Brandon Weeden to meet with Dallas Cowboys

Crap Shoot:

1st round you are on the pass line looking to throw a 7 or 11.

later rounds you are putting your money on Box Cars or Snake eyes to make your money.

Could it be a done deal?

Ah I misunderstood what you were trying to say.

Quote:

Could it be a done deal?

The #Cowboys have signed QB Brandon Weeden to a two-year deal, per source.

https://twitter.com/RapSheet

Forgot the link

Cowboys sign Brandon Weeden

At least Romo didn't have off-season back surgery.

Daryl Ruiter ‏@RuiterWrongFAN 1m
Even if Weeden signed for minimum #Browns will get cap relief for that amount; his contract had offset language in it

I love Jerry Jones soooooooooooooooooo much

Interesting.

Aaron Wilson ‏@RavensInsider 5m
Ravens did talk with Brandon Weeden, league source confirmed. He joined the Dallas Cowboys, though, on a two-year deal

https://twitter.com/RavensInsider/status/445655019145408512

Quote:

Cowboys sign Brandon Weeden

At least Romo didn't have off-season back surgery.

Good for him and good riddance. They better hope they never have to use him. "What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?"

Throw the freakin' ball already!!!!!

I just can't... wow.

Like I said, too good to be true. Oh I hope he plays.

Do we play the Cowboys this season? Lol

Quote:

Cowboys sign Brandon Weeden

At least Romo didn't have off-season back surgery.

I really and honestly didn't even think he'd get an interview, let alone another NFL contract.

Hey Jerry Jones, good luck with that

It makes sense for the Cowboys to sign him with their cap situation. He costs no money because we are paying him.

But still... it's Weeden. The words: Weeden, Signing and Makes Sense do not mix together lol. Smells like a formula for crap...

I can see Jerry Jones facial expressions when being asked how he feels about signing Brandon a year from now...

Brandon - when they start to roll out the flag, use the big STAR on the field as a point of reference and run as far away as you can.

I'm looking forward to seeing him play in another uni... I hope it happens lol.

j/c

still think we should have held onto him. maybe get a draft pick? who knows. got a draft pick for colt and brady Quinn"what a waste of 2 first round picks"

Quote:

I can see Jerry Jones facial expressions when being asked how he feels about signing Brandon a year from now...

Someone told him how much they're paying the waterboy.

Jerry's catching lightning in a bottle, man!

The last time a Cleveland QB went to Dallas, they went to the Super Bowl.

J/C

Good for Brandon. I hope he gets in a situation where he can carve out a 7-8 year career.

I wish him well.

Holmgren must have told him what a great QB he is?

jc...

I wish him the best except if he's playing the Browns.

He could not ask for a better opportunity than setting behind Romo, waiting to get another chance.

Jerry Jones is such a sucker. What's his infatuation with failed baseball pitchers...

Chad Hutchinson, Drew Henson, now Brandon Weeden...

Although, if Deon Sandcastle is really Deon Sanders, it could be no coincidence that Brandon Weeden looks just like Chad Hutchinson's fraternal twin brother

Maybe Hutch is pulling the wool over old Jerry Jones' eyes again

NFL teams and fans have an overt fascination w/strong armed, big QBs. Doesn't matter if they are as dumb as a box of rocks. They keep giving them chances.

On the other hand, smart QBs like Brees, Rodgers, Wilson, and now perhaps Teddy, are passed over.

Stupid is as stupid does.

This is why I continuously preach we need to take the smartest QB in the draft. We've had the gun slingers and it gets us nothing but 3rd and outs...

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This is why I continuously preach we need to take the smartest QB in the draft. We've had the gun slingers and it gets us nothing but 3rd and outs...

You need to rethink that one.

There are quite a few wonderlic winners who are horrible QB's.

http://www.nflstatanalysis.net/2011/03/qb-wonderlic-scores.html

There is a difference between football smart and academic intelligence.

For example, reading coverages is all about processing information rapidly. It has nothing to do w/mathematical equations or verbal reasoning or recalling facts.

Good to see people with a sense of humor here! Thanks, jfanent.

Quote:

There is a difference between football smart and academic intelligence.

For example, reading coverages is all about processing information rapidly. It has nothing to do w/mathematical equations or verbal reasoning or recalling facts.

If you have a link to "football smarts" please post it, otherwise, this is just blather.

I know you are a funny guy, but are you serious or joking?

Sometimes I just get tired of all the bickering over subjective nonsense around here. if you have a preference that's fine, state it as such, not as the end all of factual knowledge.

Common phrase used often. Football smarts, being able to find the best outlet quickly and get the ball to them. Being able to predict what the coverage is going to be after the snap. Being able to sense pressure surrounding. Etc...

Sorry, didn't mean to come off terse, it's generally not my style.

Yes I know it's a common phrase that is often over used on this site and unless there is a way to truly measure it, it should be shelved.

