Ok, I laughed. Really, lets give him a chance before we throw him on the heap. I agree with most here, this is another way to make Smith a threat and could help Mangini squeeze some more flexibility out of his roster. All this gloom and doom is reading in way too much too soon.
How about giving a reason to think that Clemens will be anything other then a career back up at this point. Trade bait in next years draft. A career clip board carrier. It's not like the guy is stuck behind Manning, Brady, etc. Chads a good QB but he hasn't played at an elite level in years now.
He's 1.5 days into his SECOND season as an NFL QB with a seasoned veteran ahead of him. There is zero basis for all of this negativity as far as I'm concerned. If you're going to shit on him, the burden is on you to tell us why he's going to be "a career backup".
I'm not shitting on the guy. Asking for some positive information, or at least a good reason to believe he'll be our next starter is totally different. That type of information seems harder to come by then the negative. I'm all for giving him through the preseason. I have hopes for this guy just like everyone else, but I'm not convinced he'll be the answer post Chad. I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone that is.
Fair enough - I think we're on the same page. I think a lot of the negative things you read are unfounded right now. I mean really, what does anyone have to go on so far? A few plays in mop-up duty, only 3 of which were passes? A pre-season under a brand new CS with a fairly complex NFL playbook? The first day of training camp where we're hearing almost nothing but negative reports? I'm not convinced he's the answer by any means. No one should be - we have no reason to believe he will or won't be. I just get annoyed when people do shit on him and assumed you were.
I believe they envision him in a young Kordell Stewart-esque type role. When Kordell was not a full time QB he was extremely successful as a "offensive weapon" w/o a definitive position. I believe Smith is even more talented than Stewart and this could be the beginning of an even bigger role in our offense for smith.
No prob. I'll be shitting on him if he doesn't step up in the preseason games though. Barring a Pennington injury, thats his season as far as I'm concerned.
Hey guys, here's an "out there" idea. Maybe, just maybe, Mangini wants to make sure there's a fire lit under Chad, Kellen, and Tuiawhateverthefuh. There's no actual competition this year. Chad is the starter, without any shadow of a doubt. So, in typical Mangini/Belichick/Parcells style, a competition situation is being artificially created to assure that guys actually earn their spot on the team. To me, this "announcement" serves only one purpose. Send a message. That message is, if your name is not Chad, and you're a QB, you had better show me something before Labor Day.
ding ding ding ding!!! we have a winner here to the above post. exactly what i was thinking. competition, competition, competition!!!!! i think it's specifically telling kellen to put his foot on the gas and get with the program. there have been enough hints from the media that he is not progressing fast enough and they (cs) want to see something during this camp. if not, they'll start looking for another qb of the future next draft....
There is some reason for negativity. He was demoted from 2nd to 3rd at some point last year. You would never expect that of somebody who is going to be your QB of the future.
It has to be more then just that unless they really don't like Brad Smith which I doubt. Changing his position now takes him away from practice as a WR and reduces his chances of developing anymore at that position in camp. Putting him in at QB now starts him pretty much at ground 0 behind the other three. I think it's a serious competition among those three to see who stays and who goes. My guess is Mangini really believes Smith is or can be better then Clemens or Tuiasasopo. The other option which I hope isn't the case is that Mangini is telling Smith we can't afford a roster spot again this year to carry you as a WR. Prove he can make the team at QB or he is gone.
All of the above...personally he seemed to do a lot better than Clemens last year in preseason. I'd love to see him at backup either 3rd or 2nd...
There's also another QB in camp, Brett Ratliff (5), who, for the life of me, serves no purpose other than taking reps away from Tuiwhateverthefuk, Clemens and Smith. Smith is officially listed on the camp handout roster as QB and can be seen changing his regular #16 jersey with a red #16 jersey more often than Mike Westhoff plants his cane, so we've got 5 QBs in camp. We need to get that down to 4 ASAP, although I guess Ratliff is around to just basically perform the function of human ball machine for as long as we need him. Fellas, it's WAY too early for anyone to rag on Clemens. He's a couple of days into TC, for Christ's sake. There's always a lot of rust, etc. He had a good camp last year and none of us saw enough of him in preseason games. I did see some nifty Brad Smith moves going on over on the other side of the field from where we were at the fence, when Smith rolled out of the pocket to his right and scrambled around long enough to complete a pass to someone (couldn't see who).
i for one thing wasnt ragging on kellen. Everyone knows that he is the "future" (i guess), but im sorry im not going to deny Smith if you put him in and he kicks ass. Kellen we know is a typical QB. nothing special about him other than he throws the ball faster and deeper than Penny. Smith has other qualities about him as well as the ability to pass.
I think it is only being thorough to allow Smith a chance to try to be a QB. Still I would get him reps at WR, I think he has potential, as we all do.
Exactly. I think Smith has the chance to be a young Kordell type force for our team. Looking forward to seeing him actually throw this year lol. How can people look at this as a bad thing? It would be a shame to not use this guy to the fullest of his abilities, and that includes more then running and catching a football, and IF we start getting injured at the WR spot he can still be used effectively at WR as well. He'll have a bigger impact this year, I'm certain of it. Not bad for a guy we got on the 2nd day of the draft.
I can't see why this would be a bad thing either. It's apparent that his talents warrent a look at QB at this level and absolutely opens up another spot. Plus Dc's knowing that he won a QB spot garners even more respect than he earned last year. Defenses would have to be catious not to just bum rush him like they did a year ago. Plus Mangini hinted that a 10 play stretch is possible in the game plans. I don't know what the numbers are but that has to be close to the average scoring drive. Also I believe that Brad's ability to move in the pocket offsets the weaknesse in the oline. This might be a stretch but, if done right, this could be an interesting QB tandem if executed properly. Especially if both guys can throw the ball effectively. Then again, he could be listed as WR by the end of camp, who knows.
very excited to see how we use brad smith this year...hopefully more plays per game doesn't cut back on his special teams play, cause he was extremely valuable in that area for us last year as well
