What's wrong with starting a rookie QB?

Probably no need to as yet, let Petty learn the playbook and watch the team in real game, real season situations. Then if Geno and Fitz are terrible/not performing, sure bring him in. There's no need to expose him to such pressure yet though. He can still learn, mature, study and practice on the sidelines. I reckon there's a fair chance he's the starting quarterback in September 2016.

 

There's nothing wrong with starting a rookie quarterback if he's ready, ala a Jameis Winston who ran a pro style offense in college and was given the freedom to take charge at the line of scrimmage, make audibles and read defenses. You can let guys like that "learn on the job".

However, I have a feeling this is about Petty in particular. Bryce has a massive learning curve to transition from the remedial spread offense that Baylor ran into an NFL offense with minute intricacies. He's never had the responsibility of setting protections, making pre snap reads, audibling or even calling plays in a huddle. He hardly even took snaps from under center. Bowles said that in the first preseason game against the Lions he called out the wrong "mike" linebacker on multiple plays, which is very remedial and is the call that sets the entire protection scheme for the play. If you get that wrong the play has the potential to fall apart.

If you throw him out there now, he's going to be overwhelmed and probably struggle mightily. His physical gifts may keep him floating at a semi respectable level (sort of like Geno) but it will hurt his long term prospects if he doesn't learn the basics before trying to learn the details. It's like trying to learn calculus without knowing arithmetic. He needs to sit and learn the ABC's for a year before trying to learn the intricacies, because picking up both at the same time results in failed developments like Geno.

 

QB is a tough position to pick up on the fly. QB of the NY Jets is not only tough to pick up on the fly but very unforgiving of the inevitable failures when you put the ball in a young guy's hands.

If you have a strong team with a good established offense then you have some leeway with a young QB. If you don't it's like asking the guy to fail.

The Steelers and the Ravens made it work with Roethlisberger and Flacco because there was no doubt who the leaders on the team were and they weren't ever going to be the young QB in his first go-round. They both put the rookie in a bubble and just asked him to execute without screwing things up too badly.

The Jets actually had a lesser but similar situation with Sanchez and they made it work for two years. Then most of the leaders retired or left and oops... Sanchez never grew into the type of leader that Roethlisberger did because the guys he would have led retired before he could do that.

 

Nothing wrong with it if he's ready.

 

NY market and fans aren't patient enough to go thru a developmental process (and after 40+ yrs why should they be patient?). Ideally there would be a veteran in place to keep the team afloat while the young guy learns, unless you have an Andrew Luck or Peyton type prospect, which we do not.

Pennington sat for two years and then took over. The transition was seamless as Vinny ran out of gas.

Petty would be in the doghouse like Geno because he wouldn't be good immediately, and most likely run out of town before he reaches his ceiling.

 

Mark Sanchez and Geno Smith say hi.

And both laugh at you for your utter lack of memory.

 

And has a good supporting cast around him, with a good coach to teach him... and the fans know there will be growing pains and not run him out of town after a few bad games.

 

Have you just started watching football? Following the Jets? If not, wake up and smell the coffee and try learning something from history. Try reading this site. Many of us in a number of threads have discussed this and given the intelligent reasons why throwing a rookie QB out there too early is stupid. The best way to ruin a rookie is to throw him out there to the wolves before he's ready to play. Historically, rookie QBs have sat for a while their rookie seasons and had a chance to learn the offense, adjust to the speed of the NFL, and work on any fundamentals issues they may have.

 

The NFL has already become a spread offense league and in a few more years that is all that will be played as seen in the stats included in this article.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on...-nfl-already-becoming-a-spread-offense-league

Oh and Mariota will be starting and if you think he will be ruined by it you have never watched him play.

One more thing, it's ok to sit a rookie when your starter is a Rodgers or a Brady or a Rothlisberger but the fans will never let you get away with it when your starter is a Smith or a Sanchez. You might for a few weeks but if you start losing either you as coach will go or the Smith or Sanchez will go.