I wasn't bickering w/you. I love your humor. You make me laugh. I just didn't understand your comment.

Football smarts and academic intelligence are different. You really can't see how reading coverages is different than being able to do chemistry?

Compare the way Weeden operates after the snap to the way Hoyer operates after the snap... or if you're not a Hoyer fan, then any of the other top QBs.

I only use Hoyer because he was plugged into the same offense with the same play caller and players, yet seemed to make it run more efficient and it wasn't all JUST b/c he was more accurate and etc. It was because he seemed to have a freakin' clue out there.

JMO

Lets revisit that I was responding to a comment about taking the "smartest QB in the draft". Now that screams "Wonderlic" scores, nothing more.

Now it's being changed to, "football smarts", fine, as soon as you have a way to measure this wonderful thing known as "football smarts", I'm all in. Otherwise we're talking about peoples perceptions or opinions and if they are presented as facts, please adjust them and present them as they are, opinion.

Quote:

Quote:

There is a difference between football smart and academic intelligence.

For example, reading coverages is all about processing information rapidly. It has nothing to do w/mathematical equations or verbal reasoning or recalling facts.

If you have a link to "football smarts" please post it, otherwise, this is just blather.

I think he's trying to say you can be smart/educated in one area in life but sometimes not in another.... In Weeden's case he just seemed like he obviously wasn't football smart. He didn't get it. He didn't have it for a QB. I don't think he ever will.

Now I don't know how he did in school, nor did I ever see any interviews with him that didn't involve football talk, so I can't say if he was a smart guy off the field or not.......But you know what? It doesn't matter much anymore because HE'S FINALLY GONE, thank God. And that makes me happy.

P.S.

If Romo got injured it would be too much fun to see Weeden having to start several games for the Cowboys. They are on TV WAY WAY WAY too much, and it's been that way forever.

Okay...................it's my opinion.

Really?

You can't see the difference between processing coverages rapidly and a fluent vocabulary or the ability to sort statistics? Really?

I knew exactly what the original poster meant when he said "taking the smartest qb in the draft." He wasn't talking about calculus, he was talking about football intelligence. And it is not opinion.

Not sure why you are so cranky tonight, but give it a rest, bro.

They have the Wonderlic test for intelligence, what is the counterpart test for Football Smarts? Certainly there must be one to eliminate any subjective feelings people would naturally bring into an evaluation.

Alright man, you win. QBs intelligence is measured by the Wonderlick score.

Have a nice night...........

C'mon, you know that's not what I'm saying.

Have a nice night.

It's called the interview. They make these quarterbacks walk through different plays coverages and decisions to make sure they know their stuff.

It's pretty obvious that you have to have a Wonderlic above 14 to be successful.

I think 25 or above should not raise a concern, but anything below that would cause a team to take a second look.

Quote:

...I was responding to a comment about taking the "smartest QB in the draft". Now that screams "Wonderlic" scores, nothing more.

Now it's being changed to, "football smarts", fine, as soon as you have a way to measure this wonderful thing known as "football smarts", I'm all in. Otherwise we're talking about peoples perceptions or opinions and if they are presented as facts, please adjust them and present them as they are, opinion.

WHAT MAKES A FOOTBALL PLAYER SMART?
POSTED BY NICHOLAS DAWIDOFF

Not long ago, I was talking about daily life in the N.F.L. with Ryan Fitzpatrick, the veteran Tennessee Titans quarterback, who studied economics at Harvard. “It’s such a physical game,” he said. “You see three-hundred-pounders hitting each other, and people think of the physicality. When people see the game, they think we’re meatheads; they think of the way jocks acted in high school. But we spend more time studying than we do on the field.”

During the period of more than a year that I spent with the New York Jets coaching staff while writing a book, I came to understand what Fitzpatrick was talking about. Football is a grand spectacle—never more so than in the playoffs, which begin this weekend—and it depends on layers of sophisticated tactics that are not immediately apparent. Winning certainly requires imposing your athletic will on an opponent; that part of the game is easy to see. Yet victories also redound to players who can outthink their adversaries. Because there are so few football games in a season, football players generally don’t learn about members of other teams by playing against them, the way baseball and basketball players do. Until they face another team—and, in a given year, they won’t see most of those outside their own division—N.F.L. players are unlikely even to be able to name most of its members. Football players must master the opposition conceptually. In addition to the raw speed and strength that professional football requires, the game involves more mental preparation than any other team sport.

In developing a game plan, coaches typically break down everything that happened in the opponent’s past four games to granular levels of “tendencies”—down, distance (to a first down), field position, and time remaining on the game clock. Once assembled, this research fills many pages of the game-plan binders players are given on Wednesday to prepare them for Sunday. (Teams have also begun to use iPads.) The binders are dense with intricate drawings and written instructions. They are often as thick as a left tackle’s fist.

