Byron Leftwich (1 Viewer)

[Bob_Magaw]

1 - lefty has been taken to task in the past for being somewhat ponderous & having a time consuming delivery. there were reports in the off season that he worked hard at getting trimmer, quicker & more explosive. one thing i noticed is that he had very good protection for the most part, but when he got pressure from the edge, he flashed good pocket sense & short area escapability. for instance, marino was notoriously slow, but was great at taking that little half step to one side or the other which would then give him the time to find his WR & get ball off (of course he had the fastest release in the business)...

2 - it seemed to me that when there was pressure (& it didn't seem like there was a lot, but i don't have sack count handy), it came more often from the edge... but he was able to step into his throws a lot, which tells me that there was not a lot of pressure generated from the inside... i don't know PIT defensive scheme well enough to recall if this is typical, & they are better at generating pressure from outside, but i don't think that is necessarily the case... i clearly saw on one play where polamalu tried to crash through on the inside & was fairly easily neutralized by the center or guard... i thought the JAX OL was a bit of a question mark based on 05, but if they continue to get strong play from the interior OL, this should bode well for 06...

3 - jones & reggie williams are stepping up in absence of jimmy smith... they seem to be getting better right in front of our eyes seemingly every game... they could be even better by the second half... and hopefully by that time marcedes lewis may be recovered from high ankle sprain... he could be a formidable chain mover & red zone weapon...

4 - with the defense as good as it is (stroud & hendo best DT tandem, peterson one of best LBs in the league, mathis one of best CBs, etc), they could get the ball a lot, & with some short fields...

* battle royale with IND this week should go a long way to showing where leftwich is at against one of the elite teams in the NFL... JAX played them very tough last season...

a concern with leftwich is on his follow through his lead leg gets stuck out quite far, which may make him more vulnerable to injuries (which has happened few times already dating back to marshall, though i don't know if the specific broken leg injuries were due to this factor)...

** i forgot what a cannon lefty has (guess the big windup has something to do with that )... when he had time to set up, on some of the 15-20 yard bullets, if his WR had a step or two on the DB, the ball just exploded out of his hand and got into the WR almost instantaneously... the DBs had almost no chance of getting the hand on the ball... he is also extremely accurate when protected, which helps here... before he got hurt last season, i think he was pacing for something like just 7 INTs, which is outstanding...

until recently i thought of del rio as defensive minded & arch conservative, but with greg jones being out fo the season, they may not be able to pound the ball as well... maybe the coaching staff will let him air it out more, if that is their best chance at moving the ball... especially given that he has shown an ability to be careful with it...

 

[mistersmith]

Just wanted to say I appreciate the great analysis.

Also Leftwich remaining schedule doesn't look too bad, with 2 upcoming games in Houston, another in Tennessee during the regular season. His playoff schedule he faces Indy in week 14, @ Tenn in week 15, and NE week 16.

 

[prymetyme25]

the only thing that worries me about lefty is that if the pressure is really quick he can't get that ball off. (for a hot route) that wind up is just to slow. I know they say this alot about alot of qbs but if you give this guy 3-4 seconds of good protection he is deadly accurate(if though he doesn't have to be when your throwing to giants) and rarely makes mistakes. He was well worth is draft position.

 

[thecardiackid]

Just wanted to say I appreciate the great analysis. Also Leftwich remaining schedule doesn't look too bad, with 2 upcoming games in Houston, another in Tennessee during the regular season. His playoff schedule he faces Indy in week 14, @ Tenn in week 15, and NE week 16.

A lot of us forget he was on pace for a top 8-10ish finish last year before he got hurt (15tds through 11 games + 2 rush tds). And it's nice to see JDR trusting and letting him throw 35-40x a game thus far. Nice completion % (vs. 2 tough D's) and a decent run game to keep the defenses honest. I'm sure a lot of the unwarranted Gerrard speculation scared people away from this value play. And I agree the WRs have been a pleasant surprise thus far.I took him in 2 leagues as a b/u, but he's already passed Dante (till further notice) and I'd even consider spot starting him over Hass if the matchup was right @ this point. He just needs to avg 1.5+ tds/game for him to get the respect he deserves.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

the only thing that worries me about lefty is that if the pressure is really quick he can't get that ball off. (for a hot route) that wind up is just to slow. I know they say this alot about alot of qbs but if you give this guy 3-4 seconds of good protection he is deadly accurate(if though he doesn't have to be when your throwing to giants) and rarely makes mistakes. He was well worth is draft position.

But the Steelers get to the QB as quickly as anyone, don't they? I didn't see the game Monday, but from all acounts Lefty looked very good. I can't imagine him being in too many tougher situations than he was there.

 

[Sonny Lubick Blowup Doll]

Well put.

 

[ColForbin]

He's my #1 QB, w Rivers as my #2.

Jags @ Colts this week, Leftwich should put up points....right?

 

[prymetyme25]

the only thing that worries me about lefty is that if the pressure is really quick he can't get that ball off. (for a hot route) that wind up is just to slow. I know they say this alot about alot of qbs but if you give this guy 3-4 seconds of good protection he is deadly accurate(if though he doesn't have to be when your throwing to giants) and rarely makes mistakes. He was well worth is draft position.

But the Steelers get to the QB as quickly as anyone, don't they? I didn't see the game Monday, but from all acounts Lefty looked very good. I can't imagine him being in too many tougher situations than he was there.

