Re: curious

Quote
leafnose
mentioned before that an analysis I was listening too about Bortles was very informative.

the guys on radio were breaking down Blake's progress 2 years ago. That he was coached up, and that his protections were better, and it's been too long now, but there was a key efficiency.....might have been their running game, and that Bortles form held up through it all. His improved drops, ball position, release; All that stuff that pro coaches have to get a young QB to acquire in the nfl, Blake was performing

Then, this last season, things didn't go so well. Again, been too long, but they were pointing at his protections, and other components, and that Blake was breaking down and reverting to old habits, and with that things disintegrated. Wish I'd retained more from that program about the situation, because they did such a fine job of it; moreover, they related it to how other young qbs around the nfl perish or blossom based on their ability to attain pro assets.

how this relates to Jared Goff holds a lot of importance.
I will not readily forget his opening salvos during the preseason. his first toss; an interception. then a stupid sack fumble. a whole series of unfortunate results.
not to say there weren't some finer moments. then his cast around him broke down so, so, so bad.

the drops, the ol, Gurley, the drops, the flags at the most inopportune times.
in my world, until they fix that running game all bets are off. few will survive with a lesser line, and no running game.

the new QB coach has his work cut out for him. and I welcome the guy warmly. come on down.

One of my sons was a very good high school pitcher and QB with college offers in both and was tutored by Roger Thedar as a QB. He was also tutored by a Washington Nationals (then Diamondbacks and in between Dodgers' scout) as a pitcher. The scout said (if I am remembering the ratio correctly) that according to Tom Seaver's book, for every time a pitcher throws mechanically incorrect, it takes him four mechanically correct pitches to straighten out the muscle memory. The scout's theory was that by the time a kid gets to high school, he has thrown a ball a million times (not all pitches of course). According to Tom Seaver, that would take 4 million throws to get things back on track. The scout would tell stories about how he would get these kid pitchers, coach them up and then in about the second inning, when things were starting to go wrong with a couple of hits and runners leading off and the catcher flashing signs and the shortstop flashing signs they would revert back to their old mechanics and forget everything he taught them and all the drills they went through.

Back to football - if Tim Tebow, an impressive physical specimen with incredible will and drive, can't fix his mechanics, no one can. I realize in this post we're not talking about mechanics specifically but those skills are easier for observers to see. It still applies to overall QB skills, knowledge and experiences. The problem is can you take a kid who has a lot of QB skills/potential and coach up the skills/experiences he's missing? And will it take hold? The more physically impressive he is (at any position, really), the longer leash he has (Greg Robinson).

Will Goff be any good? I don't know. He's got a lot of catching up to do. His Cal years helped in some ways but really hurt in others. He threw for 7,687 yards and 93 TDs in high school and 12,195 yards and 96 TDs in college. All that success and experience is great. Except that he never read a defense (outside of one or two key players) and never took a snap under center. The NFL is a tough place to learn those skills and many others. Will he learn to be an NFL QB even from the best coaches? Who knows?

Why did Bortles backslide? Don't know that either. Like that famous philosopher Mike Tyson once said: "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face." Maybe Bortles got punched in the face too many times (not literally of course).

I actually think we should sign Cousins and sit Goff for a couple of years and develop him like the Packers did Rodgers. He's a known quantity to the head coach and he will speed up the overall grasping of the offense by everyone else.