morphing off the Dungy thread

[fansince62]

so....a question poped into mind last night. I'm not claiming I have arrived at a conclusion - yet (it's only been two games afterall).

so...let's have at it.

Question: does RGIII's whole game/effectiveness depend upon his mobility? What if it is the case that as a conventional, drop-back passer he is very average - no better, say, than Gabbert or Tannehill? This is another way of claiming that he is not a passer of Brady or Manning (or Luck?) skills if he is forced to play from the pocket. Not sure. But not enthused by what I have seen so far: he doesn't seem to have pocket presence that senses the rush; he doesn't seem to always make good reads (some will argue this, but I have seen too many throws into double and triple coverage); he seems less accurate; he seems more tentative. this, of course, gets into all the politics he and his Dad created during the preseason. we know before he was drafted that the system at Baylor was built to minimize progression type read responsibilities. extenuating circumstances:

- he is recovering from surgery

- his O-line is not built for conventional pocket pass pro (i.e., he is not being given enough time)

- the middle of the line cannot handle the bigger NTs and blitzes consistently

- the play calls (or Robert's execution) are not giving him space & time (i.e., not many roll-outs)

- the lack of read option playcalls allows the defense to zero in on the QB (i.e., reduces a lot of the uncertainty)

- his receivers (as a group) have been very sporadic in terms of performance

Is RG an average pocket passer? If so, this forces a lot of other difficult decisions.

It's early, though I suspect this year we are now suddenly in a situation where 8-8 is a good outcome (given the problems on defense). This offense is going to have to score close to 30 pts/game for us to win...IMO. right now....we're not even close (lot of scoring has been in situations where the opponent's defense has already gone into a conservative posture).

 

[Goaldeje]

Interesting questions. I think personally that a lot of his success last year was due to the running he did early in the year, and teams having play off that. Without that threat at all, teams are able to play Morris straight up. We have run the zone read a couple of times, but everytime, he hands off to Morris. Without any threat whatsoever of him taking off, D's can key in on Morris in those situations.

We need to remember a few things from last year. Griff didn't get injured on zone read plays, or designed runs from the pocket, IIRC. He got injured while scrambling away from pressure. I suspect that the zone read covered a lot of mistakes from the OLine last year as well. Without that threat of Robert running, D's are able to contain and overwhelm our OLine fairly easily.

As a side note, I would be FASCINATED to see how Cousins does in there. Not because I think it is the right thing to do, but because I'm curious to see how defenses would react to a more traditional pocket QB, and how well the line would protect, how well Morris would play and so on. I suspect playing Cousins for a game would tell us all quite a bit.

 

[Elephant]

Many of the same questions...other than the injury aspect...I asked prior to spending such an exorbitant amount for him. Not going into I told you so mode like I did to end the season last year...I will withhold that sentiment for now and give the "he's rusty" crowd a chance for him to prove them right, but I am deeply concerned for the QB position here in Washington right now.

 

[Bulldog]

The Redskins currently are operating in the worst of two worlds.

A quarterback whose success is built on mobility and his athleticism limited to being a Sonny Jurgensen-type pocket qb combined with an offensive line built to simply get off the ball quick and maintain a block for 1-2 seconds being forced to pass block for 5-7 step drops and plays that take 3-5 seconds to develop.

No wonder this team has scored ZERO first half points this season.

The OL was always the weak point here along with the DB because of their suitability to a particular scheme only.

Without the read option and the threat of the run to freeze the defense, this OL goes from solid/average to below average.

Tyler Polumbus is perhaps the worst pass-blocking RT in the NFC.