There was actually two plays were he knew the rush was coming up the middle and he just couldn't get it out fast enough. He doesn't have that flip wrist pass he's all arm. If you see the game you'll see that on one occasion he knew exactly where he wanted to go but just couldn't get it out fast enough and couldn't get enough on the ball to reach the receiver.

 

[The Duff Man]

Good observations. One key point sticks out to me and that is that he had good protection up the middle. With his delivery, it seems to me that pressure up the middle would make life difficult for him.

I assume Pit knew this, so I credit the Jax line for their performance.

 

[On The Rocks]

Just wanted to say I appreciate the great analysis. Also Leftwich remaining schedule doesn't look too bad, with 2 upcoming games in Houston, another in Tennessee during the regular season. His playoff schedule he faces Indy in week 14, @ Tenn in week 15, and NE week 16.

he is going to have to remain healthy. something he hasn't done the last two years.i like BL a lot. i was able to draft him as my QB3 in the 18th round. the fact he was as effective as he was against the Steelers makes me a lot more comfortable starting him going forward.

 

[TD Ryan]

I posted this in another thread:

I have never been a huge Leftwich fan. I always considered him a bit of a baby-huey, soft, non-leader, lacking intangibles, doesn't have "IT" type QB... but he really did show composure and leadership in that Monday night game... and IMO, that game had a playoff feel to it. I still don't like his big windup and slow release, but you've got to give him credit. He lead that team well last night. His one INT wasn't his fault; it was a great defensive play.*IF* the Jags do indeed take that next step to being an elite NFL team. If they go deep into the playoffs. I believe the Mon. night win over PIT will be looked at as the game that Leftwich took a huge step forward in his development/maturity process.

after watching that Monday night game, looking at his schedule, and watching his WRs, I'm on the Leftwich bandwagon.

 

[pantagrapher]

I think another factor working in Lefty's favor is Fred Taylor. He looked great Monday night and the backs were biting late on the play action. Took the pressure off Byron and opened up some holes in the secondary, which he did a great job of spotting and exploiting. If Taylor runs like that all year, it obviously works to Lefty's advantage.

 

[Big Score]

One thing I saw with Lefty (besides his huge wind up & delivery) in both his games, is that he's still a little slow in reading the D's.

Watching him closely, on pass plays, he only scans one half of the field wherte his primary target is, before deciding on who he'll throw to. Granted, this was against the Dallas & Steeler's D & maybe Del Rio told him to do that, but if you watch the preeminent passers, they'll scan the entire field, no matter who the D is.

 

[Joe Bryant]

Good stuff Bob. I've not been a big Jacsksonville fan in the past but this team looks to have the goods. Extremely physical plus all the skill guys.

Jones has lots of potential and can be much better. He should have had the jump ball on the Hail Mary. Williams is finally becoming the player they drafted. Health (as it is for most teams) will be big.

I'm really interested to see how the Indy game goes. They have a shot to really out physical them. I was surprised at how they dominated Pittsburgh that way.

J

 

[Wadsworth]

One thing I saw with Lefty (besides his huge wind up & delivery) in both his games, is that he's still a little slow in reading the D's.Watching him closely, on pass plays, he only scans one half of the field wherte his primary target is, before deciding on who he'll throw to. Granted, this was against the Dallas & Steeler's D & maybe Del Rio told him to do that, but if you watch the preeminent passers, they'll scan the entire field, no matter who the D is.

If anything Leftwich scans too long. And by "scans" I mean he goes through his reads too deeply sometimes and he'll hang on one WR waiting for him to get open sometimes. But he has improved in this greatly so far this season. Look at the number of passes to Fred Taylor and other safety value RBs and TEs. Also, he's been sacked just two times this seasons with games against Pitt and Dallas(wow, that's pretty impressive). The O-line deserve credit for this but so does Leftwich for improving on getting rid of the ball when things are going poorly, which has been a problem for him in past seasons. The game this weekend should tell us a lot about how far Leftwich has come. David Carr and Eli both put up very good numbers against the colts defense. If Leftwich is going to be a legit fantasy QB1, he needs to have a productive game. You can somewhat give him a pass for dallas and pitt defenses, but there no reason he shouldn't put up numbers against the colts.

 

[Wadsworth]

Also, it's worth adding that Marcedes Lewis has had a high ankle sprain and been very limited. Before the injury he was looking outstanding and appeared to be a big part of the Jags redzone plans if nothing else. Once he's healthy, it should add a new and possibly very productive element to the Jags attack. Remember that Mike Tice is there now and Tice had some very productive TEs with the Vikes.

As a side note, Marcedes Lewis is much bigger in person than you'd expect. I know 6'6", 265 already sounds big, but even though those numbers are real he almost looks skinny because his frame is huge. It appears he could add another 15-20 very easily and not lose much if anything in terms of speed/quickness. I would not be surprised to see him playing at 280+ in a year or two.

 

[Big Score]

One thing I saw with Lefty (besides his huge wind up & delivery) in both his games, is that he's still a little slow in reading the D's.

Watching him closely, on pass plays, he only scans one half of the field wherte his primary target is, before deciding on who he'll throw to. Granted, this was against the Dallas & Steeler's D & maybe Del Rio told him to do that, but if you watch the preeminent passers, they'll scan the entire field, no matter who the D is.

