5.32 yards per attempt at age 28 hardly inspires confidence in great things ahead. If I remember correctly, that topped only Eli Manning and Mark Brunnell among QBs who played frequently. So that's one guy on the way up and another on the way out. Feeley was dead last among QBs who should be in their prime.
To be fair, Griese skyrocketed to something like 7.8 yards per attempt last year, after nothing close to that for us. So personnel/system played a part. But when I attended the Tennessee opener last year I saw a disturbing tendency for Feeley to dump off the short pass very soon, before downfield possibilities had been exhausted. I hate the short passing game. I've detailed that in other posts. It's destined to fail unless the offense is sophisticated and threatening enough, so that short tosses are taken on the run with room to roam since dangerous WRs have taken the secondary deep and you're dealing with RBs against LBs in open space.
My beef with Feeley is the same as when we traded for him; line drive happy. Those INTs to LBs are hardly coincidence. He doesn't have nearly the variety of pace and loft. It's like in tennis, where the guys with heavy topspin have so much more margin for error clearing the net. Feeley is the type who expects a low rocket to magically clear the netting yet land safely before the baseline.
Speilman.
