NFL updates/news

[conscript]

Whisenhunt deserves it. He sent Leinart to the Texans 2 years ago thinking he could rely on Derek Fucking Anderson to win games.

Hey man Anderson did have that one pretty decent season in Cleveland. Sure it was three years earlier and the previous two seasons in Cleveland he was fucking horrendous, but the potential might have maybe possibly been there for him not to suck. Its not like Lineart has even shown a glimmer of being a potential starting QB either while he was in Arizona or since he left. I mean hell this is a guy who has played in 32 career games and has 15 TDs to show for it on 609 attempts. That is 1TD every 40 attempts which is awful. Of the QBs to start two or more games this season, the only ones who have put up a worse Td per completion rate are Ryan Lindley at infinity (0TD 120 attempts) John Skelton at 100.5 (2 TD, 201 attempts), Ryan Tannehill at 49.5(8TD 396 attempts) and Nick Foles at 46. Matt Leinart looked like a semi-competent QB for less than one full season, his rookie season in 2006 where he only had 6 games where he threw for more TDs than INTs. Since that year he has never once looked like even a semi-competent QB on any team as a backup or a starter.

Was it dumb to keep only a roster of Anderson, Max Hill, and Skelton? In hindsight, sure. But in Anderson you had a QB who had at one point just a few years earlier looked like a competent NFL starter you could rely on. In the two seasons prior to Arizona acquiring him he had been significantly less stellar, but still. In Leinart you had a known quantity and that known quantity was terrible. There is no reason at all to stick with a guy who has never once in his career looked like such a solid starter you weren't willing to replace him after his best career performances for an aging veteran QB. With Anderson the potential was there. It wasn't for Leinart which is why they let him go.

---------- Post added 2012-12-10 at 11:01 AM ----------

What's the top 5 QB's coming out of college atm I mean Rookies are doing good this year so who knows.

1) Geno Smith, WVU
2) Matt Barkley, USC
3-10) Tyler Wilson, Arkansas, Landry Jones, Oklahoma, Ryan Nassib, Syracuse, Tyler Bray, Tennessee, Zach Dysert, Miami OH, EJ Manuel, Florida St. Tajh Boyd, Clemson, Mike Glennon, NC State

Those are the "top 10" guys expected to or who are known to be entering the draft. Andy Murray is probably a solid #3 or #4 if he is coming out. The main difference is that last draft there were three absolutely no miss prospects in Andrew Luck, RG3, and Russell Wilson who was literally downgraded only because of his height (Football Outsiders had him as their highest career forecast QB EVER). There isn't a single one of those types in this draft or a guy even approaching them.

[Skarsguard]

Hey man Anderson did have that one pretty decent season in Cleveland. Sure it was three years earlier and the previous two seasons in Cleveland he was fucking horrendous, but the potential might have maybe possibly been there for him not to suck. Its not like Lineart has even shown a glimmer of being a potential starting QB either while he was in Arizona or since he left. I mean hell this is a guy who has played in 32 career games and has 15 TDs to show for it on 609 attempts. That is 1TD every 40 attempts which is awful. Of the QBs to start two or more games this season, the only ones who have put up a worse Td per completion rate are Ryan Lindley at infinity (0TD 120 attempts) John Skelton at 100.5 (2 TD, 201 attempts), Ryan Tannehill at 49.5(8TD 396 attempts) and Nick Foles at 46. Matt Leinart looked like a semi-competent QB for less than one full season, his rookie season in 2006 where he only had 6 games where he threw for more TDs than INTs. Since that year he has never once looked like even a semi-competent QB on any team as a backup or a starter.

Was it dumb to keep only a roster of Anderson, Max Hill, and Skelton? In hindsight, sure. But in Anderson you had a QB who had at one point just a few years earlier looked like a competent NFL starter you could rely on. In the two seasons prior to Arizona acquiring him he had been significantly less stellar, but still. In Leinart you had a known quantity and that known quantity was terrible. There is no reason at all to stick with a guy who has never once in his career looked like such a solid starter you weren't willing to replace him after his best career performances for an aging veteran QB. With Anderson the potential was there. It wasn't for Leinart which is why they let him go.

