Should Jack Strand make the Falcons 53-man roster?

The similarities don’t stop there. Strand has a rocket arm that can rival many of the top quarterbacks in the league, which begs the question: what the hell was this guy doing playing in Division II?

That decision came down to loyalty. Strand had a number of transfer opportunities presented to him once he started finding success at Minnesota State Moorhead, but it was never something he considered.

“It was never my intent to transfer, no matter what,” Strand said, via Josh Kendall of The Athletic. “I didn’t have a ton of schools (approaching me) like some of these guys might have had, but I wanted to stay (at MSUM). They were loyal to me. They were the only ones who gave me a scholarship offer. Once I had some success there, I didn’t want to just use them as a boost to get to another school. The relationships I built with my teams and my coaches — that’s not something I wanted to leave just to go chase a paycheck.”

One standout preseason game doesn’t mean Jack Strand should be the starting quarterback come Week 1. On its own, it doesn’t even mean he should make the 53-man roster. But when you combine that performance with the physical tools and the Falcons’ need at the position, there’s no question Strand deserves a much longer look.

Atlanta would be foolish to go in any other direction. And who knows — perhaps the answer to this team’s decade-long search for a franchise quarterback ends with an undrafted kid out of Minnesota State Moorhead. That’s the kind of story this fan base deserves after everything they’ve been through during this postseason drought.