If you've been paying attention, Smith HAS shown significant improvement. He hasn't thrown a pick. He's been making good reads and decisions. His accuracy is better. He hasn't been forcing the ball, instead he's been checking down or running the ball. He's extended plays by moving around in the pocket. He knows the offense pretty well. He looks more confident and relaxed.
I answered these points in previous posts. First of all I didn't say there's been no improvement. The question is what is meant by significant. On the interception bit, an article earlier this week in the Star Ledger cited several cases where defenders had dropped passes from both Smith and Fitz. As for accuracy, he has shown slight improvement, but still has missed open receivers, and his completion percentage is neither all that impressive nor better than Fitz's. Most worrisome as the Star Ledger noted is that immediately before and after his fumble he was ineffective, which is a pattern with him. He gets flustered and makes bad plays. Looking better... I suppose all other things being equal, that is a good thing. And to be fair someone who looks confused and nervous is more likely to make mistakes than someone who doesn't. Not to mention be less confidence inspiring as a leader. But he still needs to produce no matter how much better he looks. This is not all about Smith, to be clear. I am also disappointed in Fitzgerald. Not sure what the issue is with him, but he's not showing much in camp.
It's probably just as well that Championship's aren't won during training camp. Seriously, this level of over-reaction to how players perform in practice sessions is nuts. In fairness, most of the blame can be laid at the door of the media; before ESPN and NFL Network had to feed the hungry belly of 24-hour rolling coverage, training camp and (to a lesser extent) pre-season games went largely unnoticed by anybody except a handful of obsessive fans. Heck, before the birth of media agendas, there were no "pre-season" games - they were, quite rightly, known as exhibition games! So maybe it's sensible to remember that the drills (which tend to be designed with the intention of either a) installing the playbooks, or b) improving conditioning) that are being analysed to the nth degree by newspapers/TV stations/anybody with a Twitter account, are only drills. Then again, if you have nothing better to do, armchair analyze away...
I should probably be generous here because you are a new poster. But if you read my posts on this subject from Wednesday, my point is quite limited - the point is that there were some earlier in the off season who were hoping - expecting is too strong a concept here - that Smith would show up in camp evidencing solid improvement from the get go. There'd been talk, some coming from him directly, about what he was doing on his own to improve, for example. My point is that any such solid improvement has not yet been apparent. That being the case I doubt he will go from here and greatly improve just because he's in camp. Everyone is trying to get better in camp. So if that is correct we should not expect him to be a much improved Qb over last year.
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on...rs-throws-more-interceptions-in-training-camp I think he has improved a little bit, this system tailors to his strengths. We shall see when things get rough, how he reacts.
It's a very fine point, I like it a lot, and so is the one which says you can't make a meaningful assessment of a player's development until he starts playing in meaningful games. Well, that's not true, you can make assessments until your blue in the face (which is what some people happily seem to enjoy doing here) but the chances are that they won't be very good ones. Sent from my 709v82_jbla118 using Tapatalk
This doesn't mean much given that Aaron Rodgers has thrown 5. Note the reasoning: "I'm just trying to go through the interceptions," McCarthy said Thursday. "I would think at least three or four of them were competitive balls. I mean, he’s going to do things in training camp that he might not obviously do on a Sunday — give guys chances to make plays and so forth. "So I guess to answer your question, I’m not concerned about it." Neither is Rodgers. "I threw five last year in the regular season, so I know how to play in those games," Rodgers said. "Practice is about -- it's different plays. The playbook is exponentially larger than the regular season, game-week plan. So we're trying different things. There's different guys out there running routes who might not be in there when it is the actual game time. "So you make different throws, you're working through different plays. Sometimes the defense makes the plays." He said he's purposely trying to throw balls that force the receiver to make a difficult play. "I'm not trying, I'm actually doing that," he said. "I'd like to see those balls come up our way. We've had some chances on some of those, and not come up with them. We've got to do a better job of catching the over-the-top balls, whether they're out in front of us a little (much) or slightly behind us when (you) go back up and make the play in the air. In other words, Rodgers is trying to make his receivers better. I heard GS took a knee twice the other day because he thought no-one was open. Sure for GS that's good but it's not going to win games and is nothing to get excited about. Standing in the pocket until the last second and then making a good throw would be nice.
#188 above here is an excellent example why, coupled with the numerous balls dropped by the D, not to make too much of Smith's lack of interceptions.
I am thinking aaron wasn't doing those things in his 3rd season. aaron has his doctorate in the nfl, genos still working on his bachelor's. Big difference in what the will work on in practice
Your point is valid, but for now I'm just happy that GS seems to be making better decisions, is showing better accuracy, and is making baby steps. He's not in Rodgers class and probably never will be. I'd rather him work on the things he needs to fix and hope that they carry over into the regular season. If they do, then we can want Geno to try some of the same things Rodgers is in future camps.
