Quote:I was just thinking about Byron Leftwich. I was thinking that as bad as he was for being such a deliberate, slow-twitch person, he never made the boneheaded mistakes that we keep seeing out of Blake. Leftwich had tremendous downfield vision and understanding of the game, and he was an absolute master at ball placement downfield. Byron hated to throw out of bounds, so instead of throwing it away, he'd locate a spot on the field where only his guy might have a chance or else nobody would. By doing this, his INTs were rare, and were usually the result of offensive players slipping or dropping the ball, or defensive players making amazingly athletic plays to get the INT. It's a shame he was too slow to routinely get the pass off and had zero ability to escape the pocket. Byron could have been a boss with the Patriots OL back when he played, but otherwise the game was just too fast for him from a physical standpoint.
Sorry for the rabbit trail...the post struck a memory. Back to coaching...
Byron Leftwich had a lower career completion percentage and threw almost identical picks per pass as Bortles has this year.
Quote:Pete Carroll has had Lynch, Wilson, Earl Thomas, Sherman, etc. in Seattle. No way wpuld I touch him, he had talent in Seattle. We need a coach that had zero talent that somehow willed the team to the playoffs off a bum roster.
Though he doesn't totally fit your description, IMO, Teryl Austin might be the closest thing to it if the Lions end up in the playoffs. Considering key injuries and some talent limitations, it's amazing that until this past Monday Night in the Cowboys game when the dam broke, the Lions didn't give up more than 20 points in the previous 8 games. Including holding the Saints to 13 points, with Drew Brees not throwing a TD pass at home for the first time this decade.
Quote:ill rock some avatar as well i guess, you can choose whatever it is. you have a deal.
now with that said, does anyone have a picture of caldwell in a speedo?
I have not.. if anyone says I do, ignore them.. please.
Quote:He also had Matt Ryan, Julio Jones and Roddy White
And a super suspect defense with a GM who only focused on offense. Yet he went 14-2 one season and went to the NFC championship.
Smith is a good coach and will be a HC this upcoming season.
Quote:
Byron lacked a short game and had other reasons for a lower completion percentage. As for his INTs, he had most of those his rookie season as he was learning the NFL game. Take away his rookie INTs and it's not even close. In his career, minus his rookie season, Byron threw 1187 passes with 26 INTs. ...that's one INT every 45.7 pass attempts. Bortles this year has 16 INTs on 343 passes... that's one INT every 21.4 passes.
586 passes, not 343.
Without rookie year, he has 1 INT for every 35. Not much different.
Quote:Byron lacked a short game and had other reasons for a lower completion percentage. As for his INTs, he had most of those his rookie season as he was learning the NFL game. Take away his rookie INTs and it's not even close. In his career, minus his rookie season, Byron threw 1187 passes with 26 INTs. ...that's one INT every 45.7 pass attempts. Bortles this year has 16 INTs on 343 passes... that's one INT every 21.4 passes.
They have almost identical YPA and YPC. Byron also had the league's best running game and played on a good team that had significantly more leads. As much as we remember Leftwich under pressure, Blake has already been sacked more in 3 seasons then Leftwich was in his entire career, and by a significant margin.
Blake has had a down year, but people have gone way overboard criticizing him. He has been our second best quarterback in franchise history. He throws picks at a rate of less than almost half the leagues's starters. Players like Eli Manning, Phillip Rivers, Jameis Winston, Jay Cutler, and Josh McCown have all thrown picks at a higher rate than Blake this year. Its odd how quickly forgot how bad Blaine Gabbert and Chad Henne were. Does he need to improve? Obviously, but he is still somewhere around the middle as far as starting quarterbacks.
Quote:If he does want full control, he has painted himself into a corner. First, he would have to go tell Khan that he needs a new GM. If he does that, he can't then go to Dave Caldwell and tell him he's okay just being a HC. Because he will have already told Khan that he thinks Caldwell sucks. So he can't apply for full control, and then say he'll settle for just HC.
My thoughts exactly. If hes asking for full control, well, he just lost two head coaching jobs in Buffalo and the Jaguars. Its like asking a girl out on a date but then right after you ask her you tell her she's paying. He doesn't have that much leverage and if he wants full control like the speculation is, hes going to have to go to a team that is not going to be a contender anytime soon. Maybe he can ask Cleveland if they are interested in his services. Doubt hes going to go to a project, Coughlin wants to coach and wants to compete.
Coughlin and the Jaguars have mutual interest. Hes either being interviewed to be the coach or hes being interviewed as the GM. If its the latter, Caldwell will probably be fired. I doubt Coughlin is going to want to share any duties with anyone and whats the purpose of keeping Caldwell when the team has been a disaster and you just hired Coughlin to pretty much help GM. As Alfie speculated, I absolutely could see Coughlin brought in as VP of football operations and they fire Caldwell. Obviously its speculation but just reading between the lines with the Khan and Coughlin interview with no Caldwell, that absolutely is a possibility.
We dont know until atleast Monday what has happened, but one thing Im sure of, I dont take Kouvaris's opinion seriously. This is the same guy that said Tebow was going to be drafted by the Jags and also said he was going to chose the Jags but chose the Jets instead.
