Commentary: Who’s Next?

[inFINSible]

Sorry, I didn't see that phinstigator had already made that point.

 

[Dolphin North]

How many starts did Brees have at the beginning of the season?

The guy "broke out" only after extensive playing time.

Exactly, and Feeley has not had his playing time. That's why Youing and Warner were not studs at 25. Once they got their chance to play they took advantage, althoiugh Warner was prepared for the speed of the game by the arena league. So he took off as soon as he touched the ball. The team around him also helped. But generally, guys need more than the handful of games Feeley had to become good.

 

[rafael]

Great article! I mostly agree with it, except I haven't seen the flashes of excellence. IMO AJ is only successful when the coach calls the perfect play. To be a starting QB, a potentially SB winning QB you have to be able to occasionally make the play when things don't go perfectly. I saw that in Brees. Most people saw that in Young. I haven't seen that in AJ. Even during his no interception streak at the end of last year, it seemed that the largest factor was more drops by the opponents rather than improved decision making. My expectation is that better coaching will produce a much improved AJ, but that improvement will amount to a QB who isn't good enough. I see a different version of Fiedler. Another guy who makes too many bad decisions and not enough big plays. Like everyone else in this thread, I hope I'm wrong. Time will tell.

 

[RWhitney014]

I know this has been said many times, but Feeley's O-line last year was AWFUL. Not to mention he had a coach that wouldn't commit to him even though he was "the guy". Notice that after Bates took over and named him as THE starter he picked it up. It's amazing what time and confidence can do.

 

[djfresh47]

Completely agree, the "open QB competion" undoubtedly hurt AJ's development last season as evidenced by the improvment he made late on, giving reps to frerotte is completely counter productive IMO

I may be wrong, but is there not an open competition this year between Gus and AJ? I think AJ was awful last season, but so was the whole offense. For all the fans who state "he gets this year," that's not even a given if Gus wins the job. If AJ comes out and beats Gus for the starting job I think people will have more confidence in him, and his teammates will have more confidence in him, but under the same thought if he loses the starting job I think it'll of shown he's just a backup and is not capable of leading the team. The offensive line was pathetic last season, the running game was non-existant, but Feeley was bad last year regardless, the excuses are over exaggerated, as are his struggles. Whoever ends up being the starting QB I hope is given ample time, rather than have a QB controversy, which I think is terrible for any team.