Originally Posted by
chief31
I am one who would be thrilled to wait on a QB. And there are three main reasons.
1.) I don't know what we have with our current QBs.
You said it. A great QB does better in almost all situations. Even Favre played like garbage when the situation was bad enough. ('05)
Combine that with the beginning of a QBs career, and it's even harder to see what you have.
Croyle started eight games, and had a bad go of it. (0-8) But Troy Aikman went 0-11, with twice as many INTs as TDs. Peyton Manning didn't do much better. He was 3-13 as a rookie. (He did get some decent stats though.)
Injury prone? That is certainly arguable. But I find it hard to label him as injury-prone, when Herm Edwards has proven himself to be hazardous to his own QBs health, more than Croyle has been injured.
So I play the odds on this, and lay the fault on Herm. (Who has hurt more QBs than Reggie White and Deacon Jones combined.)
It certainly doesn't help that Croyle was forced to play, when he said that his body wasn't ready.
2.) I hate the idea of forcing another rookie to come in and take the beating right away. I prefer to create an environment that allows a QB to be successful.
You bring in some rookie QB and get his eggs scrambled right off the bat, how is that guy gonna be a leader?
Give the guy a chance. Protect him.
I don't want him thrown in the fire, I want him to have a minimum one-year "residency", so to speak. Obviously, he'll need to put in some field time, but I'll leave that to the coaches to define the time and place. The sooner we can at least accomplish that, the better prepared our "QB of the future"( Good God that phrase is starting to wear thin on me )will be when the time comes to unleash him.
3.) Finding great o-linemen is easier than finding a great QB, and far less risky.
How many QBs did The browns draft before they decided to draft Joe Thomas instead of another QB?
How many QBs did The Dolphins draft, before they decided to take Jake Long?
Everybody thinks that you have to have a super-human QB. But it seems to be the O-linemen that wind-up making the difference for them. And that super-human QB only comes around once, every ten years or so.
There is a top-notch o-lineman in just about every draft, and he usually gets drafted after a QB that winds-up being a nothing. (Because he didn't have the o-line to be successful.)
It is a crap-shoot, no doubt about it. Someone here at one point actually threw Lienart's name out as a prospect! What do you want to bet that Arizona would be ungodly generous in that trade-scenario( take my wife, please! lol. )
That said, I do believe that if we use the proper criteria in judging the college prospects, we would be better off in picking up a new kid than a free agent for the long haul.
I just realized that 'SLC' did mention that Stafford plays behind a "horrible" O-Line, and that probably has a lot to do with why his numbers in certain areas barely surpass 50% So at least one thing we should place in a high priority is the kid who can turn sh*t to shinola.
Build and athleticism are just as important. Guys like McCoy and Bradford make it look so easy, so natural, and so "All-World", but as you say yourself; they're working under almost ideal conditions. They have better arms and reading/adjustment skills than most other college QB's, and much swifter and surgical delivery than Croyle did at Alabama. But put them behind our current line, and they're Linebacker Lunch all day long. They go to join Brodie on the farm sooner rather than later.
I'm kind of torn between a guy like Stafford who weighs in on the "husky" side of the scale versus a guy like "Juice" who is skin and muscle, and as a result is a lot faster in the backfield.
I sure would like to pick up another VT stud that has enough of both; that program is just crankin' em out like nobody's business when it comes to guys who can shift right on in to the NFL without missing a beat.
As a side-note, their fan-base is phenominal. I was watching some footage on you tube today, and they were blasting out vintage Arrowhead volume and then-some. Great Program.
So in short; fast and tough with the ability to scramble and throw surgically on the run works for me.
4.) It's easier to make a great QB from a great o-line, than to make a great o-line from a great QB.
No explanation needed. Trent Green.
As for great Chiefs performers... 4? Including Green?
Len Dawson, Art Still, DT, Willie Lanier, Will Shields, Emmitt Thomas, Christian Okoye, Jan Stenerude, Buck Buchanan, Albert Lewis, Bobby Bell, Dave Hill, John Alt.... Which four are you seeing? There are six Hall Of Fame guys on my list, and none of them is DT.
Four Quarterbacks.
Lastly, I don't care how much 'gruff' you want to 'broker', The Denver Donkos were the biggest reason for the outcome of that game. (I do like our young CBs...so far.)
If you are going to use the Donkos game as the 'end-all, be-all' for measuring our team, then Damon Huard is awesome! And that LJ guy kicks *** too! Not to mention, we have a dominant o-line!
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