Mark Sanchez at 13th?

[Masshole]

Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat

BPA at a position of need? Mark Sanchez fits the bill. QB is arguably the biggest position of need on our team.

People keep saying that Jason Campbell has consistenly improved; that if he gets a better O-line, more consistent play from his receivers, more time in a system, more explosive play from the running back position, more this, more that... that he'll become a solid NFL QB. Well, if you gave every 2nd and 3rd string QB in the NFL all of that, they'd probably be "solid" QBs as well. Some things are stronger than others, but theres not a single team in the NFL that doesnt have multiple needs.

The truth is, no QB gets the "perfect" environment. People keep saying over and over again that Tom Brady would be horrible on this team, behind this line and with these receivers, but that's the biggest load of crap i've ever heard. Tom Brady makes good decisions. Tom Brady knows when to throw the football. Tom Brady knows when to take a chance. Tom Brady looks deep and makes it through his reads... you get my drift.

86.5
85.7
85.9

Those are Tom Brady's numbers through his first three years starting. He didn't take off until his fourth year as a starter, 5th year in the league.

82.5 was Phillip Rivers' Qb rating last year. It was 105.5 this year, his fifth year in the league. Drew Brees in his first and second years starting went 76.9/67.5 then in his third year starting, fourth in the league, he went 104.7. Brett Favre 85.3, 72.9 in his first two years starting, took off in his 4th year. In 2001, Peyton Manning, in his fourth year as a starter and in the league, went 6-10 with the Colts, posted an 84.1 QB rating (about the same as Campbell's this year), then went 88.1 the next, and in his 6th year got to 99 and never looked back or went under that, nor did the Colts go anything less than 12-4 once he was locked in.

Are we seeing a trend?

Franchise QB's don't just come out ready made. Rothlesberger won early because he inherited a team that was STACKED and just needed a QB. Ryan was good, but we'll see what happens this year after teams have made adjustments. Franchise Qb's take time, they take patience and they take coaching before you get them to that level. Now, Brady experienced more on field success early then he should have because Bellichik cheated (no seriously. they played WAY over their stats, they had no business winning as many games as they did based on all of their efficiency stats. They cheated and besides completely undermining the integrity of the game, the reason the NFL won't do anything more than take away a draft pick and sweep it under the rug is because what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, namely paid out Super Bowl bets that would become defunct if further investigative action was taking).

However, the fact that he cheated doesn't negate the fact that Bellichik is, along with Bill Walsh, the best Coach/football mind in the modern era. And for all intents and purposes, Montana and Brady are considered the best QB's of the era (though I personally view Brady with a large astericks for the early work, now he's clearly a beast). So you can play the chicken and the egg game with them, but considering the two best qb's ever were starters at big name schools and still fell to the lower rounds tells me that many teams scouted them both and passed them over. So did all these professional scouts just miss something? Or did these two football geniuses take good qb's and make them great?

I mean, I don't necessarily know the answer to that, but what I do know is, statistically speaking, Franchise QB's make the leap between their 4th and 6th years in the league on average, and Campbell's about to hit 5th year, and really only just completed his first full season starting. So if he were a Franchise Qb (and I fully believe he has that potential), we would have only seen flashes of it by now, not the full package (like say, when he started 08 with a 100.7 QB Rating and beat the Cowboys and the Eagles with masterful performances on the road, or the Cardinals, or the comeback win against the Saints, to name a few). Bottom line is, it sure seems like you have to give qb's anywhere from 3-5 years to see what you've got, and we keep insisting on judging them in 2. And we don't win anything and haven't since Danny got here, and we ask why. That's why.