The crucial portion of the game plan is a selection of new plays and modifications to old ones the coaches have created for the current opponent. N.F.L. coaches are deft and obsessive probers of game film; they live to devise. The problem is that there’s a limit to how much fresh information most players can absorb before each Sunday. Marv Levy, who coached the Buffalo Bills to four consecutive Super Bowls in the early nineties, told me he always fell back on something the legendary Notre Dame coaching innovator Knute Rockne once said: “I never ask if a player has the will to win. I ask if he has the will to prepare.”

Levy also wanted to know if players had a brain for football. Since every N.F.L. roster possesses talent sufficient to defeat any given opponent, one of the most coveted qualities in football players is what N.F.L. personnel men call “football intelligence.”

What kind of mind is ideally suited to football? Pat McInally studied history at Harvard, Class of 1975. He was the sort of undergraduate who, out of curiosity, visited the law-school classes of Clark Byse, the professor who was an inspiration for the Charles Kingsfield character in “The Paper Chase.” McInally was also an All-American receiver and punter. He went on to spend ten years as a wide receiver and All-Pro punter for the Cincinnati Bengals. But as far as the N.F.L. was concerned, McInally became a legend when he sat down to take the Wonderlic test and earned a perfect score—the only player ever to do so.

The Wonderlic is a fifty-question examination that tests the ability to answer increasingly difficult questions under time pressure—in this case, a limit of twelve minutes. There might be questions about pattern recognition, numerical sequences, word definition (What is the difference between “flammable” and “inflammable”?), trigonometry, and logic. “I thought it was funny we had to take an intelligence test,” McInally, now a collector of rare books and real estate who coaches at the Brethren Christian High School, in Huntington Beach, said. “I just blew through the thing.”

Among active players, Fitzpatrick is reputed to have the highest recorded Wonderlic score, a forty-nine. Or perhaps it was a forty-eight. Wonderlic scores are not made public, and while Fitzpatrick confirms that he answered forty-nine questions, skipping one that “didn’t make sense,” his score is a mystery even to him: “I have been told multiple scores, so I am unsure at this point.” Fitzpatrick has never found much of a relation between his academic talents and his football skills, but, he said, he knew that his ability to solve problems on the clock would distinguish him in the eyes of the N.F.L. draft directors. So he approached the Wonderlic with ferocity, completing it in nine minutes. His performance helped him enter the league—the average score for quarterbacks is in the high twenties. (For wide receivers, the mean is about ten points lower.) During Jets game-plan installation meetings, I saw how it gave the defensive coaches a source of motivation: they called Fitzpatrick “Big Brain,” and told their players they needn’t worry, because, under pressure, what would he do—throw a book at them?

More than any other position, playing quarterback requires mastering a farrago of detail, and then sifting through it while staring at eleven large people eager to break your face. The best N.F.L. quarterbacks, like Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Peyton Manning, have reputations as keen, obsessive students of opposing defenses, whose schemes they decode in real time. And yet, what does it say that the great model of lethally consistent play, Peyton, scored a twenty-eight on the Wonderlic while his more erratic brother, Eli, scored a thirty-nine?

One theory some in the N.F.L. hold is that the highest-scoring quarterbacks are too rigidly scholarly, prisoners of research who don’t handle in-game adjustments well, while those whose scores are very low simply can’t handle a high volume of preparation.

Oliver Luck was twice an Academic All-American quarterback at West Virginia University, spent five years in the N.F.L., went on to law school, and is now the athletic director at his alma mater. His son, Andrew, (Stanford Class of 2012, architectural design; Wonderlic, thirty-seven) is the Indianapolis Colts’ excellent second-year quarterback. “Football intelligence to me is situational awareness,” Oliver Luck told me. “The variables in football are so many. Every play is a decision and you do it at full speed. Life involves more thought.” (If there is a dark undercurrent to a discussion of bright football players, it has to do with life after the scrum and the long-term effects that hits to the head can have on the brain.)

That said, Oliver Luck thinks that there have been certain moments post-football when his aptitude for the game has been helpful to him. “I remember distinctly sitting for the Texas bar exam after I finished law school,” he recalled. “There were maybe five hundred people in there. People were sighing and groaning. A guy one table away from me suddenly lost it. I wanted to tell him, ‘Suck it up! You can do it!’ The way I would in the huddle. I was focussed. I knew how to work through that test.”

While the defensive playbooks are much thinner than those for the offense, a defender who is a skilled interpreter of what he sees across the line of scrimmage is extremely valuable. Marty Schottenheimer played linebacker before winning two hundred games as an N.F.L. head coach, and once told me he considered the position the perfect apprenticeship for football leadership.