If anything Leftwich scans too long. And by "scans" I mean he goes through his reads too deeply sometimes and he'll hang on one WR waiting for him to get open sometimes. But he has improved in this greatly so far this season. Look at the number of passes to Fred Taylor and other safety value RBs and TEs. Also, he's been sacked just two times this seasons with games against Pitt and Dallas(wow, that's pretty impressive). The O-line deserve credit for this but so does Leftwich for improving on getting rid of the ball when things are going poorly, which has been a problem for him in past seasons. The game this weekend should tell us a lot about how far Leftwich has come. David Carr and Eli both put up very good numbers against the colts defense. If Leftwich is going to be a legit fantasy QB1, he needs to have a productive game. You can somewhat give him a pass for dallas and pitt defenses, but there no reason he shouldn't put up numbers against the colts.

You saying that in the past, Lefty has been guilty of scanning the field too long, tells me that him only checking half the field now, is probably under Del Rio's instructions.Lefty is no Manning or Palmer at reading D's, so it makes sense for Del Rio to simplify his reads for him. It is a Tell though. DC's will pick up on it (if they haven't already) and instruct their players accordingly.

EDIT:

Of course, with the size advantage the Jax WR's will enjoy most weeks, I'm not sure it'll matter as long as Lefty keeps up his accuracy.

 

[Wheelhouse]

FWIW - Leftwich plays at IND this week. IND has allowed 5 passing TD so far in 2 games.

 

[Sigmund Bloom]

until recently i thought of del rio as defensive minded & arch conservative, but with greg jones being out fo the season, they may not be able to pound the ball as well... maybe the coaching staff will let him air it out more, if that is their best chance at moving the ball... especially given that he has shown an ability to be careful with it...

I've been bullish on Leftwich all offseason - it looks like his arm and even his hardnosed (if sluggish) running are going to be the leading options in the red zone, and he seems to have a knack for putting the ball in places only his tall receivers can get - crucial for red zone passing. A strong armed QB, with a gunslinger mentality, having 4 targets over 6'4" to throw to, and no good short yardage runner - could definitely be a perfect storm for fantasy numbers. I too was surprised to see how much Leftwich has gotten to pass so far this year - I considered him akin to Big Ben - skills to put up numbers, but stuck in a run first offense - that definitely looks like its changing.

 

[Bri]

Bob,

during the game the announcers were commenting on the touch he showed, how usually he just fires every ball. Just looked like a slower dart to me, but he really does throw it awful hard most times. Do you see that as a problem in the cold(cold hands) or at anytime?

He said he was amongst the top 10 fastest QBs, he just never runs. He wouldn't give a top ten but quipped he was faster than his friend, Chad Pennington. He looks pretty slow to me, what do you think?

 

[Warpig]

a concern with leftwich is on his follow through his lead leg gets stuck out quite far, which may make him more vulnerable to injuries (which has happened few times already dating back to marshall, though i don't know if the specific broken leg injuries were due to this factor)...** i forgot what a cannon lefty has (guess the big windup has something to do with that )... when he had time to set up, on some of the 15-20 yard bullets, if his WR had a step or two on the DB, the ball just exploded out of his hand and got into the WR almost instantaneously... the DBs had almost no chance of getting the hand on the ball... he is also extremely accurate when protected, which helps here... before he got hurt last season, i think he was pacing for something like just 7 INTs, which is outstanding...

Good stuff Bob. Theisman even made a comment about how wide Lefty's throwing stance was which showed that the interior line was giving him plenty of time and room to really let him wind up and rocket the pass. Which is another thing I was impressed with. He seems to really have a cannon arm and throws tight spirals with excellent velocity. He just needs to work on his accuracy a bit more since he did overthrow and underthrow some guys (some in the dirt ala Mike Vick).I'm optimistic about the Jags chances this season. If Fred Taylor continues to run hard like Monday night, the line continues to gel and provide terrific protection, and keep the defense healthy...Scary.

 

[Bri]

Theisman even made a comment about how wide Lefty's throwing stance was which showed that the interior line was giving him plenty of time and room to really let him wind up and rocket the pass. Which is another thing I was impressed with.

I remember that. That was a huge stance, like geesh is he gonna drop down and do a split? Were you impressed with the stance or the blocking? If stance, why?

 

[Warpig]

Theisman even made a comment about how wide Lefty's throwing stance was which showed that the interior line was giving him plenty of time and room to really let him wind up and rocket the pass. Which is another thing I was impressed with.

I remember that. That was a huge stance, like geesh is he gonna drop down and do a split? Were you impressed with the stance or the blocking? If stance, why?

I was inpressed with both. If it weren't for the blocking he wouldn't have been able to have such a wide stance. And his stance goes to show when given time he can be a very impressive QB. It was, for lack of a better word, pretty.

 

[TME]

One thing I saw with Lefty (besides his huge wind up & delivery) in both his games, is that he's still a little slow in reading the D's.

Watching him closely, on pass plays, he only scans one half of the field wherte his primary target is, before deciding on who he'll throw to. Granted, this was against the Dallas & Steeler's D & maybe Del Rio told him to do that, but if you watch the preeminent passers, they'll scan the entire field, no matter who the D is.

