KC Star - Tough NFL Debut for Printers
 

Former CFL quarterback throws an interception, loses a fumble and is sacked five times.

By ADAM TEICHER
The Kansas City Star

“From where I was standing, I just couldn’t find the open guy. I’m not sure if there were guys open that I couldn’t see. It was just tough going tonight."

HOUSTON | - Casey Printers stared blankly into his locker in the cramped visitors dressing room at Reliant Stadium, apparently oblivious of the small crowd of reporters waiting to speak with him.

When he was interrupted from his trance, Printers was mentally dragged back to the nightmare that was his first NFL game. Printers replaced Trent Green at quarterback for the Chiefs in the second quarter of their 24-14 preseason loss to Houston and couldn’t be blamed if he wanted to head back to the Canadian Football League.

Printers completed six of 12 passes for 71 yards, more than half of which came on a 44-yard pass to Chris Hannon late in the game.

Along the way, Printers threw an interception, lost a fumble, had an intentional-grounding penalty that cost the Chiefs a field-goal attempt and was sacked five times.

As NFL debuts go, this wasn’t the stuff of dreams.

“He’s got to go through that,” Chiefs coach Herm Edwards said. “It’s the growing pains of a quarterback.

“He was a little jittery at times. But he made a great throw (to Hannon). He kept his poise for the most part. He lost it a couple of times. That’s the process of trying to let a young quarterback play.”

Edwards said he never seriously considered yanking Printers, even for the quarterback’s own benefit. Edwards had little realistic choice but to stay with Printers.

The only other available quarterbacks were Green, whom Edwards didn’t want to subject to an injury, and Jeff Smoker, who signed only Wednesday.

Damon Huard and Brodie Croyle were injured and didn’t suit up.

“I just don’t pull the rug out from underneath the quarterback,” Edwards said. “He’s going to learn a lot from this.

“He was a little bit down after the first series or so when he couldn’t get anything started. I told him: ‘Hey, you’ve got a lot of plays left. You’ve got to just keep playing. I’m not going to yank you out of the game.’ ”

Printers disputed his coach’s assertion that he lost confidence.

“I always know you have the next play,” he said. “I never dropped my head or anything like that.

“Never do I get down on myself at all. If you get down on yourself, you can’t come back and compete at the very end like we did.”

He didn’t dispute the fact his NFL debut wasn’t pretty. The Chiefs scored a touchdown with Printers at quarterback in the final 2 minutes, but only after Houston fumbled a punt that the Chiefs recovered at the Texans 7.

“From where I was standing, I just couldn’t find the open guy,” he said. “I’m not sure if there were guys open that I couldn’t see. It was just tough going tonight.

“We were just running our basic package. We weren’t throwing a lot of different things at them. It just so happens they were taking away a lot of the things we like to throw.”

I don't know a lot about this stuff, but I was impressed with some of his stuff.

I liked how he stuck in there and threw some incomplete passes. I'd much rather see that than him tucking and running after looking for 2 options.

I tried to see if his footwork stayed still. It seemed to from the little I noticed.

Moooo

great athlete, but average reading ability

he doesn't check off well at all

I'd like to see what he can do with an NFL line in front of him instead of a seive. He had absolutely zero chance to show his game with the complete lack of protection given him in the game.

printers is garbage and he needs to get his head out of his ass. Grounding on the last play of the half? Give me a ****ing break and read a rule book.

It was his FIRST game. Though, he did look like complete crap. He would've completed a few of of those third downs if he would've just tucked it and ran with the ball. That might have lead to a scoring drive or two and a whole different perception of this guy.

I like mobile quarterbacks. Especially fast ones that wear #7. Ok, so I was hoping to see Mike Vick out there. I really hope he becomes our #2 man.

See that's what I liked, is that he didn't tuck and run.

In the NFL you pass first, pass second, and run third :) I want to see him hanging in there until the last second looking for options, especially considering the games now are for development.

I know he can run, I want to see him looking at 4th and 5th options, and then running. And I'd much rather see (in a preseason game) him throwing an incomplete pass to a reciever downfield, than tucking and running. He doesn't learn anything from that.

Moooo

It looked like his first game ever. I was amazed he was able to take a snap without completely ****ing that up. Seriously you might want to take the time out of your busy day of being a shitty quarterback to read a ****ing rulebook

I was a believer at TC, but after this game.....

Printers= practice squad, at best.

Trent Green
Damon Huard
Brodie Croyle

He was absolutely awful.

I wouldn't say that...

Preseason is good for trying different things out. You can do that during practice, but I think it would be different during a game.

I don't care how awful he looked. He showed good discipline for staying in the pocket, even to the point of taking a sack. Trying to get rid of that instinct of dropping and running at the slightest bit of pressure is hard, and he showed some great upside with that, something that you don't see in statistics.

I'd rather him take those sacks, his two carries, and a 50% completion rating than have an 80% completion rating, 2 sacks, and 10 carries. It means he's learning how to be an NFL QB, and stay in that pocket until everything else fails.

And all of the articles before this said he was a project. I don't see why everyone thought he was going to look impressive in his first game.

Moooo

Does the CFL have an intentional grounding rule? For some reason I don't think they do.

Agree that he didn't go through progressions well, but he was under a lot of pressure. The thing I was most disappointed with was his mechanics and his touch on the passes. He doesn't do a good job of stepping into his throws. We're going to see a lot of floaters and low throws if he keeps that up.

No you use your spare time to "Try things out" Preseason is when you fine tune your game to get ready for the season. Now is not the time to be dicking around.