The Redskins’ London Fletcher is undersized and thirty-eight years old, but he’s been able to play for so long because he is a defensive Peyton Manning: seeing the game so lucidly, yelling out the offensive play about to unfold, changing alignments before the snap, organizing the field in real time. Similarly, Lavonte David, who has been with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for two years, is just two hundred and thirty-four pounds—ten to fifteen pounds lighter than most at his position—the Wonderlic scores out on the Internet for him are not especially high, and, like all players, he makes the occasional boneheaded play. But he possesses dedicated study habits and a football clairvoyance that, come Sunday, finds him ignoring the blocking flow only at the one moment during a game when the offense runs the ball away from it.

The Hall of Fame Minnesota Vikings defensive lineman Alan Page weighed two hundred and forty-five pounds, the dimension of a modern fullback. Even so, Page was terrifying. His forty-yard-dash time wasn’t anything special, either, but he says that he could run down faster opponents because he always had sense where he was in relation to the blur of bodies around him—he could “understand the situation.” Page is now an Associate Justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court. “Being a football player requires you to take your emotional self to places that most people shouldn’t go,” he said. “You wouldn’t want to get to know the person who was in my head on a football field. I likely see some of these people in my current job—those who can’t control that person—and they do not do very nice things.”

I asked him, “You could control that person on a field?”

“Most of the time,” Page said.

The safety, standing at the rear of the defense, must compensate for the mistakes of others; football intelligence matters more at this position than any other on the defense. At five-eight, a hundred and eighty-eight pounds, the Bills safety Jim Leonhard, a nine-year veteran, is among the smallest and also the slowest starting defensive backs in the game. And yet, watching him on film, he appears to teleport to the ball. Leonhard’s name seems to enter any conversation about football intelligence; he knows every teammate’s responsibilities in every call, and understands the game as twenty-two intersecting vectors. “He’d walk off the bus and you’d think he was the equipment manager,” Ryan Fitzpatrick said. “He’s still in the league because he’s the quarterback of the defense.”

From 2009 to 2011, Leonhard, a Wisconsin graduate, was a member of the Jets and, like everyone else around the team, I used to marvel at his study habits. He spent defensive meetings patiently tutoring the other safeties. One day, he showed me a hundred-and-nineteen-page PowerPoint document of his thoughts on the team’s defense—lecture notes. I asked Leonhard if, in his time with the Jets, an opposing offense had ever done anything that surprised him. He shook his head no.

Recently, we spoke again about the cerebral aspects of football. “You can see one thing while watching film, and then on the field your perspective shifts,” Leonhard said. “It’s the active recall of information on the field.” As he gazes across the line of scrimmage, he looks “for things that don’t make sense.”

In football, as in so many parts of life, the true measure of intelligence is elusive. On a Sunday field, if you combine diligent, grinding application with presence and intuition, you can triumph, even if you are slow and have a Wonderlic score of twenty-four, like Jim Leonhard. “If you notice that a team’s vertical passes come in certain personnel groups, or in certain field positions, you can change your techniques in those situations to not only be able to cover the wide receivers but to have an opportunity to get interceptions,” he said. I have watched Leonhard make several interceptions; the impression is of a crowd of bison pawing beneath the soaring ball and then a tiny prairie dog suddenly rising from the earth to secure it.

There are “situations that come up in every game: a third down and one in the fourth quarter or a third down in the red zone to force a field goal,” he told me. “Offensive coördinators usually have a couple of calls they feel they can win these situations with. They won’t run the play the same as you’ve seen it [on film], so being able to decipher a shift or a motion or a change in personnel is usually necessary. The smart players can do that consistently.”

Not every smart player will find that his intellect is drawn upon; a good deal depends on his position. The Titans’ Pro Bowl cornerback Alterraun Verner completed his mathematics degree at U.C.L.A. with a G.P.A. over 4.0. Football is a game of precise timing and geometry played on a numerical grid, and it might seem that Verner’s study of calculus, differential equations, and integrals could be of help to him. But as a cornerback, Verner is alone out on the edge, isolated with the receiver he’s covering. The relation between his studies and his sport “is not as big as some want or hope it to be,” he said. “I don’t think about angles or quadratics out there. But math people solve problems, and that’s the way you approach film study. We look at all the variables.”

Verner would have no trouble learning his team’s entire defense, but that would be pointless; feeling so removed from the real complexities of the sport, he said, “I get bored sometimes.”

Why is an artist an artist when the rest of us are not artists?

Is it because they practice being an artist more than we do or could it be because they have an inner, God given if you will, ability to see something with their eyes and process it in such detail within their brains that their brains can guide their hands to replicate on paper, with a pencil, or brush, so much better than the rest of us. Are they "art smart"? Can that be taught that? Does it only come from the repetition of many hours of practice?

In grade school you sometimes see a third grade kid who's drawings are head & shoulders so much better than others his age. Why? Is it from his years and years of practice? I think not.

Rather, I think we all have different, gifts if you will, that make one so much better at something than that of his peers.

