What Whisenhunt is saying is just coachspeak.
Even if no one is guaranteed a spot the player behind him has to greatly outperform a guy who had a stellar year previously. What happened in prior seasons does matter, a lot. Do you really think the the Colts would bench Peyton Manning for some other QB just because the other guy looked slightly better in pre season?
Leinart has more NFL experience than Tebow. There are serious doubts that Tebow has the skill set to be an NFL QB. I'll still go with the guy we have and save the millions for a LB or NT. Leinart's contract is a non-issue this season. The team can easily get out of it if Matt doesn't perform this season.
Finally if Leinart is as bad as you claim he is we'll have a top 10 pick to use on the Arkansas QB next season.
No I don't think last season is thrown out the window. I think what I said is the sane approach. You don't forget what happens, but you don't over rely on it either. You go by what you see THIS season. It all is factored in. Some may go blindly, some watch every season....because maybe it's not THIS season Manning drops off, but if a guy is watching and noticing every season, they are better at knowing WHEN to jettison. Which sometimes is the most important thing to know considering a franchise. When to let your high paid player who GREAT for you in the PAST.
I think Wiz is doing it right. Make sure no matter what the past is, the guy is currently doing what you want. Or we can pretend or figure its something not needed to judge on (WRONG) on a yearly basis with everyone. Good coaches are constantly evaluating their players. The poor ones don't, they ASSUME. Whiz doesn't. How hard is this to understand? It's simple to me.
I wouldn't say easily get rid of. If we get a new cap in place, the penalty for cutting draft picks is BACK. Now there is NONE. That's an advantage that is only here until the CBA, unless there is NO salary cap, which odds are low. Just saying.
So if we make a decision before a new CBA we're sitting pretty, we wait until after, and we'll have screwed ourselves. To what detriment to the team, who knows. But it definitely has the potential to keep us from re-signing one of our players, or picking up a 'hadnot' next year.
There's serious doubts about Leinart as well. I'd say more than Tebow imo.
Yes we can spend the few millions on lb/dt. I said I'd be fine with that. I said I wouldn't cry if we didn't take Tebow. But in a draft where a 3rd round dt/lb might be equivalent to a late 1st or early 2nd round talent in other years, you can afford to take a chance on Tebow, if you believe he has the talent. His potential contract isn't a concern. Hell Tebow might be a 3rd round pick, enabling us to get a olb and nt. People just don't understand what I clearly said.
Perhaps we will have a top ten selection. Be a pity with the talent on this squad. Personally I'd rather have a guy with 1 year in the system when ML doesn't pan out, rather than a green rookie in 2011 when we most likely have a starting QB other than ML. Could leinart do good? For the thousandth time YES. Do I think he will, nope.
I'd also like to avoid cap troubles, and even if we pro-rate the cap penalty, it's been said it would be over 5 mill, which could impact Darnell Dockett negotiations, unless we've already forgotten what happened with Fitz's contract.
Now I do remember people posting something about ML contract and how maybe we might be able to get out of it without a huge cap penalty hit. So perhaps this nullifies this section of my point. But I'm not paid to know these things. If that isn't the case, we'd have lost a golden opportunity to wipe his contract for no penalty. Something that in of itself could allow a franchise to keep from dipping back into mediocrity with the extra cap liquidity to make moves to keep the team better.
I love how you can say all that after less than 600 pass attempts. There are plenty of Super Bowl winning Qbs who started off their career worse after a similar amount of pass attempts.
Elway 639 Attempts 25 TDs 29 Ints 52.7 %...an INT every 22 attempts
Aikman 692 Attempts 20 TDs 36 Ints 55%...an INT every 19 attempts
Good thing those teams didn't give up on their guys so quickly or they might have missed out on their 5 Super Bowl wins and 8 Super Bowl appearances combined.
Leinart by comparison...
