Don Banks: Biggest offseason mistake? Phins taking Culpepper over Brees

[tcdrover]

I liked Brees much better up until he kept asking for more money.

The thing I don't like about Brees is that he is just a much better version of Fiedler. He is a very good leader and field general, but he isn't exactly going to light it up by passing.

Honestly I expected Harrington to beat out Pepper based on the Lions games I watched with MY OWN TWO EYES, and the Vikings games I also watched with my own two eyes. Stats can be deceiving, just look at Jeff George's stats...

:dolphins:

 

[Avalanche of Wins]

If you take him twice on Sunday, does that mean you want double the Sacks and double the turnovers

ill take joeys ints for for 14 please..:wink:

 

[p-double]

thank you behind our o-line the same thing would happen to brees, culpepper has the better arm and can move, tell me this after the season is over, brees always been a good regular season qb, he hasn't done a thing in the playoffs, these are some stupid threads, everybody arm chair quarterbacking, joey is a bum face it people, i was afriad of this , if it didn't start off good in miami people would turn on c-pep, the dolphins weren't picked to win the super bowl because the pick up joey harrignton

 

[DolphanD]

he asked for reasons that daunte was better than drew

and you go and give him all the reasons drew is better than daunte!!:eek:

I think he may have been correct on answer C. though. Tearing 3 ligaments in one knee is pretty horrible an injury.

 

[tristang]

Yeah but brees wasnt lighting up the board until San Diego drafted rivers. Until that happened Brees wasnt even a option. Hes only had two good seasons.

Um, his (basically) rookie season:

G Com Att P% Yds Yp TD Lng Int Rating
1632052660.832846.217521676.9


Those are not light em up numbers, but that was his FIRST SEASON as a starter.

No Rivers. Not bad numbers, for playing in a MARTYBALL system.

 

[Shula Come Back!]

Brees seems like he would have fit better in our system, but I guess with DC we were thinking his athletic ability would benefit us...not yet....also he was a little bit cheaper!!!

 

[cnyphinfan]

The biggest factor with this decision has to be the health of the two QBs. We believed at the time that C-Pep would be the healthier alternative, but we actually selected the QB that would have a longer recovery time than expected in C-Pep. Let's face it, he rushed back and it has hurt us in the beginning of the season. But if Brees would have been here, he would have had a healthy arm to throw passes, but he would have gotten killed because of our O-line. However, a healthy C-Pep, who has not been seen since 2004, would have been able to elude much of the pressure that has enveloped him during this season.

The biggest difference I see in the two QBs when both are healthy, is that Brees is a manager, and if he is surrounded with good talent (LT2, Gates, Bush, Deuce), will execute the game plan to a T and make good decisions most of the time. C-Pep, when healthy, will win games for his team, sometimes by himself it seems. He is more of a gunslinger, buying time with his legs, sometimes making bad decisions in an effort to win the game, but always will be more explosive a QB than Brees.

The problem is that we are trying to compare a healthy Brees vs. an unhealthy C-Pep, and at this point, there is no comparison.

 

[DolphanD]

And as soon as Brees got killed behind our O-Line and reinjured his arm everybody would have said how could you pay that much for someone with a bad arm. Either way people would have said it was a bad decsion.

Exactly. Brees is in a much better position to succeed than he would be if he were in Miami. A few reasons: our o-line is not as good as the Saints OL. They have Deuce McAllister and Reggie Bush (who has the most receptions in the league) A terrific Special Teams who can block punts (something I can't ever remember the Phins doing) and a young emerging secondary (especially rookie Roman Harper who's a starter and Josh Bullocks (2nd year man also a starter) Also they have the consistency of the veteran Joe Horn and the emerging 7th round pick #252 overall I believe with height Marques Colston. Devery Henderson is also finally comin along as a 3rd WR. Their offensive coordinator and play calls far exceed what Mularkey is putting his team through.
A solid, fairly young defensive line with RE Will Smith, LE Charles Grant (courtesy of the Phins trade to get Ricky) DT Brian Young who has a non-stop motor and can rush the pass consistently, and the big guy in the middle DT Hollis Thomas. Their only weakness is depth at CB and the LBs aren't yet Sean Payton's kind of guys. This is a team that in a couple of seasons, if not next or even this year is finally going to put the Saints on the map for a long time. But if Brees were to go down they would be in trouble. Other than that they have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs or even winning the NFC South.

 

[DolphanD]

I just don't see any remnant of Linehan's system being in place in our offense. Last year we didn't need a QB with mobility and we threw deep often early and this year withe changes at OL which were meant to better our OL but IMO downgraded it. It's true the RGs we have went down like they got the plague early in the season but I don't see Shelton as an improvement over McIntosh, Jeno James is just about washed up and IMO Hadnot was a much better RG. I know Seth McKinney wasn't exactly a fan-favorite but he was becoming a solid Center and I don't see why they would put him at RG when he seemed to play well at Center while Hadnot was a rising young RG. We definitely should have signed a Center like Mawae or Hartwig or even traded for Fraley because while Hadnot is decent at Center I think he would be very good continuing at RG. I guess the coaches liked what they saw of him at Center when Seth went down. And McKinney going on IR IMO is a big reason our OL play is so porous. Carey seems to be taking a step back since the RG play next to him is so bad. Hopefully McIntosh develops into a solid RG but after playing his whole career at LT I don't see it, especially in the run game where all our troubles on offense begin.

 

[Da 'Fins]

This is interesting. I started a thread on this yesterday - didn't know about the Banks article but made the same point:

http://www.finheaven.com/boardvb2/showthread.php?t=164033

 

[JG777]

I'll take Culpepper over Brees every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

You're kidding right?:shakeno:

 

[smearnov]

I hear what you are saying. Its a shame that the Saints can improve so much and we can stand still or even backtrack in so short a time. O-Line, O-Line, O-Line!

O line was improved last week when Dullpepper was benched.

 

[bigmiamifan]

You're kidding right?:shakeno:

He most likely isn't and neither am I.

 

[bigmiamifan]

O line was improved last week when Dullpepper was benched.

As Saban said, the ball was thrown so quickly, the OL didn't have to block long. IE- If Joey isn't throwing on 1-2 steps, he would have been sacked all day, kinda like Dante. The OL didn't improve, they simply had less time to fail.

 

[Coral Reefer]

I NEVER preferred Culpepper over Brees, if for no other reason than this:

Brees = free agent
Culpepper = cost a 2nd round pick
.

This was my reasoning as well.
Giving up the pick made no sense to me at all.

In the end it all came down to the Phins believing the skepticism of the Dolphin medical staff over the confident prognosis for Brees from one of the most lauded Orthopedic surgeons in the country.

Water under the bridge.
We all better hope that CPep comes back or that Harrington realizes the potential some thought he had to make him a top pick. Either one, I don't care which it is, just hope one QB works out for us.