If anything Leftwich scans too long. And by "scans" I mean he goes through his reads too deeply sometimes and he'll hang on one WR waiting for him to get open sometimes. But he has improved in this greatly so far this season. Look at the number of passes to Fred Taylor and other safety value RBs and TEs. Also, he's been sacked just two times this seasons with games against Pitt and Dallas(wow, that's pretty impressive). The O-line deserve credit for this but so does Leftwich for improving on getting rid of the ball when things are going poorly, which has been a problem for him in past seasons. The game this weekend should tell us a lot about how far Leftwich has come. David Carr and Eli both put up very good numbers against the colts defense. If Leftwich is going to be a legit fantasy QB1, he needs to have a productive game. You can somewhat give him a pass for dallas and pitt defenses, but there no reason he shouldn't put up numbers against the colts.

You saying that in the past, Lefty has been guilty of scanning the field too long, tells me that him only checking half the field now, is probably under Del Rio's instructions.Lefty is no Manning or Palmer at reading D's, so it makes sense for Del Rio to simplify his reads for him. It is a Tell though. DC's will pick up on it (if they haven't already) and instruct their players accordingly.

EDIT:

Of course, with the size advantage the Jax WR's will enjoy most weeks, I'm not sure it'll matter as long as Lefty keeps up his accuracy.

Interesting observations and I am compelled to go back and watch some tape again (if still on DVR or maybe an NFL Network reply), but Jax was also employing a lot of max-protect to keep Lefty clean and thus, 2-3 man routes with the 3rd guy (on the backside) not really an option. It's keeping it simple and giving your QB time. It works when a team blitzes a lot ala Steelers (does not work so well when the D drops 7-8). Just a thought, could be a reason why the passing game looked so simple...because it indeed was and intentionally.

 

[Wadsworth]

One thing I saw with Lefty (besides his huge wind up & delivery) in both his games, is that he's still a little slow in reading the D's.

Watching him closely, on pass plays, he only scans one half of the field wherte his primary target is, before deciding on who he'll throw to. Granted, this was against the Dallas & Steeler's D & maybe Del Rio told him to do that, but if you watch the preeminent passers, they'll scan the entire field, no matter who the D is.

If anything Leftwich scans too long. And by "scans" I mean he goes through his reads too deeply sometimes and he'll hang on one WR waiting for him to get open sometimes. But he has improved in this greatly so far this season. Look at the number of passes to Fred Taylor and other safety value RBs and TEs. Also, he's been sacked just two times this seasons with games against Pitt and Dallas(wow, that's pretty impressive). The O-line deserve credit for this but so does Leftwich for improving on getting rid of the ball when things are going poorly, which has been a problem for him in past seasons. The game this weekend should tell us a lot about how far Leftwich has come. David Carr and Eli both put up very good numbers against the colts defense. If Leftwich is going to be a legit fantasy QB1, he needs to have a productive game. You can somewhat give him a pass for dallas and pitt defenses, but there no reason he shouldn't put up numbers against the colts.

You saying that in the past, Lefty has been guilty of scanning the field too long, tells me that him only checking half the field now, is probably under Del Rio's instructions.Lefty is no Manning or Palmer at reading D's, so it makes sense for Del Rio to simplify his reads for him. It is a Tell though. DC's will pick up on it (if they haven't already) and instruct their players accordingly.

I would argue that Leftwich reading too long in the past has been more an element of both; young WRs not getting open very often and his own faith in his toughness being able to take a hit, so he'd hold onto the ball until the last possible moment. A more mature QB would throw it off to a safety value or just throw the ball away when nothing was developing. But Byron has tended to sit in the pocket and wait for something to open up. No matter how tough you are, that doesn't work in the NFL. Leftwich is reading the whole field and there's no training wheels version installed by Del Rio because of Byron's limited ability to read defenses. He read defenses last season well enough to have a top 10 QB rating and 3:1 TD:INT ratio and be on pace for a top 10 fantasy QB season and set the Jags single season TD record. Part of the problem has been his whole career he's been throwing to at WR an aged Jimmy Smith and a bunch of kids, at TE Kyle Brady, and no RB better than average at best at catching balls. I'm not saying he's better than Palmer, but Palmer did come into a situation with Chad, TJ and Warrick(later Henry) at WR, Perry is pretty dang good as a pass catching RB, an excellent O-line, strong running game and worse defense so they have to score more. Conversely, Leftwich had limited skill position talent around him, a team built to win with defense and ball control and a coach that cut his teeth with Baltimore and Carolina, two teams that had great success with bigtime D and enough offense to get by. Don't sell Byron's ability short just yet. When you consider his situation, he's done quite well and it bodes well for the future.

 

[Big Score]

One thing I saw with Lefty (besides his huge wind up & delivery) in both his games, is that he's still a little slow in reading the D's.

Watching him closely, on pass plays, he only scans one half of the field wherte his primary target is, before deciding on who he'll throw to. Granted, this was against the Dallas & Steeler's D & maybe Del Rio told him to do that, but if you watch the preeminent passers, they'll scan the entire field, no matter who the D is.

If anything Leftwich scans too long. And by "scans" I mean he goes through his reads too deeply sometimes and he'll hang on one WR waiting for him to get open sometimes. But he has improved in this greatly so far this season. Look at the number of passes to Fred Taylor and other safety value RBs and TEs. Also, he's been sacked just two times this seasons with games against Pitt and Dallas(wow, that's pretty impressive). The O-line deserve credit for this but so does Leftwich for improving on getting rid of the ball when things are going poorly, which has been a problem for him in past seasons. The game this weekend should tell us a lot about how far Leftwich has come. David Carr and Eli both put up very good numbers against the colts defense. If Leftwich is going to be a legit fantasy QB1, he needs to have a productive game. You can somewhat give him a pass for dallas and pitt defenses, but there no reason he shouldn't put up numbers against the colts.

