts if they want to insulate themselves from injury to their starter. 

The Jets don’t need to and shouldn’t spend too much on a backup, though. They have far too many holes on the roster to allocate more funds to their No. 2 quarterback. But, they need to find a more experienced player than Siemian, Falk or Fales to sit behind Darnold, and that will likely be a little bit more expensive.

The backup quarterback market is weird, uninspiring and rarely bountiful, but if the Jets could secure the services of someone like a Matt Moore (who went 2-3 with Gase in Miami), Case Keenum or even Marcus Mariota, they’d be better served if Darnold were to go down with an injury again, even it costs them between $4-$5 million annually. There could be other veterans who hit free agency this offseason as well, and Douglas should keep on eye on the market to give Darnold a legit backup who can step in and compete immediately.

It’s a move that won’t be praised, but it’s a necessary one to ensure the season can remain on track if anything were to happen to Darnold.

Quincy Enunwa upset with Jets after being fined for missing treatment

The Jets have another angry player mad for how the team is handling his injury. This time it’s wide receiver Quincy Enunwa.

Add Quincy Enunwa to the list of injured Jets angry with the organization.

Enunwa, who’s been on injured reserve with a neck injury since mid-September, posted a series of angry tweets directed at the Jets for fining him $27,900 for missing two injury treatments.

Enunwa later specified that he only missed those treatments because he was taking his wife, Deanna, out for Veteran’s Day lunch and because he had a family emergency. Deanna Enunwa served in the U.S. Army from 2007-2010, according to her LinkedIn account.

“The biggest reason it hurts is that I’m on IR for the second time in my career and the doctor told me I have a 50/50 chance of coming back to play,” Enunwa later tweeted. “I shouldn’t even HAVE to be in that building being reminded every day of what I can’t do.

“This s—- feels like punishment already and then they FINE me the max. And then want me to continue to do my rehab there and IF I get healthy they want me to then play for them after.”

Enunwa says he only posted the tweets because multiple teammates told him it’s “f—-ed up” that the Jets are fining him for missing treatments.

This isn’t the first time the Jets have been less than hospitable to their injured players. Lest we forgot the Kelechi Osemele injury debacle in which the Jets denied the guard surgery for a torn labrum, fined him for missing practice and ultimately cut Osemele for getting surgery on his own. Osemele filed a grievance against the Jets before they cut him. Shortly after that, quarterback Luke Falk also filed a grievance against the team for cutting him after he suffered a hip injury that required surgery.

Joe Douglas is less than six months into his tenure as the Jets general manager and he already has three bad injury situations on his ledger. Not only are all three a terrible look for the Jets organization, but the pattern means there is definitely something wrong with the front office’s ability to deal with injuries.

Enunwa signed a four-year, $36 million contract extension with the Jets last offseason, and the Jets need to do right by a player who has battled multiple injuries since being drafted in the sixth round of 2014 draft.