Sorry but that's what I see when I watch Justin Fields play. Kirk Cousins. And that's a compliment. Like Kirk, Fields is an above avg, steady, good smart football player. He doesn't make a lot of the 'WOW!!!' throws (that's just not his game...he'd prefer the 10yr slant to a wide open WR than try for the 40 yard dime into dbl cvg in the endzone) but he doesn't make a lot of bad throws or bad decisions either. He's a very consistent B to B+ player, which is really pretty good. And that may be more than enough to build a team around him, but it will be the TEAM that decides how far we go, not just his arm. He's not Trevor Lawrence, and he never will be. He's not Arron Rogers or Patrick Mahomes either, and he never will be. He'll win as many games as he loses, but like Kirk, to get beyond 8-8, we will need other dominating aspects of our team. Maybe that's going to be our D? Our RB? Our o-line? Special Teams maybe? But with Fields as our QB, our team will need to be dominant in other areas beyond QB play. Sam is virtually the EXACT opposite. Sam will make really, really bad decisions that Justin would never make. Sam will make really, really bad throws that Justin would never make. But then Sam will make a brilliant throw that 99% of QBs could never even try. Sam is feast or famine, mostly famine lately. Where Fields is hotdogs and hamburgers all day, every day. If you pick Fields, you know exactly what you're gonna get, and how you will need to hopefully build the rest of your team. With Sam, you look at his rare outstanding jaw-dropping throw that Fields could never make and start dreaming about what Sam 'might' become under your tutelage (while ignoring what he has already become under someone else's tutelage). This is an example of a Sam 'FEAST' throw for the win. The type of 40yard dime into triple cvg that most QB would never even attempt, Sam nails it perfectly: For the 'FAMINE' Sam, watch the first half of the Rose Bowl where Sam's passes were either really good or in the dirt looking worse than Tim Tebow: Now watch Fields in his upset of Clemson, his best game to date. So steady. With the exception of the the wide open WR he misses on his first TD toss, he's very consistent. He's great at scanning the field and hitting the open WR, usually a 5-10 yard pass but the passes are crisp and accurate, every time: For fun I added some film for Kirk Cousins. Kirk's great a hitting the open guy 10-15+ yards down. Very consistent, never a bad throw or bad decision. I think Fields can get to this level of QB play, but that's close to it for him:
Just shaved my head clean bald in honor of our new HC/GM combo. It looks terrible, but fuck it......gotta support the team.
We've all acknowledge countless times how rough Sam has had it and how the Jets did about everything possible to wreck Sam's career. That's a given. Now, let's look at his "flaws" a. He doesn't read Ds very well. b. He doesn't see the whole field. c. He often doesn't feel pressure and lacks poise in the pocket. d. His decision making is pretty bad, if not awful. He takes unnecessary sacks, he doesn't routinely throw the ball away when necessary. e. His footwork is bad resulting in poor accuracy and ball placement. f. His mechanics need tweaking which result in poor accuracy and ball placement. g. Not very good on deep throws. h. Turns the ball over too much, partially due to not being able to read the D, see the whole field, and accuracy issues relating to throwing off platform and with less than stellar mechanics. Would you agree that these are fair? If so, let's look at them. Shanahan's system is supposedly very QB friendly and a good one for Sam, so this should help alleviate problems #a, #b, and #d because he will only have one read, and doesn't have to see the whole field, and also resolve your #1. JD will almost certain sign an IOL like Thuney in FA and could draft an OG like Trey Smith or Dante Brown. That should go a long way towards helping Sam relax in the pocket, have more poise, and maybe even help him with feeling pressure since he won't immediately be under the gun most of the time. This should also help Sam throw with a better base, since he won't be so rushed and immediately flushed from the pocket. That should help with my #c and your # 2, and may help with his footwork if he has put in the time and hard work to fix his footwork to begin with. If not, then this won't help. Question: Why does he have to bring his eyes down? I noticed that even when under great pressure, Fields does not bring his eyes down, he keeps looking downfield, sometimes to a fault, but he keeps looking downfield. Mims and Cager should have a full offseason with mini-camps, OTAs, TC and preseason, so hopefully will stay healthy, and be ready to play at a higher level this season. Maybe we also see more from J. Smith and the other UDFA from last year Campbell? In addition, I think that JD will look to sign a FA WR and probably draft one. I think he will also draft a starting RB, and may even draft another TE. Who knows maybe even Doctson makes the team and contributes in a bigger way than he has in the past. This should greatly improve the offensive skill position players around Sam, and with the full offseason, should be able to get on the same page with his receivers and have more trust and chemistry with them. This should hopefully help with decision making, and also take pressure off of him with a better rushing attack and better receiving options. I concede that it's possible that Shanahan's offense could totally resolve the issue with reading Ds, but there is no guarantee. When he's running for his life, that can definitely affect accuracy, but coming out of USC that was one of his strengths. It's like he's afraid now, and if so, I don't know if anything will resolve that. Maybe time will but it's not like he has years here to do that. If it's true that he refused to tweak his footwork and mechanics, and he continues in that stance/mindset, then imo there is no hope for him as long as he continues in that because his accuracy will continue to be subpar, he will be inconsistent and he will continue to throw more interceptions than he should. Is he working on his footwork now, or his he relaxing? Muscle memory is a powerful thing. You get under pressure and you revert to old muscle memory. It can take