You saying that in the past, Lefty has been guilty of scanning the field too long, tells me that him only checking half the field now, is probably under Del Rio's instructions.Lefty is no Manning or Palmer at reading D's, so it makes sense for Del Rio to simplify his reads for him. It is a Tell though. DC's will pick up on it (if they haven't already) and instruct their players accordingly.

EDIT:

Of course, with the size advantage the Jax WR's will enjoy most weeks, I'm not sure it'll matter as long as Lefty keeps up his accuracy.

Interesting observations and I am compelled to go back and watch some tape again (if still on DVR or maybe an NFL Network reply), but Jax was also employing a lot of max-protect to keep Lefty clean and thus, 2-3 man routes with the 3rd guy (on the backside) not really an option. It's keeping it simple and giving your QB time. It works when a team blitzes a lot ala Steelers (does not work so well when the D drops 7-8). Just a thought, could be a reason why the passing game looked so simple...because it indeed was and intentionally.

Agreed. And that would be why I pointed it out in my first post;

"Granted, this was against the Dallas & Steeler's D & maybe Del Rio told him to do that...."

 

[Big Score]

One thing I saw with Lefty (besides his huge wind up & delivery) in both his games, is that he's still a little slow in reading the D's.

Watching him closely, on pass plays, he only scans one half of the field wherte his primary target is, before deciding on who he'll throw to. Granted, this was against the Dallas & Steeler's D & maybe Del Rio told him to do that, but if you watch the preeminent passers, they'll scan the entire field, no matter who the D is.

If anything Leftwich scans too long. And by "scans" I mean he goes through his reads too deeply sometimes and he'll hang on one WR waiting for him to get open sometimes. But he has improved in this greatly so far this season. Look at the number of passes to Fred Taylor and other safety value RBs and TEs. Also, he's been sacked just two times this seasons with games against Pitt and Dallas(wow, that's pretty impressive). The O-line deserve credit for this but so does Leftwich for improving on getting rid of the ball when things are going poorly, which has been a problem for him in past seasons. The game this weekend should tell us a lot about how far Leftwich has come. David Carr and Eli both put up very good numbers against the colts defense. If Leftwich is going to be a legit fantasy QB1, he needs to have a productive game. You can somewhat give him a pass for dallas and pitt defenses, but there no reason he shouldn't put up numbers against the colts.

You saying that in the past, Lefty has been guilty of scanning the field too long, tells me that him only checking half the field now, is probably under Del Rio's instructions.Lefty is no Manning or Palmer at reading D's, so it makes sense for Del Rio to simplify his reads for him. It is a Tell though. DC's will pick up on it (if they haven't already) and instruct their players accordingly.

I would argue that Leftwich reading too long in the past has been more an element of both; young WRs not getting open very often and his own faith in his toughness being able to take a hit, so he'd hold onto the ball until the last possible moment. A more mature QB would throw it off to a safety value or just throw the ball away when nothing was developing. But Byron has tended to sit in the pocket and wait for something to open up. No matter how tough you are, that doesn't work in the NFL. Leftwich is reading the whole field and there's no training wheels version installed by Del Rio because of Byron's limited ability to read defenses. He read defenses last season well enough to have a top 10 QB rating and 3:1 TD:INT ratio and be on pace for a top 10 fantasy QB season and set the Jags single season TD record. Part of the problem has been his whole career he's been throwing to at WR an aged Jimmy Smith and a bunch of kids, at TE Kyle Brady, and no RB better than average at best at catching balls. I'm not saying he's better than Palmer, but Palmer did come into a situation with Chad, TJ and Warrick(later Henry) at WR, Perry is pretty dang good as a pass catching RB, an excellent O-line, strong running game and worse defense so they have to score more. Conversely, Leftwich had limited skill position talent around him, a team built to win with defense and ball control and a coach that cut his teeth with Baltimore and Carolina, two teams that had great success with bigtime D and enough offense to get by. Don't sell Byron's ability short just yet. When you consider his situation, he's done quite well and it bodes well for the future.

To be honest, Lefty looked slow at reading D's last year as well, but you're right that could well be the result of the Targets he was throwing to & his own confidence in his ability to take a hit.Dude is one tough ol' son of a gun

 

[infantsam]

I'm thrilled to have him as my QB#2

 

[infantsam]

I'm thrilled to have him as my QB#2

 

[Mr. Brownstone]

One thing I saw with Lefty (besides his huge wind up & delivery) in both his games, is that he's still a little slow in reading the D's.

Watching him closely, on pass plays, he only scans one half of the field wherte his primary target is, before deciding on who he'll throw to. Granted, this was against the Dallas & Steeler's D & maybe Del Rio told him to do that, but if you watch the preeminent passers, they'll scan the entire field, no matter who the D is.

If anything Leftwich scans too long. And by "scans" I mean he goes through his reads too deeply sometimes and he'll hang on one WR waiting for him to get open sometimes. But he has improved in this greatly so far this season. Look at the number of passes to Fred Taylor and other safety value RBs and TEs. Also, he's been sacked just two times this seasons with games against Pitt and Dallas(wow, that's pretty impressive). The O-line deserve credit for this but so does Leftwich for improving on getting rid of the ball when things are going poorly, which has been a problem for him in past seasons. The game this weekend should tell us a lot about how far Leftwich has come. David Carr and Eli both put up very good numbers against the colts defense. If Leftwich is going to be a legit fantasy QB1, he needs to have a productive game. You can somewhat give him a pass for dallas and pitt defenses, but there no reason he shouldn't put up numbers against the colts.

