Good for Campbell

[Slingin Sammy 33]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

There's film evidence of Campbell misreading the coverage, missing open receivers, and not giving plays a chance to develop. There's just as much, if not more, film evidence of him doing a good job in the presnap phase, making fast reads, getting to third and fourth receivers, and making great throw under pressure (he's a top ten quarterback, statistically, under pressure).

I would argue against this point. He consistently misread pre-snap coverages and when the first option was covered went straight to his checkdown ignoring the second/third reads. Nor did he "make a bunch of great throws under pressure". What was more prevalent on film was Campbell making decent throws if his first read was open or using his size and stregth to avoid a rush and make a dump-off play for solid yardage. Under pressure he often misfired, missed secondary options, or forced a pass into double/triple coverage or a bad spot in a zone.....actually he did this with no pressure too.

Campbell had almost 550 plays last year. He missed a wide open receiver maybe 8-9 times. He might have passed on a tough but makable throw two or three times as often.

If of 550 plays in the season, there are 180 bad plays made by the quarterback (sacks, avoidable incompletions, interceptions), and 20-30 of them are because the quarterback got confused and missed his read or held the ball too long, and cost the team some points and perhaps half a win to a win, well, there's room for improvement. But by NFL standards, there's not a problem.

Are you saying that JC only made 2 or less bad plays (mis-reads of coverage, blitz protection, audibles, bad progressions, bad throws) and that his play was responsible for no more than one loss last year or am I misreading what you said?

A good analyst focuses on the 150 plays that went bad with Campbell doing his job at least respectably. Doesn't make the other 30 excusable mistakes, but if you fix 8 mistakes by changing the QB to someone better, and now have 170 bad passing plays in a season, well, what have you really done?

A good analyst doesn't focus primarily on stats but looks at them in context. A good analyst also focuses on the game situation and evaluates a player's performance based on plays that are made/not made when all other positions do their job. If the OL gives up a sack it's not on the QB, WR drops a ball not on the QB, QB makes a piss-poor read and throws into double coverage and gets lucky the DB dropped the ball...very bad play the QB, not just an INCP. QB misreads coverage and launches a ball down the sideline for an INT, but missed a wide open WR as a second progression that would've been a 20 yd+ play....terrible play by the QB.

Please tell me you aren't suggesting the difference between a top tier QB and Campbell is 8 plays a season. Campbell was in the top ten in Comp % last year, take a look at the other guys above him and the next five below him. Tell me what you notice about his stat line vs. those other guys.....it's glaring and considered the most important stat for a QB.

JC was second in the league in YAC at 54.3% behind only Stafford for guys throwing for over 1000 yards. This is not a good stat, your top tier QBs are generally in the 44-46% YAC range. This indicates what we all see on film....JC got a lot of yardage from dump-offs and screens. No one is nominating Zorn for the HoF for coaching, but he scaled his offense to what Campbell could do....and it wasn't an effective mid-deep passing game. I don't have the exact stat, but if I remember correctly JC was also top or close to tops in the NFL in passes thrown within 10 yds of the LoS.

If JC was anything other than a lower level starter or solid backup, why did we only get a 4th rounder in 2012 for him....from the Raiders, who were basically QB-less. Conversely we gave up a high 2nd and 3rd/4th in 2011 for McNabb on what could turn out to be (worst case) a one year rental and McNabb is what, six years older than JC.


Quick link on the Raiders/Cowboys game....the parts about JC are same-old, same-old.

The Canadian Press: Raiders first-team offence under QB Jason Campbell struggles in exhibition opener


All that being said, Campbell is certainly no "bum" as some have suggested. Ryan Leaf is a bum, JaMarshmellow is a bum. Campbell is a good teammate and a high character guy. His QB performance/progression last year left something to be desired, but he's no bum.