I fancy myself a musician. Realistically not a great one but I have fun. Growing up I'd come across another kid my own age and we'd play together. A couple of times I'd be taken aback by him as he was so far beyond my ability. Talking to him it appeared he didn't practice any more than I did. We worked on pretty much the same type and style of music. But somehow he seemed to really get what he was doing while I struggled with the "get it" part.

Practice develops finger dexterity and physical memory. Study develops understanding. But how does one account for a peer to be be so far advanced while seeming to be no brighter in any other regard?

Music all about scales and understanding them to the degree that one can understand how they relate to each other. This understanding, through study, makes it possible to eventually just do it without really thinking about it much at all.
But some people have that in spades. It just seems to make sense to them.

Others study in their every spare moment and struggle with the deep understanding of the relationships within those scales so that they are always thinking when they're playing which slows their ability to just let 'er rip.

Some people seem to be just naturally good at art. Some are naturally good at music. Some are naturally good at math, or writing, or speaking.

Some people are football smart. They excel at that deep understanding which allows them to read and react without thinking about it. They quickly make their decision and throw the ball, or make their decision and move toward the ball, the tackle or the interception.

They seem to be naturally good at processing football information. They fully absorb the overwhelming bulk of information and it becomes second nature to do the right thing, make the right play, It becomes instinct rather than a describable thought process. While their peers are still struggling with thinking about what to do, the football smart player is already doing it.

QB number one holds onto the ball while he's trying to figure out what's happening down the field while QB number two already knows what's happening down the field because he recognizes, by the subtle movements of the defenders, what they're going to do and where they're going to be. But before they can get there he has already thrown a pass to his WR for 12 yards. Meanwhile QB number one has held onto the ball too long because he couldn't process the information he was seeing quick enough to make a decision so the defenders are already in place to defend any pass he throws. So he instead scrambles around in the backfield and gets sacked or flips an underhanded, desperate toss that is intercepted for a pick-6.

QB number one is not football smart. QB number two is.

I can't begin to formulate in my mind in what manner one would go about developing a test for football smart. The only one I can think of would be to put them out on the field in a game situation and see how they do.

Those who are football smart get big contracts. Those who aren't get cut.

I agree with Vers 100% - "processing information rapidly" is the most important role of any QB. Those that do - succeed. It is the starkest contrast between Weeden and Hoyer. Hoyer knows when he has been beat to the punch too... He then throws it to the ballboy while Weeden is trying to hard to salvage a play and flips it to a defender. In his defense, he has no choice, because he can seldom win the "processing" battle at the snap anyway. There might not be stats to support all of this but when you watch it every week, all around the league, you don't need them.

When you're good at it you can "get in a rhythm" with play calling and execution and have the defense playing on their heels. That is the key to offensive success in this league. We saw Hoyer do that on several drives. I saw Weeden do that once in his first year against Cincinnati. All of Weeden's failure was due to his inability to process information fast enough after the snap, it killed drive after drive and led to desperate QB play in every game he played in. That can happen after three bad drives in today's NFL.

I doubt that any of this has anything to do with Wonderlic scores. I think wonderlic scores have a lot more to do with whether or not players will screw up their lives off the field.

Quote:

I agree with Vers 100% - "processing information rapidly" is the most important role of any QB. Those that do - succeed. It is the starkest contrast between Weeden and Hoyer. Hoyer knows when he has been beat to the punch too... He then throws it to the ballboy while Weeden is trying to hard to salvage a play and flips it to a defender. In his defense, he has no choice, because he can seldom win the "processing" battle at the snap anyway. There might not be stats to support all of this but when you watch it every week, all around the league, you don't need them.

When you're good at it you can "get in a rhythm" with play calling and execution and have the defense playing on their heels. That is the key to offensive success in this league. We saw Hoyer do that on several drives. I saw Weeden do that once in his first year against Cincinnati. All of Weeden's failure was due to his inability to process information fast enough after the snap, it killed drive after drive and led to desperate QB play in every game he played in. That can happen after three bad drives in today's NFL.

I doubt that any of this has anything to do with Wonderlic scores. I think wonderlic scores have a lot more to do with whether or not players will screw up their lives off the field.

The article ddubia posted on this thread does not agree with your last sentence so much. Kinda interesting. Link:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2014/01/what-makes-a-football-player-smart.html

Quote:

Jerry's catching lightning in a bottle, man!

The last time a Cleveland QB went to Dallas, they went to the Super Bowl.

I thought that too, but I dont see these Cowboys being good enough.

Its usually done in extensive interviews like when we have QBs visiting us we will test them on the Blackboard...which I don't think exists any more...White board with color makers. You see Gruden doing his interview with a QB and have him draw stuff up from his request.

I believe the session with Gruden and Weeden he came off as a dummy ergo - football smarts.

