So you're sure that Coach was right about #7 and Max Hall, but you know that Coach was wrong about Derek Anderson?
Do I think that Max Hall can't throw the ball 40 yards? Of course not; I can throw the ball 40 yards. But I can't throw the ball 40 yards and not have it picked off by an NFL cornerback or safety. I don't think that Max Hall can, either. He certainly didn't try despite having time on more than the two occaisions that you noted. In fact, why not just huck the ball down the field on that play where he was scrambling to his right and pointing someone down the field? Isn't the whole point that you put the ball up to Larry Fitzgerald and let him go get it?
He does have a noodle arm. He has a weaker arm than #7 or Kurt Warner. I've seen it in all of the games that he's played in. I can't think of a starting NFL quarterback who has a weaker arm than Max Hall right now. Can you?
The first question the answer is yes, they're entirely different situations. With Hall he had months to see him in person, if Hall's arm is as weak as you say there's no way Whiz makes him the backup. Whiz isn't going to be nice to the kid because he's local and Danny White's nephew, NFL coaches make too much money and get fired too easily to make a decision like that.
On Matt again I don't think it was just about talent, he didn't think the team believed in Matt Leinart, and if the team doesn't believe in the QB, you can't win with him.
With Anderson it's a completely different scenario, Anderson has the arm to play in the NFL, he's got a VERY strong arm, he's got the size, he's athletic enough. The problem with Anderson is not his arm it's the rest of his game, accuracy, touch, fundamentals, the mental part of the game, and apparently right now confidence. And yes it's quite plausible for an NFL coach to make that mistake. When we made the switch I wrote repeatedly right here DA is a "coach killer", that's where the expression comes from. He's a guy who has enough talent to convince a coach he can be good if he learns some things, and I'm the guy that's going to teach him. That's what his coaches in college thought,and it's what his NFL coaches thought too. Especially because he had that brief run in Cleveland where he was good, everyone sees those games and thinks I'm a better coach than they were. Right now there's one coach in the NFL who IMHO consistently gets the best out of QB's, that's Mike Shanahan, and I don't think he could get DA to be good. HIs problem is that alot of the throws you make in the NFL can't be thrown on a string, they have to have touch, drop the ball over the LB but in front of the safety, put the ball up and away where only your WR can catch it.
Anderson's throws have too much on them, he doesn't throw a catchable ball, Hall does. Like that one that Patrick caught that was low, if Anderson puts that throw in the same spot Patrick drops it because it would not only be low, it'd be too hard.
As for the last part that's like saying someone is the dumbest guy in a physics class at MIT, you're talking about a subset of the population that is EXTREMELY small. There's only 32 guys starting in the NFL, and there's a lot of guys not starting who have stronger arms than the guy starting ahead of them. Hell Jamarcus Russell had arguably the best arm in the whole NFL, Anderson has a great arm. Longtime Cards fans(and Texas fans) will remember Rick McIvor, he had a cannon for an arm. I remember one year SI's comment on him was something like "backup Rick McIvor's arm is so strong he could throw the ball through a cement wall, if only he could hit it."
I haven't seen Hall enough to know where his arm ranks among NFL starters,
I'm guessing it's stronger than Charlie Batch, I think it's as good if not better than Gradkowski, Delhomme never had a strong arm. There are some throws Hall won't be able to make, there were throws Kurt couldn't make either, that's what makes guys like Peyton, Rodgers etc the best, they have the great arm AND they can make all the touch throws. The rest of them have to find other ways to excel. Some like Brees still become great, he's an outlier of course but just making an NFL roster at QB as a UDFA is unusual, to become the backup as a rookie that's pretty rare, so Hall is already an outlier.
