Updated: Discuss our Backup QB Situation (formerly Byron Leftwich)

[irish]

Originally Posted by Slingin Sammy 33

the sky being blue is nice....but it's still green (sorry couldn't resist)

I would argue that neither QB "took" his team to the playoffs. They didn't lose games for the most part, but when asked to put the team on their shoulders, neither could get it done. Not a slight to either QB, because I think both will be good, but Flacco & Ryan are by no means ahead of JC in development, not even close.

JC was asked to carry the team late in the season, behind a poor OL (and yes that makes a HUGE difference) and unfortunately he's not John Elway or Dan Marino. If you watched the games or look at the numbers, the rushing numbers along with passing numbers declined in the second half of the season, due to injury/poor OL play.

As far as talent at skill positions I would take the 2008 versions of Roddy White, Jenkins and Finneran or Mason, Clayton, whoever the Ravens third WR is, over Moss, ARE and our third (Thomas, Thrash). The OLs of both the Falcons and Ravens are tops in the league, ours is bottom third.

Falcons: #2 in rushing attempts, # 2 in Yds, # 3 in TDs, # 10 in Yds/Att.

Ravens: # 1 in Rush Att, # 4 in Yds, # 7 TDs, # 24 in Yds/Att.

These numbers show the superiority of the OLs. They also show coaches who are trying to protect young QBs with a solid run game.

After Week 2 and up until the Steelers game, the JC bashing crowd was nowhere to be found. Did JC magically just go from being one of the top performers in the league to being crap in 2-3 weeks? Did Portis go from being a top performer to crap in 2-3 weeks? Or maybe OL problems were really the major issue for our poor offensive performance.

The same arguments were made last off-season, those who supported Campbell last off-season were correct. He improved significantly from last season. This is not a point for dispute, it is fact. JC is not the problem, we've got issues on the OL that must be addressed or we will struggle in 2009.

The sky is often green in LA.

I can only chuckle that anyone would think JC is ahead of Flacco or Ryan. If nothing else having playoff experience puts F & R ahead of JC. Like I said in another post, CP's production went down in the second half because the Skins were often playing from behind and had to pass which put more on to JC that he didnt have to do in the first half when his numbers were good (because he didnt have to do more than flip short passes). The O line is very important but not critical to success as Pgh didnt have a very good O line this year but what they did have was a QB that could make/extend plays to win games. The Skins dont have that in their QB.

JC did improve a lot during this past offseason (there wasnt really anywhere to go but up but he did improve) and at his current rate the Skins will have a decent QB in 5 or 6 years.