Well this is usually done in our private meetings with the QBs. Farmer has been to the games he didn't put too much into the Pro-days probably more interested in some late round picks. I'm sure we have meeting set up before the draft on probably 5 QBs at the least in those meeting I'm sure we will be testing the Football knowledge more than anything.

jmho

Thank you.

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I agree with Vers 100% - "processing information rapidly" is the most important role of any QB. Those that do - succeed. It is the starkest contrast between Weeden and Hoyer. Hoyer knows when he has been beat to the punch too... He then throws it to the ballboy while Weeden is trying to hard to salvage a play and flips it to a defender. In his defense, he has no choice, because he can seldom win the "processing" battle at the snap anyway. There might not be stats to support all of this but when you watch it every week, all around the league, you don't need them.

When you're good at it you can "get in a rhythm" with play calling and execution and have the defense playing on their heels. That is the key to offensive success in this league. We saw Hoyer do that on several drives. I saw Weeden do that once in his first year against Cincinnati. All of Weeden's failure was due to his inability to process information fast enough after the snap, it killed drive after drive and led to desperate QB play in every game he played in. That can happen after three bad drives in today's NFL.

I doubt that any of this has anything to do with Wonderlic scores. I think wonderlic scores have a lot more to do with whether or not players will screw up their lives off the field.

The article ddubia posted on this thread does not agree with your last sentence so much. Kinda interesting. Link:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2014/01/what-makes-a-football-player-smart.html

Yeah, it was more or less a dumb statement on my part anyway, I was tired lol. I guess my largest concern are the peripheral tests, stats and qualities we use to "evaluate talent". How far down the flow chart does a wonderlic score come into play in determining a player's success on the field? The hot topic in this years crop of QBs is hand size... really? "Johnny this, Johnny that... oh but he has big hands!" C'mon, man!

Most of these kinds of things should only be used as red or green flags - if you score extremely high or extremely low, it might have an impact. If they pass or fail all of the other tests that actually determine how a player will translate to the field of play, wonderlic means next to nothing imo.

not sure Jery is on board with this

Does Jerry know who Stephen signed?

Color Jerry Jones confused on the Cowboy's latest signing.

When asked if newly signed Brandon Weeden would be in the mix as a number 2 quarterback, Jerry gave the reporter an askance look and asked him to clarify the question.

When clarified, Jones said he thought his son had bought a Brand of weed eater to be used around Cowboys stadium.

One has to wonder if Jerry really has his finger on the pulse of his team, expect him to start coming to work in jump suits soon.

Link

Nice find, bro.

Not that many will consider it. LOL

Nah............Wonderlick = Football Intelligence in their eyes.

If you think back, Weeden wanderin' around lost under that flag was an omen, it really was..... Definitely a "D'oh!" moment.

(It sounds like something that would happen to me, but don't tell anybody.)

Yep. The wonderlick is interesting the same way that Silicon Valley interview questions are, but are pretty much useless. HSAC did a report about which combine events mattered here: http://harvardsportsanalysis.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/does-the-nfl-combine-matter-offense/

It's a pretty interesting read, but even then it's most likely useless.

Wow. That article was crazy.

man that is so cool, thanks for posting this.

just amazing stuff, though I was disapointed in the defensive models not reflecting much ionformation. I think it points to defense being more attitude than aptitude

What Went Wrong:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000...-hunt-isnt-easy

Quote:

Brandon Weeden

Drafted No. 22 overall by the Cleveland Browns in 2012

What went wrong: I think the Browns took Weeden, who had a relatively limited football background, too high; I had him going somewhere in the third or fourth round. Through two seasons in Cleveland, he struggled to handle and escape pressure, showing less than ideal mobility. It looked as if he didn't like to be hit; Weeden had problems against the blitz, relying too much on his arm rather than footwork. He does have outstanding arm strength and can throw the back-shoulder fade pretty well, but he's not accurate when going long.

He didn't have much football experience when he came into the league. After spending several years playing minor-league baseball, Weeden red-shirted at Oklahoma State in 2007 and was limited to backup duty in 2008 and 2009 before putting together two decent seasons. Of course, Weeden had the luxury of working with Justin Blackmon, who was a very good receiver, and operated in a simple spread offense that did not require him to make a lot of reads. He was sacked a ton with the Browns (55 times in two years), compiling a record of 0-5 last season and throwing nine picks in eight games despite working with the likes of Jordan Cameron and Josh Gordon.

Is there hope? After being outperformed by Jason Campbell and Brian Hoyer in Cleveland in an injury-interrupted 2013 season, Weeden was released, then landed with the Dallas Cowboys, who must have been tempted by his arm and athletic body build. Ultimately, I think his lack of experience and his age (he'll turn 31 in October), will keep him from ever rising above backup status. It's tough to adjust to the pros without going through the traditional progression from high school to college. The learning curve is steep enough as it is for the young guys who have been groomed to play quarterback from Day 1; it must only get more difficult as one gets older. I think it'll be tough for him to improve on his deficiencies at this point. I would say Weeden's future in the NFL is somewhat limited.