 

Steve DeBerg

 

Just so we are all on the same page, the leadership skills you speak of about Roethlisberger...does that include asking your bodyguards to block the hallway when you assault a college co-ed at a townie bar?

As for Roethlisberger, it took him years to fix multiple screw-ups before "reforming" himself into this wise and respected veteran QB. Had he not had half his talent and played QB, he would never have gotten 2nd/3rd/4th/5th chances and would have been cut by the Steelers when they dumped Holmes.

 

He'll get beat up. He'll get hit hard and often, and have both his body and brain rattled. He might even take long term damage . Not only does he need to learn the position but he need to build his body and conditioning up to NFL levels. Same with WRs although WRs are only getting hit by relatively smaller CBs. QB get hit by huge men. They need to be physically and mentally prepared for this. Starting any rookie QB other than one of those once in a generation types like Andrew Luck is just plane bad coaching.

 

I thought the answer was pretty obvious, and I'm really just repeating what plenty of others have said not only in this thread but across the board… It all depends on the player. Some rookie quarterbacks are ready and some aren't. Not just mentally but physically as well.

I'm assuming that this thread was created with Bryce Petty in mind. He falls into the category of "not ready" and there's nothing wrong with that. All of us, including myself, are excited after his performance against the Falcons. Obviously the natural reaction is wanting to see more. And I'm sure we will over the next two weeks. But let's pretend the Falcons game didn't happen yet and we were talking about this topic last Thursday night. I don't think anyone of us would consider suggesting Petty should play ASAP.

And those that would... Well...

 

Petty says he didn't even have a playbook at Baylor. He has a massive learning curve to be a pro QB. Lucky for us he is making progress but that doesn't mean he is ready to be the guy right this moment. Hopefully he can be the guy next year. Lets be excited about his progress and potential but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

 

I see no problem with starting a rookie QB if you're Tampa, Jacksonville, Houston, Cleveland, Oakland, Tennessee etc. Except this year, I don't want to start a rookie because Fitz is better at this point, and I objectively believe that the Jets could make the playoffs this year, and as you know from watching us and the Giants, once you get in, anything can happen. With that said if the Jets start the year 1-7, I absolute expect Petty to be in there.

 

There's a heavy difference between an NFL spread offense and a college one. Again, Petty has never huddled and called a play before, they just looked to the coaches on the sidelines. He's never set his own protections. His reads have been spoon fed to him. Even the Oregon system is far more advanced than what he ran, the Baylor offense is an absolute joke. I think this is his first time even having a playbook, he said that in college all of his plays were on a whiteboard. Just because an offense is "spread" doesn't mean it's "remedial". The Patriots run a ton of spread concepts but their offense is one of the most sophisticated in the league.

The only way he could have started this season is if he went to Chip Kelly, who does all of the college bullshit and holds up play cards for his quarterbacks without huddling. As for Mariota, there's a reason he was picked 2nd overall and Bryce went in the 4th round. He's a special player. Petty is a mid round developmental prospect.

 

How come we never heard any of this when Bob Griffin came out of Baylor?

 

I would submit that even as "special" as he is, Mariota should sit for a while as well. He's obviously struggling, and from the sounds of things pretty badly. Would he have struggled like this if he had signed his contract on time and not missed OTAs? Who knows, but the reality is he did miss a bunch of time early, and everyone knew he was going to have a big adjustment anyway. IMO if the Titans start him immediately (unless he very quickly turns things around), they're nuts.

 

RG3 has a high football IQ, but it appears his arrogance has gotten in the way of him improving along with the team restricting his play on the field making him a pocket passer. His arm and leg talents were too hard to pass up on prior to the draft. Once they saw issues with RG3 adapting to a pro offense, a lot of questions started going around about Spread QBs.

RG3's rookie year in actuality wasn't anything super special, it was him completing tons of screen passes, running and making throws on the run - the playbook was dumbed down. It was the Baylor offense with little pro-style terminologies.