You saying that in the past, Lefty has been guilty of scanning the field too long, tells me that him only checking half the field now, is probably under Del Rio's instructions.Lefty is no Manning or Palmer at reading D's, so it makes sense for Del Rio to simplify his reads for him. It is a Tell though. DC's will pick up on it (if they haven't already) and instruct their players accordingly.

I would argue that Leftwich reading too long in the past has been more an element of both; young WRs not getting open very often and his own faith in his toughness being able to take a hit, so he'd hold onto the ball until the last possible moment. A more mature QB would throw it off to a safety value or just throw the ball away when nothing was developing. But Byron has tended to sit in the pocket and wait for something to open up. No matter how tough you are, that doesn't work in the NFL. Leftwich is reading the whole field and there's no training wheels version installed by Del Rio because of Byron's limited ability to read defenses. He read defenses last season well enough to have a top 10 QB rating and 3:1 TD:INT ratio and be on pace for a top 10 fantasy QB season and set the Jags single season TD record. Part of the problem has been his whole career he's been throwing to at WR an aged Jimmy Smith and a bunch of kids, at TE Kyle Brady, and no RB better than average at best at catching balls. I'm not saying he's better than Palmer, but Palmer did come into a situation with Chad, TJ and Warrick(later Henry) at WR, Perry is pretty dang good as a pass catching RB, an excellent O-line, strong running game and worse defense so they have to score more. Conversely, Leftwich had limited skill position talent around him, a team built to win with defense and ball control and a coach that cut his teeth with Baltimore and Carolina, two teams that had great success with bigtime D and enough offense to get by. Don't sell Byron's ability short just yet. When you consider his situation, he's done quite well and it bodes well for the future.

, as usual.

 

[blenderfrog]

Nice write-up Bob! Thanks for the insight!

 

[Jiggyonthehut]

1 - lefty has been taken to task in the past for being somewhat ponderous & having a time consuming delivery. there were reports in the off season that he worked hard at getting trimmer, quicker & more explosive. one thing i noticed is that he had very good protection for the most part, but when he got pressure from the edge, he flashed good pocket sense & short area escapability. for instance, marino was notoriously slow, but was great at taking that little half step to one side or the other which would then give him the time to find his WR & get ball off (of course he had the fastest release in the business)...

What you said above was such a big knock on Lefty, especially when people in Jacksonville apparently though Lefty had abandoned them while in the playoff hunt. Hence the mystique of David Garrad, who was much more mobile and able to open up the field more, especially for the recievers. I think Lefty finally got the message here. It was inevitable that a pure pocket passer would be injured seriously. I think the message was really driven home this preseason, especially during the game against Miami.When Lefty was in the shotgun, Fred Taylor delivered a botched cut block on Zach Thomas, who was blitzing. Had Lefty not moved the slightest bit to avoid the rush (which he often didnt do last season), Thomas, who was sliding forward, would have crashed into Leftwich's knee and ended his season. Lefty was shown the footage and since, hes moved around great. But credit him for a great offseason. Sure you do lose weight just by playing in Jacksonville, but his mobility has signifcantly increased and he looks like he's in control of his body. Good for him.

2 - it seemed to me that when there was pressure (& it didn't seem like there was a lot, but i don't have sack count handy), it came more often from the edge... but he was able to step into his throws a lot, which tells me that there was not a lot of pressure generated from the inside... i don't know PIT defensive scheme well enough to recall if this is typical, & they are better at generating pressure from outside, but i don't think that is necessarily the case... i clearly saw on one play where polamalu tried to crash through on the inside & was fairly easily neutralized by the center or guard... i thought the JAX OL was a bit of a question mark based on 05, but if they continue to get strong play from the interior OL, this should bode well for 06...

Let me be the first to say I was a huge skeptic of the Jags OL. It seemed to be comming apart through the offseason and through the preseason. But a large part of the uncertainty revolved around the interior of the Jags OL, including C Meester, G's Manuwai and Naeole, all (IIRC) who were injured or playing injured in the WildCard loss last season. Not knowing their status, I was devastated when the Jaguars did not pursue any OL during the draft and thought another long season was ahead. Lefty has shown he's surgical when given the time to scan the field. But it seems they have it under control. Credit the Jags FO for not overreacting and trusting the scouting reports of the coaches, and ultimately keeping the core nucleus of guys who have already meshed as a unit. But perhaps the biggest share of kudos belongs to Coach Mike Tice for really getting these guys to play to their potential. Meester, Manuwai and Naeole have been lights out and Kalif Barnes has really come into his own, shutting down the edge rush and Joey Porter on several occasions. The only question remains RT Mo Williams, but he's held his man in check at least and held a pretty darn good edge rusher in Marcus Spears sackless. But I fear that teams will target him as the weak link.Kyle Brady is still a monster. If they ascend to pre-04 potential, the offense is in position to explode.

3 - jones & reggie williams are stepping up in absence of jimmy smith... they seem to be getting better right in front of our eyes seemingly every game... they could be even better by the second half... and hopefully by that time marcedes lewis may be recovered from high ankle sprain... he could be a formidable chain mover & red zone weapon...