Weeden's future in the NFL is "somewhat limited"...

Completely hilarious! And a pretty spot-on assessment otherwise...

It's true that most of these NFL players have played football starting in the PeeWee league on to Middle School, then High School then the best of them go on to College and the best of the best of those get Drafted and the rest of the best sign contracts as UDFA.

Weeden didn't live, breathe, eat and sleep football all his life as did the competition he met on the field. For him it was like going to a foreign country not speaking the language, knowing none of the customs and never having lived the life-style. The only thing he had going for him is that he could throw the bales of hay on the wagon with the best of them. But he still didn't know how to live among them and he all too often missed the wagon.

I have this mental image of a hay wagon on the 50 yard line of the Berea field house.

That image is augmented by the presence of 30 footballs, strewn about the field in a 50 ft radius around the wagon.

There a 2 balls actually in the wagon.

I can't think of a former Browns player I miss less than him.

Me too and I'm not usually down on our own. But that guy disappointed me so much just being himself the player.

Maybe someone needs a laugh:

Weeden: I got something to prove

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"One thing I haven't really had in Cleveland is a veteran guy that has been playing the position for a long time to sit back and learn from," said Weeden, cut from the Browns and now under contract in Dallas at a no-risk total of $1.23 million for the two seasons. "I've got two, with Tony and Kyle. Sit back, be a sponge, really dive in, and try to become a better player."

I guess the only time Weeden knew Jason Campbell was on the team is when he was benched for him

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Maybe someone needs a laugh:

Weeden: I got something to prove

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"One thing I haven't really had in Cleveland is a veteran guy that has been playing the position for a long time to sit back and learn from," said Weeden, cut from the Browns and now under contract in Dallas at a no-risk total of $1.23 million for the two seasons. "I've got two, with Tony and Kyle. Sit back, be a sponge, really dive in, and try to become a better player."

I guess the only time Weeden knew Jason Campbell was on the team is when he was benched for him

thats right weeden. blame everybody except yourself for the reason you sucked.

Ya know!?!? I mean how much of a tool is that buffoon, seriously?

Weeden, you're soon to be 31 or 32... You talking about having time to sit back and soak it in. Dude, you're too old for that. By that thinking, you gone be ready by the age of 35? Dude please, save that crap. Don't blame Cleveland for your performance, or lack there of.

ummm.....

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under contract in Dallas at a no-risk

the risk is that you actually put him in the game and have to endure his play

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ummm.....

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under contract in Dallas at a no-risk

the risk is that you actually put him in the game and have to endure his play

You do realize that they have Romo, right?

I think it's a risk they're accustomed to

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ummm.....

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under contract in Dallas at a no-risk

the risk is that you actually put him in the game and have to endure his play

You do realize that they have Romo, right?

I think it's a risk they're accustomed to

Romo is good for the first 3 quarters though.

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Romo is good for the first 3 quarters though.

That must be why they signed him. I mean Weeden did play baseball. Maybe they signed him to be their closer?

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Maybe someone needs a laugh:

Weeden: I got something to prove

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"One thing I haven't really had in Cleveland is a veteran guy that has been playing the position for a long time to sit back and learn from," said Weeden, cut from the Browns and now under contract in Dallas at a no-risk total of $1.23 million for the two seasons. "I've got two, with Tony and Kyle. Sit back, be a sponge, really dive in, and try to become a better player."

I guess the only time Weeden knew Jason Campbell was on the team is when he was benched for him

Didn't he have Seneca Wallace before that?

j/c:

I really don't think Weeden's comments were bad in that article.

Just be glad he is gone and we don't draft a guy who is very similar...........like David Carr.

You know what... totally forgot about this. You're right.

Be funny to watch Dallas media question Weeden about why his balls continue to get batted down. He use to get so furious. He's a joke IMO...

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"I've got two, with Tony and Kyle. Sit back, be a sponge, really dive in, and try to become a better player."

When he got hurt which gave him some time to be a sponge, really dive in and try to become a better player.

He said he learned nothing. He was a petulant child about it.

He never said he learned nothing.

He said he learned to "not get hurt."

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Romo is good for the first 3 quarters though.

That must be why they signed him. I mean Weeden did play baseball. Maybe they signed him to be their closer?

I would find it very interesting if a team were to do this and be successful.

I would also find it interesting to see the percentage of Dallas fans who think he would make the roster. Dallas still might even draft a QB, or theyre thinking Weeden is better then we do.

