Can't get on board with your analysis of Cassel..being a career backup,even including his college years, doesn't bode well for a full 16-game schedule for Cassel..at some point NE will not be able to overcome his lack of playing time and experience..as we've seen over and over, defenses throw the kitchen sink at inexperienced QB's.
I'm guessing the team knows more about its players than either you or I do, and they have stuck by Cassel for 4 years. While I agree in theory that his lack of real game experience COULD be an issue, and this point we don't know one way or another. As I pointed out in one of these threads, Cassel has really only played any meaningful time in two games and had a passer rating of 116 in both of them. While that should not sway anyone at all as it is such a small sample size, he at least deserves a shot.The other thing in Cassel's defense is that a Pats practice is probably tougher than real game experience for many other, less intense (read as losing) teams. I know practice is practice and should not count as "real" experience. Trent Green at one point didn't play for 6 years and he turned out all right. I'm not expecting Cassel to move mountains, but he may be able to be a game manager MUCH LIKE BRADY WAS when he had to step in.
Again, people are confusing the 07 Brady with the 01 Brady. The 01 Brady only through for 2800 yards and 18 TD with 12 INT. Yet they won the AFC East, earned a bye, and won the Super Bowl.
Even with Cassel, the Pats are still loaded with talent, and IMO the 08 Pats team w/o Brady is better than the 01 team (not counting Brady). You and others can decide for yourselves if agree or not.
If Cassel can do what Brady did numbers wise in 2001, the Pats should still win just as many games as that team did (11) and make the playoffs. THey still have a very easy schedule and that won't change just because Brady is out. Where I think it WILL make a difference is in the playoffs, where you can't expect Cassel to make plays like Brady did in intense pressure situations. I think Cassel will be ok against the Rams and Dolphins of the world. But potentially on the road in a hostile environment in the playoffs is a different story.
The thing that Brady brought to the table was a determination to win, an incredibly high passer rating and outstanding completion percentages throughout his career...Brady's career comp percentage is 63%...if Cassel is lucky, he'll hit 50% comp...a drop of 10-13% is likely, and so is a significant drop off in passer rating, and with that, lowered 3rd down conversion totals, less time of possession , many more turnovers via INT's, etc...
Again, that's what you see and the Pats brass sees otherwise. As I said, in the brief times we've seen Cassel his completion % and passing rating were higher than Brady's and he did not turn the ball over (again, a sample size of just 2 games so I'm not considering that as carrying much weight).
this isn't going to be another 'catch lightning in a bottle ' again, like it was when Bledsoe got hurt and Brady took over and never looked back..that was a once in an lifetime event, Brady is an all-time great.Cassel will be anything but great..efficient, maybe..decent, maybe..not great..
It worked for Brady in 2001. No one is expecteing Cassel to throw for 4500 yards and 50 TD. He may not need to for the team to win games. As I pointed out in one of these threads, the Pats won 25 by single digits in their 3 SB winning seasons. They know how to win, whether it's pretty or not is another story. Expect more games like the one against KC. They didn't look great but they won. That's still better than what the Colts, Bolts, or Jags did.
but he's going to toss a lot of ints, throw a lot of incomplete passes, take way too many sacks, and fumble just like any other first-year starter..
All-time greats like Peyton and Elway stunk for their first few seasons as NFL starters...
We assume he will throw a lot of interceptions, but you are assuming they let will let him be in that position. I expect at least early on they will give him very safe plays to work with and they would rather punt than turn the ball over . . . just like Brady did 7 years ago.
The NE offense took a h-u-g-e hit, probably the worst thing that could happen to that aging defense that will now be on the field more often as a result of a lowered time of possession for the offense.
I am still not buying the "aging defense" thing, as IMO the defense is not that old. They have Harrison and Bruschi that are long in the tooth, but even there they have much younger, highly drafted guys that sub in for them. Vrabel is getting slightly older, but he was an ALL-PRO. Not sure you can find fault with an All-Pro linebacker. The rest of the defense is either in their prime or younger and no older than other teams.As for the offense, if they score half as many TD as last year, they still would have ranked 15th in scoring. And that's cutting their production by almost 2.5 TD per game. Obviously the offense took a major hit, no one will deny that, but they were not a huge score in their other championship seasons compared to last year and they were able to win plenty of games.
this is where you'll find out what Maroney is made of, its put up or shut up time for him....
Still can't agree with this one, as I still don't see them giving Maroney a ton of carries. Yes, they will run more, but it will still be RBBC and I still think they will just give everyone in that committee more work equally.Overall, we haven't seen enough of Cassel to have an opinion either way. You are taking the total bleak outlook. Let's let him do something first before we crucify him. The Pats have a plethora of current or former Pro Bowl players on offense, defense, and special teams and those guys are all still there. Brady didn't win all the games the Pats have won by himself. Big hit, yes, team worse off, yes, but will the team completely fall apart, I say no.
Vinny didn't look awful last year, and seems to have had some success picking up systems quickly, and has been here before, so I could imagine worse options ( like Bledsoe, for example )
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Drafting him in 2005 was pure Bill Belichick Ego 101. Making Cassel the #2 QB in 2006 was Belichick giving a middle finger to the football gods.
Drafting him in 2005 was pure Bill Belichick Ego 101. Making Cassel the #2 QB in 2006 was Belichick giving a middle finger to the football gods.Maybe Cassel made strides in 2007 but there was no way he was a legit #2 in September 2006. Belichick was playing with fire and he was lucky he didn't get burned.
Drafting him in 2005 was pure Bill Belichick Ego 101. Making Cassel the #2 QB in 2006 was Belichick giving a middle finger to the football gods.Maybe Cassel made strides in 2007 but there was no way he was a legit #2 in September 2006. Belichick was playing with fire and he was lucky he didn't get burned.