Ive said it all along, Reggie Williams is the cog to this offense. He's the most sure handed of all the Jags WR's from last year (including Jimmy Smith) and what he lacks in speed he makes up with his size and elusiveness. Down the stretch, he will have to be that possession reciever they never had since McCardell. Its also an added bonus that hes a great jump-ball reciever as well. As for Matt Jones, Im still willing to spare him some time to develop. He has unnatural physical tools that I dont think even he has come to grips with. Ill point to the jumpball Hail Mary at the end of the half. He had his hands in perfect position for the catch and actually had the ball in his hands but mysteriously pulled away as if he had no play on the ball. All I could do after that is smile. The kid is something special and once he gets it all together, we'll be talking about him years down the road. As for his problems with breaking the jam, one big deal that I keyed on during minicamp, he's seeming to have no problems. Against tough corners, he's bullied them and caught several key first downs and showing some real maturity out there. His speed has yet to be utilized but I think thats more a product of the coaches not trusting the pass protection just yet. This guy is the real deal. And yes, Marcedes Lewis is comming back and even in his limited time, was a favorite target of Leftwich's during the preseason. Dont expect immediate results but know that Leftwich has size and speed at his disposal. His stats should be real gaudy this year. Props to Freddy T for carrying the load and looking great while doing so.

4 - with the defense as good as it is (stroud & hendo best DT tandem, peterson one of best LBs in the league, mathis one of best CBs, etc), they could get the ball a lot, & with some short fields...

Darn right. But thats almost a gimme. How about the play of Rob Meier, a backup DT who will fill in for Reggie Hayward for the entire season. The pressure from that side seemed unrelenting and is a testament to the type of players that both Coughlin and Del Rio love. But the star of the Pitt game, to me, was Brian Williams, who was tough in coverage and phyiscal in dealing with recievers, delivering huge hits and making several incredible plays on catchable balls. I think we found our long term answer across from Mathis and really he deserves every penny of his contract based upon the way he played on Monday. Call me a but having followed this team basically since inception and seeing the development of players makes my heart swell a bit.

 

[Big Score]

One thing I saw with Lefty (besides his huge wind up & delivery) in both his games, is that he's still a little slow in reading the D's.

Watching him closely, on pass plays, he only scans one half of the field wherte his primary target is, before deciding on who he'll throw to. Granted, this was against the Dallas & Steeler's D & maybe Del Rio told him to do that, but if you watch the preeminent passers, they'll scan the entire field, no matter who the D is.

If anything Leftwich scans too long. And by "scans" I mean he goes through his reads too deeply sometimes and he'll hang on one WR waiting for him to get open sometimes. But he has improved in this greatly so far this season. Look at the number of passes to Fred Taylor and other safety value RBs and TEs. Also, he's been sacked just two times this seasons with games against Pitt and Dallas(wow, that's pretty impressive). The O-line deserve credit for this but so does Leftwich for improving on getting rid of the ball when things are going poorly, which has been a problem for him in past seasons. The game this weekend should tell us a lot about how far Leftwich has come. David Carr and Eli both put up very good numbers against the colts defense. If Leftwich is going to be a legit fantasy QB1, he needs to have a productive game. You can somewhat give him a pass for dallas and pitt defenses, but there no reason he shouldn't put up numbers against the colts.

You saying that in the past, Lefty has been guilty of scanning the field too long, tells me that him only checking half the field now, is probably under Del Rio's instructions.Lefty is no Manning or Palmer at reading D's, so it makes sense for Del Rio to simplify his reads for him. It is a Tell though. DC's will pick up on it (if they haven't already) and instruct their players accordingly.

I would argue that Leftwich reading too long in the past has been more an element of both; young WRs not getting open very often and his own faith in his toughness being able to take a hit, so he'd hold onto the ball until the last possible moment. A more mature QB would throw it off to a safety value or just throw the ball away when nothing was developing. But Byron has tended to sit in the pocket and wait for something to open up. No matter how tough you are, that doesn't work in the NFL. Leftwich is reading the whole field and there's no training wheels version installed by Del Rio because of Byron's limited ability to read defenses. He read defenses last season well enough to have a top 10 QB rating and 3:1 TD:INT ratio and be on pace for a top 10 fantasy QB season and set the Jags single season TD record. Part of the problem has been his whole career he's been throwing to at WR an aged Jimmy Smith and a bunch of kids, at TE Kyle Brady, and no RB better than average at best at catching balls. I'm not saying he's better than Palmer, but Palmer did come into a situation with Chad, TJ and Warrick(later Henry) at WR, Perry is pretty dang good as a pass catching RB, an excellent O-line, strong running game and worse defense so they have to score more. Conversely, Leftwich had limited skill position talent around him, a team built to win with defense and ball control and a coach that cut his teeth with Baltimore and Carolina, two teams that had great success with bigtime D and enough offense to get by. Don't sell Byron's ability short just yet. When you consider his situation, he's done quite well and it bodes well for the future.

I have to say that after watching this most recent game between the Jags & Indy, Lefty only served to further solidify my view that he's still pretty lacking in his ability to read D's.No doubt that the game plan was very conservative & dumbed down for him, which is fine when you've got the lead, but once the Jags fell behind and pressure was put on their passing game, bad things happened.

His O'line was giving him plenty of time and yet he was making one bad decision after another, until ultimately he cost them any chance at a win.

Sorry, but I don't see much progress in Lefty's ability to read D's.