On the topic of Weeden taking time off of football and not being able to catch up to speed to play in the NFL is an articl stated above. Does anyone know of any other careers that have started late successfully? I think Pittsburghs Harrison started late. You sometimes see a rookie being 23. I can see not running football drill for football shape could weaken your legs compared to pitching in the minors. I remember Hargrove use to have kinda like gassers he made his players do before they could practice in Spring Traing but I doubt Weeden did much of that but I wouldnt really know. I also didnt realize Weeden sat for 2 years before starting. I thought he left early because he started late. So he did have 4 years of football training before the NFL. If he was athletic enough, I dont see that as too much of a problem. The fact the Grandpa Weeden did not start right away in college would have turned me off even more about the pick then I origanlly was. I assumed he left baseball because he knew he had a starting QB spot available. I think thats what Weinke did.

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He never said he learned nothing.
He said he learned to "not get hurt."

Yeah, I guess I read into that thinking that if that' all he learned then he learned nothing.

How 'bout them Cowboys?!

Yawn... more excuses rolling out of Weeden's mouth as to why he SUCKED so bad:

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/201...f-in-cleveland/

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“I think, as a player, as much as you try not to do too much, try not to put too much pressure on yourself to perform and show you can be the guy for the long haul, sometimes you get caught up in it. You try to do much as a player. That’s one thing if I could change about myself, I wouldn’t try to do too much every Sunday. Just let the game kinda come to you and be more patient.”

So he's pointing out something he felt he did wrong and needs to correct. Yet that's an excuse?

Look, I'm not an apologist for Weeden. But to say this is "making excuses" is a giant reach.

The BEST thing any player can do is to look back, try to figure out what they did wrong and correct it.

I don't believe Weeden has the skill set to ever be a franchise QB. But to try to nit pick this as excuses is a big reach.

Oh come on bro. I mean no offense, but really? Even when he knew he was on the likelihood of being benched, even by the infamous "players coach" Chud that played struggling people and gave them repeated chances to continue to show why they shouldn't be playing - he still played bad.

If he "had so much pressure and tried so hard" like the baby claims - then surely he had no pressure coming into to play when he knew as soon as Jason was recovered from being hurt, he'd get benched. Talk about being able to "just go in there and wing it" and play, then that be a good situation and guess what... he still stunk.

From not having veterans (although he had Wallace and Campbell), to trying so hard, to this and to that - all this kid does when he talks is come up with bs as to why he played and struggled. I hope Romo suffers like, an ankle injury or something (nothing major) so Weeden can play. I am waiting to hear what he tells the Dallas media as why he plays like he will likely play. Which is CRAPPY!

jmo

Like I said, I don't believe anything he does will really make him a better QB. But looking back and trying to figure out what you did wrong isn't making excuses to me.

He has said some dumb things in the past. He's a bad QB. But if you really believe what he said in this case is another excuse, we simply disagree. Sounds more to me like he's at least trying to figure out what went wrong rather than makes up excuses.

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So he's pointing out something he felt he did wrong and needs to correct. Yet that's an excuse?

Look, I'm not an apologist for Weeden. But to say this is "making excuses" is a giant reach.

The BEST thing any player can do is to look back, try to figure out what they did wrong and correct it.

Pit, I wanna agree w/you. I really do, but...............look at this again:

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“I think, as a player, as much as you try not to do too much, try not to put too much pressure on yourself to perform and show you can be the guy for the long haul, sometimes you get caught up in it. You try to do much as a player. That’s one thing if I could change about myself, I wouldn’t try to do too much every Sunday. Just let the game kinda come to you and be more patient.”

Be more patient? Really? The guy held the ball way, way too long. That wasn't his problem. He wasn't making quick decisions and forcing the ball. He took too freaking long.

Sorry bro, it sounds like an excuse to me.

j/c

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"That’s one thing if I could change about myself, I wouldn’t try to do too much every Sunday."

Mission accomplished.

[/snark]

Sounds to me like he felt he was putting too much pressure on himself and forcing things. And he feels he needs to change that.

Now when he blamed the coaches for running plays they didn't use that week in practice? That's making excuses.

But I still say it sounds like he's reflecting and trying to figure out ways to improve. I simply don't consider that making excuses.

Like he forced things rather than taking what the D gave him and getting into the flow of the game. That's what I took away from his comments.

Do any of you remember a football movie called The Replacements.

Shane Falco talks about his greatest fear and he said, Quicksand.

You step into Quicksand, you keep sinking.

The harder you struggle the deeper you get so you try harder and you just dig in deeper.

I assume that that is what Weeden is speaking of..

That's probably my favorite movie.

How dare you compare Shane Falco to Weeden.

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That's probably my favorite movie.

How dare you compare Shane Falco to Weeden.

lol Ok,, I'm sorry.

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But I still say it sounds like he's reflecting and trying to figure out ways to improve. I simply don't consider that making excuses.

I didn't either. But my real opinion is that the last thing he needs to be doing is talking in any kind of detail about anything in his short career so far.

He needs to tow the company line vs every question the media asks him and not get into talking about himself AT ALL.

Every time he does he sounds dumb.

Oh I certainly believe his best path to take is to shut up and work.