Who Am I? (2 Viewers)

[Anarchy99]

Was not aware that he become the first QB in NFL history to throw for 400 yards three weeks in a row. 

 

[habsfan]

I keep saying that it's Fitz's prior history and Selection One, Round One. They're not going to give up on this guy who looks, to all NFL eyes, like the better quarterback. They're just not. And I'm really sympathetic to your argument.  

There was a great article Faust (I think) posted about Mike Martz and his belief in Fitz. It was sort of eye-opening. I know how people can slip through recruiting cracks of all sorts because they haven't had the teammates or coaching or pedigree. 

Every professional judgment is a million times a screen in a million different ways, if that makes any sense. Melville was a customs officer in life. We don't like it when things fly through the screen. It rocks our world. Years later, we find we were wrong.  

The interesting thing to me is that the Bucs are now potentially in this "QB turnstile" situation. You bench Fitz, who may be many things but the future of your franchise is not one of them, for a guy your franchise needs to make decisions on - fair enough. But how many bad games do you give Winston before you starting thinking about the guy on the bench who started the season they way Fitz did? How long before fans and players start calling for that guy? As I said up thread, if you have two QBs you don't have any...

 

[rockaction]

The interesting thing to me is that the Bucs are now potentially in this "QB turnstile" situation. You bench Fitz, who may be many things but the future of your franchise is not one of them, for a guy your franchise needs to make decisions on - fair enough. But how many bad games do you give Winston before you starting thinking about the guy on the bench who started the season they way Fitz did? How long before fans and players start calling for that guy? As I said up thread, if you have two QBs you don't have any...

I think the bolded is a pretty astute point. I guess Tampa has to hope that Jameis kills it when he comes back, because, if not, they've really got an issue. It's one Jameis caused himself, though, so I don't feel so bad for him.  Fitz has once again played his way into relevance, just like he did in Buffalo and New York under Chan Gailey when he had that great start and then that great year. 

My thoughts are that Jameis is the guy, but we'll see. The turnstile point is a good one, and one that can't be addressed but for Jameis playing comparably decently to Fitz.  

 

[rockaction]

I'm not saying he should have been pulled this season - Chicago is a tough D - but look at his seasons in Buffalo following them awarding him a franchise QB contract and what he did in Year 2 versus what he did in Year 1 with the Jets.

It really is foolish to ignore this. I also remember the last game of his first year with the Jets, which was a stinker. He wasn't so maligned for weapons with the Jets as that he held out of camp for a bit, IIRC, and just had a terrible year. He wanted his cash, and he got it. He also got what people who miss part of camp get. 

And that first year with the Jets, Marshall and Decker were sort of monsters on the ball, winning, as you pointed out, every 50-50 battle there was. It was a nice confluence, but never sustainable. I think that's what Tampa is thinking here.

eta* Or he missed OTAs. I honestly forget which.   

 

[gianmarco]

Was not aware that he become the first QB in NFL history to throw for 400 yards three weeks in a row. 

Also the 1st QB in NFL history to do that and get benched mid game the following week.

Going out on a limb and saying that record will never be broken.

 

[Anarchy99]

Also the 1st QB in NFL history to do that and get benched mid game the following week.

Going out on a limb and saying that record will never be broken.

That doesn't seem like it is an unbeatable record. I think a QB on a team with a mediocre defense and injuries to RBs could do that 4 games in a row in today's NFL. That seems right in Luck's wheelhouse.

 

[gianmarco]

That doesn't seem like it is an unbeatable record. I think a QB on a team with a mediocre defense and injuries to RBs could do that 4 games in a row in today's NFL. That seems right in Luck's wheelhouse.

I'm talking about the record of getting benched the week after accomplishing that.

 

[gianmarco]

 

[Long Ball Larry]

I think there's an assumption that if a guy played football at Harvard, he must be smart. And sure, he can't be a dummy. But it doesn't necessarily mean that he's unusually smart. 

The way Ivy League athletics work is that coaches are allowed to designate a number of applicants where they can essentially put their thumb on the scale. Again, these kids can't be total academic basket cases. But they definitely don't meet the standards of the general population of applicants. I actually went to an Ivy (with a good football program), and there were definitely guys on the team who were not exactly lighting it up in the classroom.

Think of it this way. If I told you there were two random students, one of whom went to Harvard and the other who went to the University of Tennessee, it would be reasonable to assume that the Harvard kid was smarter. But if I told you those two students were Ryan Fitzpatrick and Peyton Manning, that assumption becomes less reasonable. Because the reason Peyton went to UT was not that he wasn't smart enough. It's that he was too good at football. If he had wanted to go to Harvard, they would have found a way to admit him. And based on what I've seen of him, I'd say there's a pretty good chance that he's smarter than Fitz.

ETA: I just looked up, and apparently Fitz got 1580 on his SATs while Peyton got a 1030. So while my general point about Ivy League athletes still holds, I may have gotten it wrong in this specific case. Though I still think Peyton is plenty smart.

maybe sub in Joshua Dobbs.