Campbell's numbers dont lie

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by djnemo65

There were two third down plays yesterday, one near the redzone as well as the play on which he threw an interception, in which Campbell responded to pressure by ignoring open receivers - Moss and Are respectively - and throwing into coverage. And those were just the two I noticed on TV, there certainly could have been more. QB numbers matter, but as Mike Shanahan famously said you make your money as a QB in the NFL on third down, and that's where Campbell has really been struggling.

I get the argument that Campbell's supporting cast isn't helping him - hell I've made it myself for the past year - but at some point we have to start thinking about whether or not Campbell is the right player for the team we have now (which isn't getting any better anytime soon). They can't protect him and he's bad against pressure. I've seen the statistics about how prolific Campbell is when given time to throw but when is he given time to throw? And when will he be? Our line is old and the cupboard is bare. There's no budding linemen pushing the older guys to start.

So if it becomes clear that he won't be coming back next year, and wow it's going to take a lot for that not to be the case, when do we need to think about making a change?

Campbell was pretty darn good on third down in the first two games, and not so good yesterday.

QBs may earn their money on third downs, but the best third down players are also the best first and second down players.

I do agree that if this offense doesn't improve with him at the helm, there's no particular reason to give him a lot of money to oversee even more years of offensive mistakes. He's the kind of player you can build around, but if we haven't done it yet, I don't see it why we would in the future.

None of our problems have ever been about the QB position, and since we can't win with a decent quarterback, I'm thinking it might not matter whether we have one or not. We can lose a lot of games with this defense, this running game, and whoever at the helm. Doesn't really even matter if the current group fails.