I seriously doubt Coughlin is looking for full control. He knows that won't happen. Those speculating otherwise are a decade late.
Quote:Yep. It wasn't Tom Coughlin who assembled the roster.
Not to mention that:
In 2007/8 Brady was beat up by San Diego in the previous game, and it still needed David Tyree to make a miracle catch.
In 2011/2 Coughlin squeaked out a 9-7 record. He did parlay three wins in a row in the playoffs, so he's got that going for him.
Let's not forget the division he coached in... Its not the putrid AFC south..
Quote:Byron Leftwich had a lower career completion percentage and threw almost identical picks per pass as Bortles has this year.
He's talking about decision making and throwing appropriate, catchable balls.
He was much better than Bortles at that. Bortles routinely puts his receivers in danger by instead throwing into riskier coverages and putting balls where his guys have to lay out just to get to them and put themselves in dangerous positions, being exposed to vicious hits.
In Byron's case, it was him who was taking the hits instead. Byron's physical attributes held him back. He had a strong football mind. Bortles has problems with both that he needs to sort, both physical/mechanical and mental. He's still missing wide open receivers (missing the read, not just the throw) and forcing balls. Both are things he and the new staff need to correct quickly. He's no rookie anymore.
Quote:He's talking about decision making and throwing appropriate, catchable balls.
He was much better than Bortles at that. Bortles routinely puts his receivers in danger by instead throwing into riskier coverages and putting balls where his guys have to lay out just to get to them and put themselves in dangerous positions, being exposed to vicious hits.
In Byron's case, it was him who was taking the hits instead. Byron's physical attributes held him back. He had a strong football mind. Bortles has problems with both that he needs to sort, both physical/mechanical and mental. He's still missing wide open receivers (missing the read, not just the throw) and forcing balls. Both are things he and the new staff need to correct quickly. He's no rookie anymore.
In other words, he's talking about things that can't be measured and are highly subjective as opposed to hard facts.
I'm not bashing Byron - he was a decent quarterback, but the revisionist history is strong here.
What specific facts support that Byron didn't make the same bad decisions as Blake? I just see a bunch of conclusory statements with nothing to back them. Statistically, they turn the ball over at a similar rate and complete balls at a similar rate.
Blake has a long way to go with mechanics and I'm sure he would like to command an offense better than he does, but inferring as fact that somehow Byron would have been better for this team is far-fetched.
Quote:Whoa now... I'm not inferring that Byron would be better. On the contrary, he'd be worse because he flat out couldn't move fast enough.
There's no revisionist history going on here. Straight up, Leftwich did not make the kind of bad decisions that Blake has been making this year. I understand how this sounds subjective, but it's a straight up fact.
Okay. My mistake. Didn't mean to put words in your mouth.
Straight up fact, based off of what?
Quote:In other words, he's talking about things that can't be measured and are highly subjective as opposed to hard facts.
I'm not bashing Byron - he was a decent quarterback, but the revisionist history is strong here.
What specific facts support that Byron didn't make the same bad decisions as Blake? I just see a bunch of conclusory statements with nothing to back them. Statistically, they turn the ball over at a similar rate and complete balls at a similar rate.
Blake has a long way to go with mechanics and I'm sure he would like to command an offense better than he does, but inferring as fact that somehow Byron would have been better for this team is far-fetched.
Not all interceptions are the same. Comparing INT %'s is a meaningless exercise by itself in my opinion. Bortles has a documented history of throwing pick 6's and turning the ball over deep in our own territory. I covered part of that history
here. I haven't and probably won't go back through Byron's years here, but just from memory alone I don't remember him having anywhere near the amount of back breakingly bone headed throws that we see far too frequently from Bortles. Leftwich's issue was more of not being able to get the ball out quick enough and not necessarily one of frequently making poor decisions with the football.
Despite this, I still think Bortles has the potential to be a great QB and the FO will have one more year to evaluate him and make a decision on him. If he plays moderately well, we'll probably franchise him and have him prove it again in 2018. If he plays really well, we may see them go ahead and lock him up. If he plays like he did for the majority of this year, I think it's time to move on.
Quote:I don't just watch games. I study games, and even more so back when Byron played. There was a lot of stuff wrong with Byron, but basic decision making was not one of them. His downfield vision was outstanding, as was his touch and placement on deep passes.
More to the point, few realize how quickly Byron was able to dissect what he saw on the field. He had to make decisions even quicker than most because his wind-mill throwing motion took so long to complete. He still typically got the ball out just in time to avoid sacks, but to do so he had to begin his throws early. Blake, on the other hand, has a quicker throwing motion wherein he tends to buy time in the pocket for plays to develop or to go through reads before he ever throws. That is to say he typically has plenty of time to think about what he's doing, but he still makes some truly boneheaded decisions.
I think that is a first for me hearing that Bortles has a quicker throwing motion. They both have long deliveries.
Bortles has had no greater number of boneheaded throws this season than most quarterbacks in the league that aren't elite.
No blakes is much shorter than leftwich ever was.