Developing JP. Do you hsve to play to be a winner?

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Well duh. Of course you do.

 

Guaranteed and a 100% fact that every QB who became great played the game.

 

Guaranteed and a 100% fact that you have to play the game to win the SB.

 

However, this is a totallty different question than whether a QB develops best, quickest or successfully at all by being a starter his rookie year, his second year or whenever you want to argue.

 

The Guaranteed 100% fact is that there is NO tried and true simple rule that applies in all cases. Thetre simply exist real world examples of QBs who have been developed successfully both starting right out the box as a rookie, sitting his first year, sitting his first two years or even being started, the benched, and even cut.

 

The key question for debate is not a foolish argument as to whether JP must play now, must sit now or whatever. The more intelligent debate is about what type of athlete JP is as a player, and what are the pluses and minuses of his game and most important how does a development strategy dpvetail with this businesses desire to sell their product right now rather than a simplistic argument that there is no choice but to take our lumps right now.

 

It strikes me as intelligent to argue that the Michael Vick example of having a player sit much of his first year does not apply to any QB who is not the atheletic equal of Vick. It strikes me as intelligent to argue that the Chad Pennington example of sitting 2 years before playing and leading your team to the playoffs does no apply to a QB with JPs mobility. It strikes me as intelligent to argue that Brad Johnson example that you get cut twice before you lead a team to an SB win is not the example you want to follow.

 

However, these are examples which point out that when one says a player must play in order to develop properly that this point is simply not correct in tons of cases. Feel free to add the course taken by Carson Palmer or any one of a number of QBs who reached a competitive level without being thrown to the wolves and the simplistic view that he must play now, or even this year is brought into severe question.

 

I feel fine about JP sitting as long as we are winning. If Holcomb does not do the job I am fairly happy to bring JP back and I think he should profit from eatching the game a bit. Kyle Boller does suck as a QB, but what he said last year that he was surprised when he was forced to the sideline by rookie injury that he actually learned a lot being forced to simply watch the game and not having the pressure of being ready at a moments notice to play.

 

My sense of JP in his brief career is that he has shown some good things. specifically:

 

1. He clearly can learn things fairly quickly and translate those lessons into better performance.

 

His mop-up duty last year showed a steady upward progression from his debacle start in NE, his delay of game penalty in his second appearance, his unecessary TO in his third appearance to a level of competence in his fourth appearance that tracked the progression in his play from being overwhelmed against NE to slowly getting more control in each game.

 

The even better news is that not only did he show improvement in each gsme but actually relied on his teammates and led them to scores in each mop-up appearance.

 

2. JP has show mobility and escapability- Like all NFL QBs he can be sacked. However, the complaints that he has no sense of the pocket are simply not consiostent with his history of running for his life or the escapability he has shown from time to time as a pro. Is he perfect? No. Can he run? Yes.

 

3. He has a very good arm- If anything JP is throwing it too hard and overthrowing rather than he does not have the arm strength to get it done. While many a QB has failed to develop the touch to throw it so its completed, reining it in rather than increasing his raw strength of throw seems miore doable.

 

Overall, my sense is that JP showed some good capability as a college QB and that his problems have come not from a lack of ability but from a failure to adjust effectively to the pro style Wyche is training him to play and Clements is game calling.

 

He may not make it. but time and practice are things which can help to solve these problems,

 

I have little problem benching him if he is not productive until the chances of winning are done and then he can get the gametime if he can't deve;op the timing we need in practice.

[jarthur31]

JP has shown that he's not ready for the NFL right now. But the question you should be asking is whether the team should be playing for this year or next.

 

I didn't expect the rook to play like Big Ben and he didn't but I'm not going to give up on him right now.

 

The vets want us to win and so do I so we need to put the best people on the field to help accomplish that.