Say you have a plan to win the Superbowl in 2005...

[Lomax to Green 84]

Amen Section 11

Times are a changing and the Cards have vowed to do things differently in the future and there is not one position on a football field that can change the image of a football team like the quarterback position can.

Ask yourself this question-What was the image of the Cardinals when Jake Plummer was the quarterback?

Answer-clueless, hapless, boneheaded, a ship without a rudder.


Byron Leftwich is the anti-Jake. Smart, mature beyond his years, big, strong, cannon arm, accurate. Man I wish I could number the posts complaining about our quarterback mess.

 

[kerouac9]

Re: Amen Section 11

Originally posted by Holian
Byron Leftwich is the anti-Jake. Smart, mature beyond his years, big, strong, cannon arm, accurate. Man I wish I could number the posts complaining about our quarterback mess.

Yes, but who will he throw to? And who will catch it?

(From NFL Insider)

Flypaper Award: The best pass catchers

Some receivers can come down with any ball thrown in their general direction. With others, every pass becomes an adventure. Here are the 10 receivers who catch the highest percentage of balls thrown their way and the five with the lowest percentages.

Catch Percentage
Player Team Adjusted Rec.* Thrown to Pct.
Jason McAddley ARZ 29 73 39.7

Because of injuries to the Cardinals' wide receivers, Jason McAddley went from the bottom of the depth chart to the starting lineup. Jake Plummer threw to him because he had no other choice, but McAddley's inexperience and propensity to run deeper routes led to a horrible catch percentage. But just edging out the Cardinal for the worst catch percentage in the league was the Bears' Marcus Robinson.

Ladies and Gentlemen, your Arizona Cardinal's #1 WR.

 

[SECTION 11]

Originally posted by kerouac9
We have a D-minded coach. That's where the heart of this team ought to be

The O just lost a lot of games for us by underperforming

It's a great point about the head coach, but I'm stubborn and I don't care.



Without going into too much detail, we all know the O last year was horrible. Receivers off the practice squad, O line injuries, wide open TE jogging down the field with his arms in the air, and Plummer running the whole show from under center, because without that crafty play action, he has no shot to beat a D (wait 'till Kubiak says "tough crap, you're operating from the gun on 3rd and long." it'll be funny.)

 

[SECTION 11]

Re: Re: Amen Section 11

Originally posted by kerouac9
Catch Percentage
Player Team Adjusted Rec.* Thrown to Pct.
Jason McAddley ARZ 29 73 39.7

That has gaping holes in it.

1) He had Plummer throwing him the ball. We've all seen how accurate he was. He couldn't throw a screen in stride. That's just poor.

2) He came of the practice squad seven weeks into the season.

3) He had to line up as our #1 for four weeks.

4) Given 1, 2 and 3, it's amazing he caught anything.




Don't draft Lefty because our receivers suck?? I don't get it.

 

[kerouac9]

Re: Re: Re: Amen Section 11

Originally posted by SECTION 11
That has gaping holes in it.

1) He had Plummer throwing him the ball. We've all seen how accurate he was. He couldn't throw a screen in stride. That's just poor.

2) He came of the practice squad seven weeks into the season.

3) He had to line up as our #1 for four weeks.

4) Given 1, 2 and 3, it's amazing he caught anything.




Don't draft Lefty because our receivers suck?? I don't get it.

Blame Plummer for all our Offense's woes. Well, Plummer and TJ. That's fine. We'll find out how great the O is in 2003. I have no idea, myself. I saw McAddley drop wide open passes at the games I watched.

Anyway, I don't think you should draft a Franchise QB, or in this case a potential one, when you don't have anyone for him to throw to. Manning had Harrison, Aikman had Irvin, Montana had Rice. Leftwich has McAddley (?).

 

[SECTION 11]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Amen Section 11

Originally posted by kerouac9
We'll find out how great the O is in 2003.

I think our T.O.P., rush ypc, rush ypg, pass ypc and TD recepts will all be better, and our int's will be lower.

I don't think we'll pass for as many total yards, but I don't think we'll have to, and when we do, I think it'll be more effective.



All things being equal, yeah, I blame 55.6% completion on passes under ten yards on the quarterback.

 

[kerouac9]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Amen Section 11

Originally posted by SECTION 11
I think our T.O.P., rush ypc, rush ypg, pass ypc and TD recepts will all be better, and our int's will be lower.

I don't think we'll pass for as many total yards, but I don't think we'll have to, and when we do, I think it'll be more effective.

All things being equal, yeah, I blame 55.6% completion on passes under ten yards on the quarterback.

I'm certain that, if we don't draft D, our T.O.P. will be about the same. TOP only works if you can get the opposing offense off the field. Remember those games with Pittman when we'd have an even score going into the half, or be down by three or seven, and then the Giants, or Eagles, or Redskins, or whomever, would come out an put together an 82-yard, 17-play drive for a TD, and you'd pencil in a 4th Quarter comeback or a loss halfway through the 3rd quarter? That's because the D sucked. The Rams could only put up 88 points a game in 1999 because their D was good, and got the ball back over and over and over again.

I don't think it's going to matter how many yards we rush for per carry, because we're going to have to stop in the second quarter and start hucking and ducking to our bargain-basement WR Corps. I think that Freddy Jones better be working out hard this offseason, because he's going to get a lot of action this year. I don't think we're going to be that better as a passing team, I think our completion percentage will probably be worse, because our WRs are going to be worse.

I think you're going to wonder why our WRs are bouncing first-down catches out of a buttonhook off their hands quite a bit in 2003.

 

[SECTION 11]

Originally posted by SECTION 11
...and you have the #6 pick, perhaps the highest you will have in a while (perhaps).

Enough of this dreamy, pie-in-the-sky stuff about being 'competitive' next year.

We need a plan to win it all.


1) Draft your franchise QB in Leftwich. You build a contender around your QB. McCown is gravy at this point. If we have a shot to be a contender for it all in a couple of years, who the hell cares what the implications are in 2003?

2) Begin a tradition this year of running the ball with authority, and draft Faine in round two. Keep Big, Clement, Kendall, Shelton, Faine and Shipp together.

3) Yeah, the D is gonna blow this year. Who cares? Keep Wilson, Barrett, Starks, Fisher (?), KVB, Bell, Bryant... whoever pans out. We've got a lot of youth on D. We might not be too bad off in a year from now. The point is that we don't know yet what we have. We've got youth, for the most part, and that's about it right now.


We've got two golden opportunities this year. Landing a top QB, and establishing a top running game.
Two pretty important building blocks could be in place for a title run.

Realistically, we don't know what we have on D, and at WR. We've got two years to find out, and address accordingly.

We DO know that there's an opportunity to grab an absolute stud at QB, and that we've got one of the biggest, baddest, and youngest O lines in the league.


Does anyone have any better ideas for a 2005 title?
Gamble on McCown?
Bandaid our pass rush at the expense of getting (arguably) the best QB in the draft?

BUMP!!!

Rod Graves!! Can you here me!!!




I feel like I'm being beamed out of R2D2.