Stanton has regressed in my opinion. He's played really poorly. But let's be honest here for a minute before destroying our backup QB on the forum: it's SB or bust right? If at any point we have to rely on Stanton to win the SB we're toast. If we have to rely on any backup to win the SB we're toast. The backup QB's job is to sub in when the real QB gets hurt for a few games. Backups were never meant to win SB's, they're there to maybe go .500 if the starting QB gets hurt and then comes back.
When Palmer went down with his ACL, I knew, looked at my wife and said, "Our season's over". She troopered on enthusiastically for a few games, but soon she realized--a backup can't make all the throws, if he could, he'd be starting, and when you can't make all the throws, when all you can do is throw streaks or middle-of-the-field throws, the defense collapses to the middle of the field because they don't have to worry about outs and comebacks and curls. And when we're talking playoffs and SB these are elite defenses and they will eat any backup QB alive easily.
What ya'll are asking of Stanton is unreasonable. Can he carry a game or two for us if Palmer needs a couple games to recover? Hell yes, he's done it. In my opinion, Stanton has a very important role in this offense. Those of you who watched the entire season of All or Nothing saw it. Stanton is the guy informing Palmer when he comes to the sidelines of which player is in, what formation they're playing, he knows the playcall, the formations, everything. BA said last year that Stanton called several of Palmer's favorite plays in big games. That is irreplaceable. At one point in the show Stanton told Palmer as he came to the sideline, "Okay, DJ is in," and Palmer said, "Who?" and Stanton said, "David Johnson, tell him to hold on to the ball." There are many other examples. It reminds me of Jordan for some reason, Michael freaking Jordan--Chicago had this guy on their team, I can't for the life of me remember his name, he was a poor player compared to what they had on the floor, but he was always waiting by Jordan's chair and he would always tell Jordan what areas of the court were open, what they were doing to stop him, and encourage his awesomeness.
That is Stanton's role and it's irreplaceable at this point. Stanton isn't going to win us a SB, that's insane, but he can help win one.
I've lived in this town my whole life, 46 years. Usually we love our backup QB's, because our team sucked so bad, we wanted any ray of sunshine. Now we're tearing him down, looking for any edge. That's progress in my eyes. But let's not be fooled, Stanton serves a purpose, he knows the offense better than anyone, he recognizes substitutions better than Palmer and may even know the reads as well. He can't make Palmer-like throws, but that's not his fault, few people in the NFL can make some of the throws Palmer makes, that's a fact.
My concern isn't with Stanton, I understand why he's on this team and what value he brings, to Palmer and our football team as a whole. What bothers me is our #3. Barkley is crap. Let's start there. Given Palmer's age and Stanton's value (I think they're a package deal), we need to have a #3 to groom. And I seriously doubt they can groom a young QB. I have my doubts bigtime. This system isn't rookie QB friendly. Sure it is if you want to chuck it and get hit alot, but it's not QB friendly as a rook coming in as far as understanding the system and making logical throws. My concern is that we won't groom a young QB, my fear is that we'll continue getting aging QB's off the reject pile to try and resurrect them, the way we did with Warner. And Palmer. They tried it with so many QB's in the past, look at all the washed up QB's we've had.
That's my concern. It's an institutional concern, because it's a habit of bringing in aging QB's, and we've struck on 2 now, in decades. Keim and BA and Bidwill need to find a way to groom a damn QB.