 

[Wadsworth]

I have to say that after watching this most recent game between the Jags & Indy, Lefty only served to further solidify my view that he's still pretty lacking in his ability to read D's.No doubt that the game plan was very conservative & dumbed down for him, which is fine when you've got the lead, but once the Jags fell behind and pressure was put on their passing game, bad things happened.His O'line was giving him plenty of time and yet he was making one bad decision after another, until ultimately he cost them any chance at a win.Sorry, but I don't see much progress in Lefty's ability to read D's.

Which plays led you to that opinion? Matt Jones was hurt and hardly used so the passing offense was a little different. The Jags chose to try and run early and often, but I don't think that had anything to do with Leftwich not being able to read defenses. That had everything to do with Simon and Sanders being missing from a D that's not that good against to run to begin with. Obviously the running attack was working. More than anything Byron threw bad balls today. Which is odd, because it's usually the strong part of his game. But he missed several open WR with poor passes. I don't think that has anything to do with bad reads, it's poor passing.

 

[Big Score]

I have to say that after watching this most recent game between the Jags & Indy, Lefty only served to further solidify my view that he's still pretty lacking in his ability to read D's.No doubt that the game plan was very conservative & dumbed down for him, which is fine when you've got the lead, but once the Jags fell behind and pressure was put on their passing game, bad things happened.His O'line was giving him plenty of time and yet he was making one bad decision after another, until ultimately he cost them any chance at a win.Sorry, but I don't see much progress in Lefty's ability to read D's.

Which plays led you to that opinion?

You've answered your own question here.

More than anything Byron threw bad balls today.

&

But he missed several open WR with poor passes.

As well as missing several wide open WR's for good gains by instead throwing to his checkdowns of either the RB's or TE's. Also forced some throws into double coverage, one of which resulted in a pick and ended the jags chance of a comeback.

I don't think that has anything to do with bad reads, it's poor passing.

No, it was both today.

 

[Wadsworth]

I have to say that after watching this most recent game between the Jags & Indy, Lefty only served to further solidify my view that he's still pretty lacking in his ability to read D's.No doubt that the game plan was very conservative & dumbed down for him, which is fine when you've got the lead, but once the Jags fell behind and pressure was put on their passing game, bad things happened.His O'line was giving him plenty of time and yet he was making one bad decision after another, until ultimately he cost them any chance at a win.Sorry, but I don't see much progress in Lefty's ability to read D's.

Which plays led you to that opinion?

You've answered your own question here.

More than anything Byron threw bad balls today.

&

But he missed several open WR with poor passes.

As well as missing several wide open WR's for good gains by instead throwing to his checkdowns of either the RB's or TE's. Also forced some throws into double coverage, one of which resulted in a pick and ended the jags chance of a comeback.

I don't think that has anything to do with bad reads, it's poor passing.

No, it was both today.

The late throw that ended a chance at a comeback wasn't forced, it was a bad throw. Reggie Williams had more than a step and could have scored. Byron threw a bad pass. The earlier interception was a bad pass. I'm not sure how you know about all these WRs that were wide open from watching the game on TV, they don't show secondary. Byron had a bad game for sure. He missed open WRs, even some very short passes in flat. But you continue to harp on Byron's so called inability to read Ds and the Jags having to "dumb down" the offense for him. That's the part I don't understand and it certainly was not answered in my previous post. If you have some examples to support your opinion that the Jags are "dumbing down" the offense because Byron isn't able to read defenses please share it.

 

[Big Score]

I have to say that after watching this most recent game between the Jags & Indy, Lefty only served to further solidify my view that he's still pretty lacking in his ability to read D's.No doubt that the game plan was very conservative & dumbed down for him, which is fine when you've got the lead, but once the Jags fell behind and pressure was put on their passing game, bad things happened.His O'line was giving him plenty of time and yet he was making one bad decision after another, until ultimately he cost them any chance at a win.Sorry, but I don't see much progress in Lefty's ability to read D's.

Which plays led you to that opinion?

You've answered your own question here.

More than anything Byron threw bad balls today.

&

But he missed several open WR with poor passes.

As well as missing several wide open WR's for good gains by instead throwing to his checkdowns of either the RB's or TE's. Also forced some throws into double coverage, one of which resulted in a pick and ended the jags chance of a comeback.

I don't think that has anything to do with bad reads, it's poor passing.

No, it was both today.

The late throw that ended a chance at a comeback wasn't forced, it was a bad throw. Reggie Williams had more than a step and could have scored. Byron threw a bad pass. The earlier interception was a bad pass. I'm not sure how you know about all these WRs that were wide open from watching the game on TV, they don't show secondary. Byron had a bad game for sure. He missed open WRs, even some very short passes in flat. But you continue to harp on Byron's so called inability to read Ds and the Jags having to "dumb down" the offense for him. That's the part I don't understand and it certainly was not answered in my previous post. If you have some examples to support your opinion that the Jags are "dumbing down" the offense because Byron isn't able to read defenses please share it.

On a third & 5 I saw Matt Jones to the left and run a short inside hook coming open cleanly well past the third down marker. Lefty was doing his usual scan of only half the field always to the 2 WR side in 3 WR sets and completely missed the wide open jones, instead throwing a pass to a covered Wilford where the pass was broken up.That's just one thing I saw and I don't really feel like breaking down the entire game as you're obviously defensive about Leftwich for whatever reason.I'm not trying to make you mad or anything, I'm just calling it like I see it.