Or this is just more speculation. But of course it feeds the notion that Pioli and Haley are dumbshits lets roll with it. I can't believe how people will allow themselves to become personally invested in their opinions about players. Face it. You were off on Clausen. He was not perceived to be a franchise quarterback by anyone. Cassel or not.

Is that why he'll be competing for the starting QB position with the Panthers?

I'd expect him to get a shot. Every draftee on this team is going to get a shot to play. But that doesn't mean we should have taken him at 5. Or even at 36. Clearly, nobody in this league felt he was rated as highly as the Clausen ball lickers around here did.

but clausen isn't a franchise QB because he wasn't drafted in the first round.....

Charlie does not swing that way. A guy that talked to him in Best Buy told me so. ;)

Who said that?

Any GM that drafts based on what the fans want should be immediately fired. It isn't a popularity contest.

The point is that the self-proclaimed experts were claiming that Clausen was a franchise quarterback worthy of the fifth overall pick. Clearly they were wrong. And they were ready to condemn Pioli and Haley if the chiefs didn't take either him or Berry at five.

How would they know that Clausen was a franchise quarterback? Because it was obvious? If it was so obvious to them why wasn't it obvious to every team in the league. I'm no expert but even I had reservations. Now, he may prove to be a franchise quarterback but that isn't the point, either. McCoy or Tebow could prove to be a franchise quarterback.

What this proves is that their evaluation of Clausen did not jibe with the rest of the league. And it validates the opinions of those who had reservations about Clausen. It proves that the know-it-alls didn't have it right. And it was probably because they invested themselves in the conventional wisdom instead of coming to their own conclusions.

Right up there... read The Bad Guy's post.

But remember, Weis said QB, he didn't say Clausen. :)

But really, I guess it's not that shocking. It's possible he was tired of Clausen's crap. We never even really considered that.

I think the draft has gone really well. Maybe that's because it's harder to evaluate lineman. But we desperately needed another playmaker on O besides the skinny fast guy, or he won't make it the half way point for all the attention he'll get.

Also our secondary was extremely slow - does anyone know how many TD's we gave up on long runs after the catch last year? I don't but it was probably the highest in the NFL.

Football teams have big locker rooms, there is always a lot of different opinions floating around. When Billicheck at NE 'lost' his locker room the captains went to him and said you can't do the things you're doing and so he addressed them instead and they cascaded it down. I'm sure that this lesson is not lost on Pioli, he wants to be tough but he knows that he needs a core of guys to help him keep people believing. They might hate him, but as long as they believe then we have a chance.

Personally it's not my way, but there are lots of different ways to win things. I went to state with a baseball coach we all hated, but he gave us a focus to rally around (our hatred of him) and although I found it difficult to admit, this does actually work.

**Those of you in the military may recognize this from your boot ;)

Yeah, but that doesn't mean Clausen is going to be a bust either. If a lot of teams had to do it over again, they wouldn't have let Drew Brees fall to where he did. The criticisms were different, but still. Clausen fell into a very good situation... although I do think he is the best QB of this bunch, that helps. I liked Stafford over Sanchez but he didn't get to play behind the best running attack and a top notch defense, so now Sanchez is the golden boy.

But who knows... I wonder if the bar fight hurt him. Especially in light of the Roethlisberger stuff.

Yeah, I said he could still pan out. I never claimed he wouldn't ever be good. I just didn't see where he was a sure fire franchise quarterback.

Also, I don't necessarily believe that it was the character questions that caused him to be picked at 48. If he were truly deemed a franchise quarterback by any team it wouldn't have prevented them from taking him higher. I like his toughness and his competitiveness. Both of which I think far outweighed the minor compaints about his character. If Clausen had the same skill set that Bradford does he would not have been picked at 48.

I have no connections or inside sources whatsoever, so I might be talking out my a$$ here, but I tend to agree with you. Romeo and Charlie both have solid resumes in the NFL and most likely had their choice of destinations. I do not think neither would have went somewhere that their input would not be taken seriously. Nor would they have walked into a messy situation involving the rest of the coaching staff. Truth to be known, Clausen was probably not high on our list. I'm thinking the current regime beleives we're set at that position. I may get tarred and feathered out of here for this one, but I also think that with the right supporting cast and better protection, Cassel can be a solid starter. I'm not claiming he's going to be the next Joe Montana, John Elway, Dan Marino, or the like but I think he will be a solid starter in the right system tweaked to his strengths and weaknesses. I may be eating crow on this one but those are my thoughts as of now. Our pass protection has got to improve this year though. He got sacked like 42 times last year and no telling how many times he got popped right after releasing the ball last year. Throw in the times the defender was right in his face and our QB was getting hurried ALOT and alot of plays didn't have time to develop. Almost any QB will have trouble in this scenario. Not like when Trent Green was behind our pro bowl line a few years back. You could have camped out behind that line. I'll shut up and stop ranting now.

If you're a preacher and I'm in the choir, why are you look at me during the sermon?

Why do people not look at the sack numbers for New England in '06, '07, and '08 and not recognize that, while the O-line here was bad, Cassel was every bit as responsible for that high sack number?

I want a ****ing QB that raises the level of play around him, not some scrub that will be okay when he's surrounded by superior talent.

And no, that QB I wanted was not Jimmy Clausen.

I'm just get ****ing tired of you dumbasses making excuses for a shitty ****ing QB.