Quote:
Originally Posted by skinsfan69
I would say it's a bad thing in our situation. I believe Madden or Aikman pointed this stat out during one of the games that we were really struggling in the passing game. Aikman did a few of our games so that means they break down film on us and so forth. And I remember Aikman making several comments about our offense needing to back the defense off of the line of scrimmage.
Remember that Elway had a real low % his first year starting. Manning threw 28 ints his first year starting. If he were completing 51% after the end of next year then you would have an argument. But nothing in his past suggests that this will continue. He was always above or around 60% in college.
I personally hope Brunell's shoulder heals and he comes back. He will be more comfortable in Al's offense. But I would let Collins compete for the back-up job.
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Elway actually has a really low career completion %. I mean, looking at that one stat out of context, it would seem silly to debate HOF credentials for Elway.
But John Elway did play in an era when QB friendly offenses pretty much only existed by way of the run n shoot, and the Bill Walsh west coast. I actually think the system that Elway was in (with Dan Reeves) for the 12 years of his career was one of the most QB unfriendly systems ever. A lot of vertical, not necessarily drive sustaining, but because of Elway, the system was successful.
But for a ROOKIE QB, a low completion % is acceptable. Very rarely is a rookie QB ever good enough to play much above replacement level. Matt Leinart was one exception, and Peyton Manning was another...but even they struggled mightily compared to what weve come to expect from them.
But that's the thing about Campbell--he wasn't a rookie. He had been practicing with NFL caliber talent every week for the last year and a half. The adjustment period between practice and a game was inevitable, but the propensity to force the ball downfield just seemed a bit perplexing. It's not like this was an issue with Campbell in college. He had a very good completion % in college. It just manifested itself for 5 games, and then disapeared for the last two. Weird.
Because of what he did in college, and the fact that he's now a 3rd year pro with 7 starts under his belt, we should see a numbers spike in Campbell. If we see no improvement this year, I'd be very worried about the accuracy of his projection. 7 games is a relatively small sample to judge a player, but because of the hype surrounding this kid in sabremetric circles, I guess I just expected to see smarter decision making right off the bat.
51% is still inexcusable for any non-rookie QB, and Campbell wasn't a rookie last year. Raw, yes. A rookie fresh out of college? Not at all.