DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Pressures QBs face in first full-time role

By Pat Kirwan
NFL.com Senior Analyst
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/10246632
July 5, 2007) -- The quarterback is the most important position in football and no one should disagree with the fact. There isn't a coach in this league who really believes a player can walk onto the field in his first year as the full-time starter and be totally prepared. There are always bumps in the road, issues that only experience can take care of and the supporting cast can damage a talented player faster than his own learning curve.
Heck, Rex Grossman in his first season as a 16-game starter got his team to the Super Bowl. He threw more touchdowns than interceptions and completed 47 passes over 20 yards. Yet he hasn't been accepted or embraced by Chicago fans. This year, there could be 10 starting quarterbacks in the NFL who have never been full-time starters. But once they take the field, the honeymoon will be over. The real question is however, what's fair when it comes to evaluating a young inexperienced starting QB in his first attempt at being a 16-game starter?

Here's an example of how perception and reality can conflict, especially in a big market versus a smaller one. In their first 16-game season, Peyton Manning and younger brother Eli Manning both threw exactly the same number of passes (557) -- Peyton completed more, 336, compared to Eli's 294. But the younger Manning threw for more yards, more passes over 20 yards and had a much better touchdown to interception ratio than the elder sibling. Peyton Manning had 26 touchdowns to 28 interceptions and Eli Manning had 24 touchdowns to just 17 interceptions. Yet most Giants fans can't see a bright future for Eli. Big city fans want instant success and they define that as a Super Bowl ring. That's why some of the new 2007 starters are going to crumble under the pressure and expectations.

Will there be a Tom Brady in the group who can step on the field and produce a winning record, throw more touchdowns than interceptions, and win a Super Bowl? I doubt it. But then again my expectations for a successful first season include something more inline with the Drew Brees of 2002 when he led his team to an 8-8 record, threw 17 touchdowns to just 16 interceptions and completed 320 of 526 passes.

The great Brett Favre threw only 19 touchdowns to 24 interceptions his first year as a starter, but that small-town market gave him a chance to grow. Are Washington's Jason Campbell, Dallas' Tony Romo, Arizona's Matt Leinart, or Denver's Jay Cutler going to get that kind of breathing room? We'll just have to wait and see.

Here's a list of potential/probable first time 16-game starters. When you think that Daunte Culpepper's first season produced 33 touchdowns/16 interceptions and a 62.7 percent completion rate and now he has very little chance of being a starter in 2007. Or Aaron Brooks with his 123 scoring passes to just 92 picks can't even find a team. and Jake Plummer being sick of playing football. You wonder how long these young signal-callers will last if they are just average in 2007.

Player ................ Team .........Starts ....Att/Comp Percent Yards TD/INT
Jason Campbell...Washington.....7........ 110/207 .....53.1..... 1,297 10/6
Brodie Croyle... Kansas City..... 0......... 3/7 ......... 42.9....... 23.... 0/2
Jay Cutler .......... Denver........... 5 ........ 81/137..... 59.1.....1,001..9/5
Tarvaris Jackson..Minnesota...... 2......... 47/81...... 58........ 475 ..... 2/4
Matt Leinart .......Arizona ........ 11........ 214/371.... 56.8.... 2,547.. 11/12
Matt Schaub ..... Houston......... 2......... 84/161 ......52.2....1,033..... 6/6
Tony Romo....... Dallas........... 10........ 220/337......65.3..... 2,903...19/13
Vince Young....Tennessee........ 13 ....... 183/357 ..... 51.5.... 2,199 12/13
Brady Quinn Cleveland 0 0 0 0 0/0
Jamarcus Russell Oakland 0 0 0 0 0/0



Of course, Damon Huard may start in Kansas City, but he has never been a 16-game starter. Josh McCown has never done it before and could line up for the Raiders. And supposedly, Derek Anderson finished up the spring as the No. 1 in Cleveland and he's never been a full-time starter either. So NFL fans will be seeing something I can't remember happening before -- 30 percent of the starting quarterbacks will be as green as grass when September rolls around.

It's now time for a few projection awards.

The Rex Grossman Award for leading his team to the Super Bowl in his first 16-game season. I don't really like any of this year's candidates, but I will go with Tony Romo.

The Eli Manning Big City Pressure Award. This one goes to Jason Campbell, where it may be impossible for the talented young QB to meet expectations.

The Brett Favre throw more picks than touchdowns but get the fan base excited about the future award. This goes to Vince Young. Titans fans love their QB and will not turn on him.

The Kyle Boller go 9-7 in your first season and have a sense you are getting replaced soon anyway award. This goes to Brodie Croyle.

Finally, all I can say to the teams, coaches, media and fans is be happy if your young starter makes it through 16 starts. As talented as he is, Jaguars QB Byron Leftwich has never played a 16 game schedule. Be extremely pleased if your QB doesn't get sacked 76 times like David Carr did his first season. Settle for 35-40 sacks. If you are fortunate enough to have a guy who breaks even on the touchdown to interception ratio you should buy 2008 season tickets and buy the guy's jersey to wear to the games. What's an original 1995 Favre Packer jersey worth after he put up five more picks than scores. And of course, don't get ready to run the young man out of town if he looks average to you. Believe me, average is a sign of great things to come. On the other hand, if your young player happens to have a very good season, don't rush out and proclaim him a Pro Bowl QB. Just let him continue to develop.

I hope all Browns fans can be patient and give Brady time to develop into a nice QB regardless if it takes a few seasons.

i can see some "i told you he sucks" fans after his first few starts...heh there r always few of thoes ppl...

