I wouldn't mind seeing Ratliff get more of a chance with the #1 team to show what he can do, but I'd still be more in favor of entering TC with Clemens as the starter. If Ratliff can steal the job from him, fine. With Kellen entering the final year of his contract, though, I'd prefer to know exactly what we have from him before making a decision on his future. I'm not sure how anyone can say either is a better prospect as of right now. We're working on limited evidence at this point, and I'd expect both to get significant PT in the preseason. Either way, if we're going into camp with a competition, we'd better have a playbook ready for either QB. I don't want to see Ratliff forced to play with a book that emphasizes a different set of skills than his own.
wow so Ratliff's preseason performance was more impressive than the 4th qtr comeback Clemens wouldve gotten credit for single handedly engineering had it not been for McCareins unforgivable drop? i have no problem with someone who wants to see Ratliff get a shot but to say Ratliff clearly has more potential simply because he played better in the preseason with last years team as opposed to the 8 starts clemens got behind the 07 team featuring the swiss cheese o-line and complete lack of running game? not to mention our defense sucked too.
As I have said in a few other posts. may the best man win. They are both young and have been here awhile. They both also have good attitudes and work ethics. Im not saying either one will be our long term solution, but they both have enough positives to at least be given the chance. I cant see both of these guys falling flat on their face, I really think one of them will step it up and make the choice easy.
Sometimes you just wanna be lazy... not sign in just to read one damn article. That must be our worst rule here. You have to be logged on to read shit. It's so annoying. On that note: Ratty has my starting vote.
I like the Idea of letting Ratliff be our starter. What he did in last years preseason was incredible. Id love to see us get at the 17th postion Josh Freeman out of Kansas State
You love the idea of Ratliff being starter, but also want to draft Freeman? The Jets can't have four unproven QBs going into camp - there's no way to fairly evaluate that many players at that position.
Ratliff will never lead the Jets to the playoffs. Bank on it. And if I am wrong....... AWESOME! :beer: haha.
I think the reason for the Ratliff love is that he's the little known guy. Everyone loves the underdog and when an undrafted free agent comes in and plays like that, its very easy to root for him. You don't need to be a first or second round draft pic to be a good football player, hell look at Brady, and even Cassel. Let's have an open QB competition in which the best quarterback wins, I don't see how anyone would have a problem with that. I personally will be rooting for Ratliff, it's hard not to like the kid.
Ratliff is my Option A, Cutler Option B. I saw enough that I think he has what it takes to play QB in the NFL. Clearly he has the physical tools, but I really liked how he had confidence in the pocket.
I am a big GT fan and he absolutely torched us. We were thinking that a were were going to kill the backup QB with our crazy blitzing scheme and he threw long on us every time we left guys in single coverage. When I heard we picked him up two years ago I though he would be a really good project ala Tony Romo. Looks like it is working out.
Tech had some really good players on that team especially blitzing linebackers KaMichael Hall, Phillip Wheeler, Gary Guyton and Strong safety Dawan Landry all of them are playing in the NFL. So he knows how to beat NFL level talent blitzes
I concur with Murrell2878. Brilliant. We will regret the day we ever traded for Culter if it happens. We can be fine with what we have. Rex has the right idea. Having a killer defense makes up for a lot. Plus, I think Ratliff has way more upside than Dilfer ever could when he was with the Ravens. The only thing is if Woody in in love with Cutler and says "Tanny go get him, no matter what," then Rex is going to feel very uncomfortable pretty quickly.
I think people make too big a deal out of that, it was one quarter in Week 2 out of eight games he played. Clemens sucked for most of the game, granted his first one, but we were down 20-6 and Baltimore let up a little bit in the 4th. We still mustered up 13 points and lost the game. Drops are a part of it, so was Cotchery getting huge yardage after catches, so it wasn't "single-handedly". People dropped the ball on Chad a lot too, nobody ever gave him a break for coming close and losing, I dont understand why Clemens gets one. Even without the drop we only tie it, best-case scenario and probably still lose. Overall, as a Jet fan I found him uninspiring behind center, the rest of the bad team notwithstanding. Hopefully if he plays I'll be proven wrong, my gut just has a better feeling about Ratliff.
He just didn't look like he had any confidence and did not have great pocket awareness. He constantly missed wide open receivers.
I was actually much more comfortable with Clemens after the 2007 season than I was coming out of the 2008 preseason. I attended a lot of events in the preseason, and what nagged on me about Clemens was that he constantly looked frustrated and was constantly hanging his head... it makes me wonder if HE has the emotional ability to lead a football team. He has the physical tools just as well as Ratliff does, but he doesn't appear to have the bounce to his play that Ratliff has. While Ratliff was out launching rocket strikes to Clowney, Clemens was avoiding turnovers and and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. He just doesn't strike me as a guy who can hack it. Then again, he just might need to build confidence, and to do that, he'd have to play behind a good offensive line for a time, and not have to throw the ball to Justin McCareins (check, check)... still it's a risk.
Either one of these QBs is a risk. That's the point. I'd be more than happy to see what we have in the two of them if that's what it comes down to, but I'm not about to suggest that Ratliff's preseason success was enough to hand him the starting job. It was enough to get me excited about his potential, but we still don't have common ground to compare the two. At the very least, we should see a competition in TC. If it were me, I'd plan for KC to be the starter, but I'd keep an eye on Ratliff and give him opportunities against a 1st team D in training camp. It's certainly his job to win, but he has to prove himself against the better players before I hand him the job.
That's it in a nutshell. I keep thinking of his last game, the 2007 finale in the rain vs the Chiefs. Horrible game, in OT like 13-13 or whatever, had no pressure and he was missing wide open guys. The crowd, what was left of us, was starting to boo, people chanting for Chad of all things, before the Chiefs' ineptitude and Thomas Jones saved the day and set up a FG. The Cleveland game was the same exact thing--not a great defense, we were at home, nothing to even hang your hat on in defeat.