595 Attempts 14 TDs 20 Ints 56.8% an INT every 29 attempts
I am not saying by any stretch that Leinart will have the same career as either of those 2 but I am saying writing a guy off this soon is not only ridiculous its downright stupid.
Yeah 600 passes isn't anything to judge on? Of course it is. Is it in this case. Eye of the beholder. I think we've seen enough. So also by your measure, is 1000 passes enough? What is your metric for knowing the exact number? The fact is, you know when you know. I've already crossed that line. Maybe I'm wrong, for the thousandth time. But I don't think so, and that's an honest opinion based on MANY, MANY things.
I've state what my eye beholds. Yours is different. I've acknowledged I could be wrong, and want to be wrong, but don't think I am.
Going off blind statistics is downright stupid. Elway had a cannon arm. ML surely does not.
Aikman who I think was overrated, surely was better than ML.
I never said there wasn't a shot in hell that he couldn't be good. I said I didn't THINK he would be. I think everything he has shown us SHOULD give us some pause.
It also wasn't just 600 passes. There's also preseason with a few hundred more. We've had 4 season to watch ML AND 600 regular season passes. That's quite a bit to go on whether other people can believe so or not.
Does that mean that his fate is sealed. NO. But I never said his fate is sealed. I said what I THOUGHT was most likely to occur.
It's like the lottery, you can win, but I can also say, you won't win and odds are I'm right. It's common sense that you won't win the lottery. But we can all try, and hope. At this point that's what I'm seeing...people hoping he pans out. I don't see anything backed by HIS stats, or arm strength, or the words coming out of the front office or other players. I see a collection of statistics from OTHER players, in OTHER eras, with OTHER talents being made to make a claim that somehow because these 2 out of 1000 did, ML has a shot too. True. But not likely.
I think the writing is already on the wall. ML will get his chance, because it's his turn. But the hook will be quick if he screws up, thus DA.
There's also the metric of Superbowl winning Qb's that aren't good. Trent dilfer is one. So just because your team won the superbowl, doesn't mean your automatically a good qb.
Lots of sohpistric reasonings why I have to be wrong, when I'm only stating my observations, and judgments, and pointing to the possibilities that are out there and how to deal with them. We ARE in a situation where we can cut ANYBODY and not hurt our 'cap'. We ARE in a situation where we have a QB who has sucked, literally, and just about as many legitimate questions as Tim Tebow. But instead I'm wrong because I'm pointing out possibilities? No, my judgment might be wrong, but I've laid out WHY I think my judgment is the way it is. 600 passes doesn't mean you automatically KNOW, but it also doesn't mean you CAN'T know by then. Realize what I'm saying. It only took me 2 seconds to know Amare was the real deal...same with Marion. Sometimes it just doesn't take that long, and each of us, have a different thresh hold. But to say I'm wrong because you don't see it, or don't think I've should of come to this conclusion doesn't mean you're right, it means that's YOUR position and it could be right or wrong.
Good thing the Browns stuck with Brady Quinn, or 1000 other examples that didn't pan out and their QB was cut/demoted.
Pick out 2 examples (which of talent both vastly outstrip ML) and suddenly my interpretation is wrong? Nope, the only thing that will make my judgment wrong is for ML to light it up. I hope he proves me wrong. I HOPE HE PROVES ME WRONG.
This wasn't supposed to be an anti-leinart thread, but I guess so many people have so much emotion invested in ML and against Tebow that the understanding of the various dynamics involved get skewed. Then when I take my viewpoint through those dynamics I get the answer that he sucks. Deal with it. I'm not looney for suggesting so, I come to the conclusion after looking at facts, and watching ML suck or nearly suck the entire time.
I didn't write this guy off....where in it do people not understand that I said...ML has a shot, it's his turn. I just don't think he will DO IT. Based off what I've SEEN. I'm not writing him off, I'm just saying what I think has a 90 percent chance or better imo. You don't have to agree, but you should understand my position. I've never said ML has NO shot.
It's funny people think I have.
