Alex Mack, Falcons look good for one another

Brady Quinn

Colt McCoy

Jake Delhomme

Seneca Wallace

Brandon Weeden

Thad Lewis

Jason Campbell

Brian Hoyer

Johnny Manziel

Josh McCown

Austin Davis

For the sum of his professional career, Alex Mack has served as the gateway to some truly forgettable quarterback play.

Maybe Mack could have struck a blow for competence if just once he had stood upright, turned around and shouted: “Time out. This is ridiculous. If I snap the ball to you, that makes me the enabler here, an accomplice. I’m not going to do it.”

Then again, you play center, the rules state that you must snap the ball to whatever docks astern of you.

And when you have played center for the Cleveland Browns these past seven seasons, that means you have had more different sets of hands under you than a rest-stop hand dryer.

Last week, from his new Flowery Branch workplace, during a break in Falcons OTAs, Mack was presented a list of 13 names long of starting QBs with whom he may have worked. Is such volatility at the game’s most important position really possible?

Carefully checking each one, Mack confirmed, somewhat wryly, “That’s about right. There were a lot.” He did, however, throw out Connor Shaw, whose brief starting tenure coincided with Mack’s recovery from a broken leg and ankle in 2014. That whittled the list to an even dozen.

Some of the names ring familiar, and carry the sting of promises unmet: Brady Quinn, Johnny Manziel. Some could be random names plucked from the phone book: Thad Lewis, Austin Davis. And every brand of quarterback in between.

“It was never boring. It was always entertaining, always something to talk about,” Mack said, which was the nicest way possible to put it.

So, it hardly was a surprise when this offseason Mack opened the escape hatch in his Cleveland contract, voiding the final three years of the deal, to put himself in the free-agent auction.

Nor were the Falcons the most unlikely landing spot, since they provided Mack with the one asset he has most lacked since Cleveland took him with the 21st overall selection in 2009 — surety at quarterback. Providing that his new pocket protector and the rest of the offensive line step up, Matt Ryan just might continue being a given behind center.

What Mack packed and brought south with him was the reputation as the smartest guy in the locker room, the most reliable guy on the line and someone who learned the hard way that you can’t let the lunkheads get you down.

“Through adversity, I think it really taught you to focus on yourself,” he said. “Things were not always great (in Cleveland). There were always question marks jumping around here and there. But as an offensive line, as a singular player, you can only worry about what you can worry about.”

More on the smarts:

At Cal, as a legal-studies major, Mack won what has come to be known as the Academic Heisman, the Draddy Trophy. He played his final year there while working on a masters degree in education. And he was smart enough to know when to put down the books. “I didn’t quite finish (his masters program). I weighed the benefits and the cost and I thought preparing for the (NFL) combine, devoting all my time to that, was a better idea,” he said.

Sometimes that intelligence takes Mack to some unlikely places. Cleveland teammates have called the 6-foot-4, 300-pound Mack a geek. One commented on how every book he’s seen Mack read seemed to come with a map of some make-believe kingdom on the last page. Mack fights none of those charges.

“In the season, after practice I jump into the cold tub and always bring a book,” he said. “I’m always bringing a book for treatment. It’s the way I like to calm down and relax. … I read a lot of stuff. But for every one normal book, I’ll read two or three science-fiction or fantasy books.

“I like geeky things. In my spare time I like watching movies and reading books and playing video games.”

He already has practically applied some of that brain power. Seems he’s one of those people you used to hate sitting next to in school.

“A lot of times we have questions in meeting day — where are we going on this play, what block is this? — and he was the one who kept firing the information out over and over again,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said.

How smart is Mack? Smart enough to yield completely to the guy standing behind him. “The quarterback’s always smarter, there is no question about that,” he said.

So he hasn’t compared GPAs with Ryan yet? “I’m sure it doesn’t matter because I know he’s better at being a quarterback than I am,” he said.

One reads the potential impact of the Mack acquisition differently, according to one’s perspective.

Those who get to work upright and take the longer-range view see a much-needed addition, a three-time Pro Bowler, to an offensive line in great need of more rebar and concrete.

Mack gives Ryan a level of security that he hasn’t had since long-time center Todd McClure departed in 2013. He’ll be much happier not having a pass-rusher in his lap before he can count to two-Mississippi.

“I think when you have a guy like that it helps a lot,” Ryan said. “I know Todd was such an integral part of our offense my first five years, in terms of getting us on the same page, in the run game, helping all those other guys out. I think Alex has a lot of those qualities that Todd had.”

Quinn’s preview was no less enthusiastic: “When you play a zone (blocking) scheme, so many of the blocks are combination blocks. He’s the one who kind of sets it off for us. In the pass game it’s the protections. He’s big like a guard, but he plays quick like a center. You have the ability to get off the ball and to have some punch when you get there.”

And, then, if you are the one looking at the world upside down and between your legs, the view of the move is pretty good as well.

Mack gets to play in a system that seems to suit him — he worked with Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan in 2014 — and move to a place that isn’t Cleveland.

“It was a known factor. This is an offense I know I can be successful in,” Mack said. “(Choosing the Falcons) was a combination of things — this being a vibrant, busy city and having a good quarterback, too.”

Yeah, circle that last reason. Just the comfort of knowing day to day who will be there, as close to you as a trailer is to its hitch, is a great bonus.