The same can be said for Frye.

Sit, watch, learn.

well, what these few ppl need to understand is that no matter who the starting QB is, we still don't have all of the pieces. The OL isn't all there, there are quiestions to be answered with the WR's and we still need a solid running attack. Not too mention, that we will need to see one of these QB's step up and start playing like a NFL QB should play, making the throws, seeing the whole field instead of one WR, reading the defense...etc. Now, I'm not trying to sound like I know it all or know anything really, I'm not a coach, player or anything associated with football other than a fan. I just think we need a QB that plays like Sipe, Kosar, or hell even Vinnie, lol. Also feel that we need to get the rest of the pieces in place before any of our QB's will be able to reach their full potential.

I bet the Browns are wishing they had given Frye the 3-year deal he was asking for after we drafted him... he'd be an RFA after this year. With a good season (the only reason we'd even want to keep him), we would be talking pretty good compensation...

Personally,

I don't want Brady Quinn to even touch the playing field until next year....

This isn't madden bro

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Personally,

I don't want Brady Quinn to even touch the playing field until next year....


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Personally,

I want Brady Quinn on the playing field vs. Pittsburgh.


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That's good and all. But I'd rather him sit on the bench and prepare himself mentally for the game.

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I prefer the best guy start the season... I don't care what name is on the jersey. May the best man win!

may the best man win as well..

some rookies do rather well with their first start.. but i think a lot of it has to do with the talent around them...

personally, im starting to feel as if Frye just doesn't have ENOUGH to help this team win as many games as they need to, to push for the BIG one.. the Super Bowl...

Brady Quinn starting wouldn't bother me at all... its just realistically.. i dont think its going to happen..

Ammo,, that's the problem with pimping one player over the other. It taints thinking. And it's counter productive in the grand scheme of things.

The most raw talent at QB on the Browns is, in my mind, Brady Quinn. I don't think that anyone would really argue to hard about that. The problem is this, he hasn't played a down in the NFL so you don't know what you have beyond the Pure Raw Physical Talent that he possesses.


Hoping for him to start is fine.. I got no problem with that. But instead, I am hopeing the guy that really wins the QB job in Camp starts. If that's Quinn, then I'm ok with that. if it's Frye, Anderson or even Dorsey, I'm ok with that also.

I just don't care who's name is on the Jersey.... I want the best, most NFL ready guy to play.

But a word or two of caution, Quinn hasn't thrown a ball with live rushers in his face. Until we see that, NOBODY can honestly say what we have,,,,, beyond raw talent that is.

But hey, that's JMO......

Preseason will show us a lot.. if Quinn lights it up in Preseason... watch how many threads/posts say that Quinn should start...

And if those other 2 are just THAT BAD, and Brady doesn't start, what does that say about him?

You do realize that BQ could very well be our next Timid Couch? I pray to God he isn't, but he could set this team back years.

The move was a huge gamble by Savage, who hasn't exactly done well in identifying QBs over the years. Redman, Boller, Wright, Frye, etc.

It could get real ugly around here, because if BQ isn't all that, and most of the NFL didn't buy into the BQ hype machine, than the situation is going to polarize our fans again. BQ will have more excuses afforded to him in one game than Frye got in two years. And Frye had a lot of excuses made for him. More importantly, Savage gave up a ton to get him. Damn.........# 36 from this past year and a probable top 5 next year.

BQ BETTER BE GREAT!

if Tim Couch had the players that we had now.. im pretty sure that Couch would be our starter and would be claimed to be our starter for many years to come...

Yeah.........and that is why Timid is on a NFL roster now, right?

The guy was a bum.

He also suffered injries he couldn't recover from playing behind that line.

The injury thing is BS. He did hurt his arm, but that was due to his terrible mechanics. They guy actually threw passes w/his right foot in front of his left. And I would say that the injury should be healed by now. He just never had a very good arm unless he could wind up, and you don't get to wind up too often in the NFL. He was also dumb as a box of rocks and emotionally unstable. His teammates couldn't stand him. He's out of the NFL because he stinks.

Your assessment of Tim Couch is so far off...

You're shocked? This is the guy that wanted to draft Troy Smith with the #3 pick.....take his QB evaluations with a few million grains of salt.

A Couch thread!!

Awww...forget it, the guy isn't in the league so it doesn't matter.


I wonder what that guy is doing these days??

Probably still trying to recover from the devastating injuries to his arm would be my guess. With the 3 injuries to his arm/shoulder he had to have repaired, it's amazing the guy played at all the last year he did.

It is amazing he played as long as he did with that elbow below the shoulder delivery.

IIRC off the top of my head, he had a torn labrium, rotator cuff, and biceps. That's not all from the delivery you're refering to, but some can be. I know you hated him as did others, but imagine trying to play with just ONE of those injuries, let alone three. Say what you want about him, and you do fairly and unfairly, but the kid had a ton of heart and it's sad to see someone that sacrificed as much as he did physically not succeed.

I never questioned his heart....and I didn't hate the guy....I just hated that he was the qb of my team.

I knew he wasn't any good.

He would have looked great and been my hero if he was the Steelers qb.


Please stop....I really don't want to do this.....let's call it a draw and leave it at that.

Fair??

I didn't realize we were arguing. I was honestly answering the question you asked and then commenting on the extent of his injuries. It's sad it happened to him. We'll agree to disagree on whether or not he was "good" and leave it at that.

LOL, I just meant that you asked a question and I answered it. I then was just pondering his injuries. I didn't mean to start any sort of debare, just one thought led to another.