Quote:
Originally Posted by kcchiefsus
Well it is entirely possible that a lot of his problems had to do with the players around him.
For instance, without knowing exactly how many drops we had last year, lets just say we had 50. You can't entirely cut out all of the drops but lets just drop that number half of that and make it 25. Multiply those additional 25 completions by his average yards per completion of 5.9 (which yes I know this is a pretty shitty ypc) and you get an additional 147.5 yards. That puts him at about 3,100 yards for the season.
Also add those 25 completions to his previous completion total of 271 and you get 296 completions out of 493 attempts for a completion percentage of just over 60% which is respectable.
Maybe I'm reaching but I don't think it's to far of a stretch of the imagination to suggest that at least one of those incompletions was in the endzone and perhaps at least one was tipped and picked off by the defense. So instead of 16 TD's and 16 int's we could adjust it to 17 TD's and 15 int's.
After these adjustments you end up with a stat line of about 3,100 yards, 60% completion percentage, 17 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions. That is certainly not great but it isn't god awful either. Add in other factors such as:
- A full offseason for Chambers in the offense.
- Dwayne Bowe hopefully being in shape and committed to the team.
- The addition of McCluster and Moeaki as weapons.
- The additions to the offensive line as well as Albert hopefully stepping up his game.
- The addition of Thomas Jones plus the emergence of Jammal Charles.
- A quality offensive coordinator, Charlie Weis.
With these additions I see no reason why Cassel won't be able to step up his game. If he still struggles like he did last year then by all means the guy needs to go. Is he the guy to lead us to a super bowl? It's possible, but probably not. Is he worth the money he is being paid? No. But he is who we have for now and I think he can at least be an above average quarterback.
I understand frustration from people if they believe he has kept us from getting somebody younger and more talented. But there is plenty of time for that and there are quite a few options in the upcoming draft who I like a hell of alot better than Clausen.
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The problem, the scenario you laid out for improvement is very possible.
The additional problem is that it may very well convince Pioli that he doesn't need a QB with actual talent that can make the players around him better.
We'll have that mediocre QB who needs to have top flight talent around him to make him play like a good NFL, and pass on QBs with actual talent in the draft.