months or even a year to make some changes, and one cannot make those changes while one is playing. For those changes to take root and stick, he needs to be working on them now and probably every day through next season for them to truly feel "comfortable" to create confidence, and to be habitual so that he doesn't have to think about them while playing. Since he's young, he may be able to incorporate those changes quickly, but why hasn't he to date, and there are no guarantees that he will be able to make them quickly? IMO there is no excuse for his having poor decision making and poor footwork going into his fourth season. I don't care how much pressure he has been under. If you know you're going to be under constant pressure than you make sure your fundamentals are rock solid to help yourself all you can, and you work like crazy to improve your reading of defenses so you can go through your progressions quicker, and make better decisions quicker. His mental aspect is key to what happens. If he has lost confidence and is still seeing ghosts, then I don't think he can get fixed here in a year. He may need to sit for a year or two. Would he be willing to do that? He also may want or need a fresh start somewhere else where there's less pressure and expectations (both from fans and from himself). IMO the only way he should play this season is if he has incorporated those footwork/mechanics changes. If he needs to sit this season, what's the point of keeping him here? IMO the only reason for him to be back is to start or start initially until the rookie is ready. IMO the surer thing is drafting a rookie, building the offense around him (both schematically and physically, adding/upgrading OL, WRs and a starting RB and maybe another TE. Doing all the right things with him that weren't done with Sam. The Jets get to re-set the QB cap and they have a year or two pressure free. IIMO they can't pass on taking a QB in the 1st round and just roll with Sam. That would be career suicide. If they've drafted a rookie, he is the future, and all their efforts should go on getting him ready, not on trying to fix Sam.
AG could have thought Sam's mechanics were OK, but I doubt it. He was just too self absorbed to try to fix them, but there's also the story about Sam was approached about fixing his footwork and he refused, so I don't know what the truth is there. Building up the team first is backwards. You build your offensive scheme and your offense around your QB. It makes zero sense to build up the offense, set the scheme and then look for a QB that fits. There could be a great QB, then are you going to pass him up because he doesn't fit the scheme? Are you going to totally then change your scheme 2-3 years in to fit the QB, but then some of your other players may not fit? I think you're wrong about there being no FQBs in this draft except Lawrence. I believe there are at least 2, maybe 3 or 4. I don't think there are any next year. If I'm right are you ready to wait until 2023 to try to find the QB? By then the team could be drafting in the 20s and they'd have zero chance of moving up into the top 5 or 10 to get a FQB.
What if we sign Thuney and Robinson then draft Sewell and Najee Harris with our 2 1st rounders. Any QB we plug in should be in the best situation ever with Robinson, Mimms, Crowder, Harris at RB and a ridiculous line with bookends Becton and Sewell and Thuney inside. Our offense should thrive in a west coast offense. Our D will be greatly improved with Saleh at the helm.
I don't mind this at all the only issue I have is if Sam looks somewhat decent we now are forced into having to sign him back and at what cost and how many years since he is playing out his rookie contract.
But he won't get the 25m 5th-year option contract as he hasn't earned that. It isn't an automatic option, if we still want to keep him and only if we do then he will be offered new terms, if he thinks he can get a better deal elsewhere then he will hit FA but nobody in the league is paying him the 25m 5th-year option price and as Sam isn't dumb he will know this and take a new deal with the Jets if we offer one, again only if we are wanting to keep him and this wouldn't surprise me tbh. The 5th year option is a team-friendly deal for if you absolutely nail the pick and secures one more year at a cheaper price, see Mahomes for example, KC picked up his 5th year option then gave him a 10 year extension 3 months later.
But the difference is Sam is young and most of those flaws you mention can be attributed to a young QB still trying to learn and improve at his craft. Jimmy is who he is at this point. Players do evolve but I'll take the gamble on Sam, while still on his rookie deal, being able to grow as a QB under Shanny than Jimmy G turning the corner at age 30. Paying 27 million a year for medicore QB play hurts a team with SB aspirations more than it helps. Taking our lumps with a young QB with those same flaws and saving 20 million in the process would help us maintain our roster and our SB window....that's how I view it.
i'll just mention that we just lived through the draft-the-QB-first experiment and then for 3 years complained we didn't protect him and he didn't have weapons. Plus because of subpar defense we rarely gave him a short field it's a bit of chicken and egg problem IMO which can be debated endlessly
He doesn't need to sit. He needs to be put in the right circumstance where the pressure isn't all on him. He'll be a cog in the machine, not the driving force. That's what needs to happen for him to get where he needs to be. You inject Darnold into our offense, with the run game and playmakers we will surround him with and he WILL NOT look like the same player he was with your team. That much I do know... Now I don't believe he'll set the league on fire those first two years. But I think he'd be slightly better than Jimmy in 2019. And that's all we really need from him while he evolves both as a player and in Shanny's scheme, during that time.
This would almost surpass my divorce as the best thing that has ever happened to me. I would be in my glory if this were to take place.
you may be onto something Nova. Sometimes (a lot of times) the best strategy in the world is the most simple and obvious. As somebody noted in another thread vanilla is the #1 ice cream flavor.