---------- Post added 2012-12-10 at 11:01 AM ----------



1) Geno Smith, WVU
2) Matt Barkley, USC
3-10) Tyler Wilson, Arkansas, Landry Jones, Oklahoma, Ryan Nassib, Syracuse, Tyler Bray, Tennessee, Zach Dysert, Miami OH, EJ Manuel, Florida St. Tajh Boyd, Clemson, Mike Glennon, NC State

Those are the "top 10" guys expected to or who are known to be entering the draft. Andy Murray is probably a solid #3 or #4 if he is coming out. The main difference is that last draft there were three absolutely no miss prospects in Andrew Luck, RG3, and Russell Wilson who was literally downgraded only because of his height (Football Outsiders had him as their highest career forecast QB EVER). There isn't a single one of those types in this draft or a guy even approaching them.

Nobody knows that thou I mean nobody expected 7th round Tom Brady was going to be any good. Watching Wilson at Arkansas he wouldn't be bad thou he kinda has the Brett Farve syndrome of trying to make plays out of nothing.

[Bakis]

Stop winning games and then the Vikes could draft a QB with a high pick. I don't know about Ponder though. Yes he makes some downright stupid decisions once or twice per game. But he is showing improvement. He is substantially better this season than last year. The Vikings O-line is mediocre at best and their receiving corp is laughable. Their best receiver is Harvin. He put up 677 yards so far this year but only in 9 games because he can't stay healthy. Their next two best receivers have 265 and 317 yards less than Harvin. They are just a bad, bad team at so many positions except for running back that I think it may be a bit hasty to want to kill off Ponder. Who are they going to replace him with? Geno Smith and Matt Barkley don't inspire any sort of confidence (yet one of those two is likely to go #1 overall barring KC/Jacksonville trading back. hell they could go 1 and 2). The free agent market is going to be Alex Smith, Mike Vick, Matt Cassel, Brady Quinn, etc. Any of those guys inspire confidence? Alex Smith would be an upgrade, but a fairly minor one outside of him correcting the boneheaded mistakes issue.

He is not improving quickly, that is for sure. With the best RB in the entire league and not even the coaches trust Ponder enough to make any throw longer than short ones.
Ponder has to go, he is useless.

[kunah]

Cameron out at Baltimore. All I could think of was Robbyjaws when I read the story.

[Elbren]

Cameron out at Baltimore. All I could think of was Robbyjaws when I read the story.

He's being replaced by QB coach Jim Caldwell.

Sports talk radio is hilarious right now. I've never seen people in this town so happy after a loss.

[conscript]

As a semi-Baltimore fan, WOOOOO. Finally.

[Robbyjawz]

As Baltimore is my number two team, I have never been more pleased by news out of there, save for when Ray Rice was extended, and that is still second.

[buck008]

Sure Cameron sucked, but I think the people in the Baltimore organization need to realize that Flacco isn't taking that team anywhere. Since there aren't any franchise quarterbacks dropping out of the sky any time soon, they need to go old school and make that defense as scary as it was a few years ago. Then hand the ball to Ray Rice until his legs fall off. Flacco throwing 40 times a game would be hilarious to watch though.

[conscript]

Sure Cameron sucked, but I think the people in the Baltimore organization need to realize that Flacco isn't taking that team anywhere. Since there aren't any franchise quarterbacks dropping out of the sky any time soon, they need to go old school and make that defense as scary as it was a few years ago. Then hand the ball to Ray Rice until his legs fall off. Flacco throwing 40 times a game would be hilarious to watch though.

So what you are saying is they need to find a way to trade up in the 6-8 range and draft Te'o to be the second coming of Ray Lewis? I would be okay with that (as long as it meant the Lions weren't missing out on him).

[Robbyjawz]

Flacco hasn't had a real coordinator to see if he CAN actually do something. I am for giving him another year or two before we stick a fork in him. Besides, it is like all the people howling for Alex Smith's head, (myself included) he actually proved to be capable of doing something with a decent coordnator, sure he is just a game manager and I like Kaepernick better, but Smith was able to be a great "don't screw this up for us" QB. Flaaco may be able to do something with a real OC.

I would also love for the Ravens to get their hands on Te'o, but Ozzie rarely trades up in the draft, least of all for something that he sees as a still strong point even though Ray is just a general out there and not able to make plays even as well as last season.

[Pendulous]

Conscript, your top QB list didn't mention Aaron Murray from Georgia.

[conscript]

Conscript, your top QB list didn't mention Aaron Murray from Georgia.

Those are the "top 10" guys expected to or who are known to be entering the draft. Andy Murray is probably a solid #3 or #4 if he is coming out.

