I Know You Didn't Like My Cutler Suggestion But......

[cardpa]

BTW - AZ rates 29th in yards per punt return and 32nd in yards per punt.

Inexcusable.[/QUOTE]

What do you mean by this, Arians said the coaching of the special teams is superb! It's those lousy players not doing their job that is messing up special teams. Butler has a powerful leg and Arians is saving it for the right time to let Butler cut it loose.

 

[Russ Smith]

I see what you are saying, but I can only comment on what I read on this board, and this board was CONVINCED Palmer would continue to be the player he was last year, yet no matter how K9, yourself, myself, and anyone cuts it, the stats, the wins, and the play of Carson Palmer speaks for himself. He has had a long career.

He is in the league of Drew Bledsoe. Good stats, and a good QB, but he is not elite, he needs a good team around him, and he is going to be average, very average.

Now, personally ? I have NO problem with Carson Palmer as the quarterback. Quarterbacks are hard to come by in the NFL, and after watching some of the worst QB's ever to grace an NFL field, I will take Palmer behind center, every year. It would be great to get an elite guy and have him for 15+ years, but that is rare. I will take an average QB, instead of wallowing through the Max Hall's of the NFL.

Now in order to win with Carson Palmer your offensive line has to block, your wide receivers have to make plays/catches, and your defense has to make timely stops...........not to mention your *($%&(ing special teams have to be able to execute just on a average NFL level (not the complete dumpster fire we have watched this year).

I know this will come off as VERY arrogant, and I apologize for hurt feelings in advanced, but only the laziest NFL fan is going to slam the QB when he is not even in the top 5, when it comes to issues on this team. Heck, he may not even be in the top 10. <-- That is a good thread poll/discussion. I may have to post that.

Regardless, Carson Palmer is playing at the level I would expect from Carson Palmer this year. I have no idea why he is getting the heat he is getting when there are far more deserving players that are KILLING this team right now.

I agree with most of that I'm just saying while last year was clearly his best year, career high in TD's and YPA, his play in Arizona has been good because he's a good QB on a good team, and this year he's not on a good team at least not a good offense. That was my point about Rodgers and Brady, there are VERY few QB's who could take this years OL and WR's and have a good passing offense, there just aren't many QB's that good.

So I think we agree that people are blaming the wrong guy. Where I disagreed was with the idea that Palmer is simply regressing to the mean, he's not, he wasn't as good as he looked last year but he's not as bad as the numbers say this year, there simply aren't enough plays where he has both guys open, and time to throw. Where he's been a problem is not taking the checkdowns enough, but again that's the offense we run.

Because of where I live I see lots of Raider games, one of the things I really appreciate about the Raiders this year is they realized early on their OL wasn't that good, so they quite often play 6 and even 7 OL's. They take out the TE, they take out a WR. The idea is they force you to choose if you don't put extra guys in the box they run the ball on you with 6 or 7 OL's to block and it works. If you do put extra guys in the box they throw and now they have extra guys to pass block.

Arians tries to do too much with just a 5 man OL and no help and it puts so much pressure on the OL and so much pressure on the receivers to get open because Palmer is just not going to buy extra time, not who he is.

 

[b8rtm8nn]

+1 on the above - been wanting 6-7 OL several times this year as bad as Gresham has been blocking. Took too long to put an OL as a FB on the goalline this year already - this has not been a very good year for BA's offense planning.

 

[Ronin]

Mike Garafolo‏Verified account@MikeGarafolo 2m2 minutes ago
Sources: Jay Cutler exploring broadcast career. Has auditioned. Not yet retired from football but soon?
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...potential-postfootball-career-in-broadcasting