If the alternative is be lumped in with a group that thinks Brady is comparable or even better than Payton Manning? I'll live with it.

'Cause it isn't close.

I wouldn't put it that way on the first point, but the line is no excuse. That I agree with. He had good enough protection in the second half of the season and a hell of a lot better than Aaron Rodgers gets.

On the second point, that's something I also agree with. As I watched the Colts play last night, I realized that Peyton Manning actually throws to the back of his receivers quite a bit. He's not always perfect at leading his receivers. And as I watched the Saints, Brees throws a ton of passes to the receivers' back shoulder. The Saints' receivers are actually really remarkable about making in-pass adjustments to the ball. i remember a TD pass where I think it was Devery Henderson pretty much did a full 180 to make the proper adjustment to the ball on a fleaflicker. And if you watch Philip Rivers today, what you will see is probably the deadest, worst thrown ball I've ever seen in the NFL. But his receivers catch them. Of course I'm not implying that Cassel is even close to being in any of those guys' league. But I have seen the excuse thrown around that he cripples his receivers, but the more I watch playoff football, the more I realize that receivers just don't have any excuse for not catching a ball that isn't within reasonable reaching distance of their hands. Good receivers make adjustments. Chambers has done that a lot. My opinion of Bowe has taken a complete nosedive throughout this season.

The thing is, in NE he showed he has the ability to play well in the right system, with a lot of surrounding talent.

In KC, he showed he doesn't have to ability to raise the level of talent around him, and in some ways drag the talent down.

We're on the same page. But, honestly, I don't know how else to put it when I hear talk about Cassel's development being stunted because of the line. It was really bad in a handful of games. Fine. But not a problem in the second half.

What are you supposed to call a QB who can't overcome this mental obstacle?

Also, notice that Manning uses all of his options, distributing the ball to anyone, including no-name limp dicks. Magically, they catch passes and make plays. Why is this? Superior talent? Or...

I don't think Cassel throws a very catchable ball.

[QUOTE=milkman;6452424]The thing is, in NE he showed he has the ability to play well in the right system, with a lot of surrounding talent.

In KC, he showed he doesn't have to ability to raise the level of talent around him, and in some ways draf the talent down.[/QUOTE]

Maybe he did? LOL They were so bad you just couldn't tell.


PhilFree:arrow:

OK..that made me laugh.



It would surprise me too....but I would be surprised at nothing.

I do see us taking a QB somewhere, considering the fact that it's pretty evident that Croyle is not even fit to be a backup.

mmaddog
*******

I think there's a difference between a poorly placed ball and a poorly thrown ball (though I would also argue that a couple of the passes you allude to here, like the Henderson catch, were actually perfectly placed throws given the coverage, but that's another debate).

Some of the drops by the Chiefs were both poorly placed and poorly thrown.

A drop by Bowe was a ball so wobbly it damn near looked like an end over end punted ball.

The thing is, you aren't going to get 10cents on the dollar with Cassel. You really can't deal him at this point because there is absolutely no market for him.

I think Clausen is going to go #1 to the Rams, so it's a mute point.

I think Weis is probably one of the best groomers of QBs in the NFL. The guy knows talent and knows how to elevate talent. If Cassel can't progress with him, then we are ****ed. Plain and simple.

If he doesn't progress this year is done as he will not see the big roster bonus for 2011.

Don't get me wrong. Perfectly thrown balls. And what makes Brees so amazing is he is flawless at knowing how to throw passes that only the receiver can get to. Cassel doesn't have that. The point is, there are a ton of catches in the game where I saw Brees throw to a receiver's back shoulder and the receiver makes an in-route adjustment. I almost never see Bowe do that. I have seen Chambers do that on a number of occasions, and he's only been here half a year.

This is definitely not saying Brees is inaccurate. It's merely ripping into our receivers, namely Bowe, for never doing anything in-route to adjust to the ball.

Some of them were. Unfortunately, a pretty good chunk of them were imperfect but very catchable passes. Like I said, if you actually watch the placement of a lot of Peyton's passes, they end up at the receiver's back hip. Sometimes that's intentional, but regardless, it's not a pass in stride and the receiver makes a necessary adjustment. Apart from Chambers and once a game (at the most) Bowe, our receivers can't catch the ball unless it is a perfect pass thrown exactly in stride. That's an enormous problem.

Sometimes. But I would argue that on most passes, Cassel's ball looks a hundred times better than Rivers' ball. And Chargers' receivers never drop a thing.


I'm not making excuses for Cassel. He's got to get better and he can't do 1/20 of the things yesterday's QBs did. But the more I watch the playoffs, the more I realize how much our receivers suck. And it's not just the Fitzgeralds of the world doing this. It's the Colliers, the Devery Hendersons, and the Doucets. The more I watch these guys the more I question if Bowe is any good at all.

Given how well Arizona's other receivers stepped up in the playoffs, I'm going to be somewhat surprised if KC doesn't make a pretty hard push for Boldin.

Might likely be saying goodbye to one of our seconds, in addition to something else.

I don't buy that.

Chambers hasn't had much problem catching the ball. And Rivers throws the absolute worst ball in football.

Our receivers just aren't very good. And Chris Chambers, a good not great receiver, who performed extremely well in the worst of circumstances is living proof of that.

Idk if id want anquan for a 2nd. Hes 30 and is getting injured often

Rivers' mechanics are ugly, but his passes are not the worst balls in football.

He throws a very catchable ball.

Mort reported on ESPN this morning that Arizona is going to be "very aggressive" in moving him - to the point of only taking a 3rd and 5th.