As far as I have heard there wasn't a definitive on if he is coming out yet or not. If he is though, he should certainly be up there probably ahead of Landry Jones even though Murray hasn't won a single big game in his career at Georgia.

And yes I did refer to him as Andy Murray and will probably do that for the rest of forever since I can't keep his name straight lol.

[Pendulous]

As far as I have heard there wasn't a definitive on if he is coming out yet or not. If he is though, he should certainly be up there probably ahead of Landry Jones even though Murray hasn't won a single big game in his career at Georgia.

And yes I did refer to him as Andy Murray and will probably do that for the rest of forever since I can't keep his name straight lol.

Oh. Didn't realize he redshirted his freshman year.

[Vetali]

Seahawks 49ers game got flexed to prime time.

This is going to be an insane game.

[Robbyjawz]

Yeah it is. I am glad about it being flexed too, I wasn't allowed time off to go to Seattle to watch the game, but I can at least watch it from my living room after work now!

[Vetali]

Yeah it is. I am glad about it being flexed too, I wasn't allowed time off to go to Seattle to watch the game, but I can at least watch it from my living room after work now!

I was supposed to go to yesterdays game, but the guy that had the tickets decided to keep them.

[Robbyjawz]

Back to the Cam Cameron firing, as I was hoping last offseason, I want Bisciotti to look into Norv Turner as a possibility for OC, he is a decent OC, but AJ Smith let the team get decimated by terrible choices, Turner is a terrible HC, but he could be a good fit in Baltimore at OC in my opinion.

[Neazy]

Hey man Anderson did have that one pretty decent season in Cleveland. Sure it was three years earlier and the previous two seasons in Cleveland he was fucking horrendous, but the potential might have maybe possibly been there for him not to suck. Its not like Lineart has even shown a glimmer of being a potential starting QB either while he was in Arizona or since he left. I mean hell this is a guy who has played in 32 career games and has 15 TDs to show for it on 609 attempts. That is 1TD every 40 attempts which is awful. Of the QBs to start two or more games this season, the only ones who have put up a worse Td per completion rate are Ryan Lindley at infinity (0TD 120 attempts) John Skelton at 100.5 (2 TD, 201 attempts), Ryan Tannehill at 49.5(8TD 396 attempts) and Nick Foles at 46. Matt Leinart looked like a semi-competent QB for less than one full season, his rookie season in 2006 where he only had 6 games where he threw for more TDs than INTs. Since that year he has never once looked like even a semi-competent QB on any team as a backup or a starter.

Was it dumb to keep only a roster of Anderson, Max Hill, and Skelton? In hindsight, sure. But in Anderson you had a QB who had at one point just a few years earlier looked like a competent NFL starter you could rely on. In the two seasons prior to Arizona acquiring him he had been significantly less stellar, but still. In Leinart you had a known quantity and that known quantity was terrible. There is no reason at all to stick with a guy who has never once in his career looked like such a solid starter you weren't willing to replace him after his best career performances for an aging veteran QB. With Anderson the potential was there. It wasn't for Leinart which is why they let him go.[COLOR="red"]

It's not just hindsight. I lived in Arizona then and EVERYONE thought that letting Matt Leinart go was retarded when it happened. Even Kurt Warner went on Sportscenter and said Leinart was never given a chance. Whisenhunt tried to play hardball with him but instead of threatening to bench him for Anderson (which would have given him a backup plan in case Anderson didn't play well, a likely possibility) he actually shipped the guy off to another team. Since then, the QB play has been miserable.

I'm not saying Leinart is a good QB, but the QB spot is the one position in sports where you need some form of consistency. If the Cards had Leinart coming in as a backup this year when Kolb went down there's no way in hell they would be on a 9 game losing streak.

Edit: I would also argue against your statement that Leinart had no potential. In 2009 when Warner was injured, Leinart started one game and went 21/31 with 220 yards, losing the game on a last second TD thrown by Vince Young. In the 2010 playoff game vs. the Saints when Warner got knocked out, Leinart moved the ball very efficiently (7/10, 61 yards) before Warner came back in the game. Also, in his one game with the Texans last year he went 10/13 with a TD. Again, small sample size, but the guy is obviously not a slouch.

[Skarsguard]

Just heard on ESPN radio that the Cowboys might be shutting down Dez Bryant for the season.

[Pendulous]

Just heard on ESPN radio that the Cowboys might be shutting down Dez Bryant for the season.

Why? What did he do wrong?