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I Don't Get It

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Frank B

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I don't understand Saban's rationale for not starting Cleo Lemon at this point in the season. Does he feel he owes it to the rest of the team to not start an inexperienced quarterback? Does he feel it is important for the psyche of the team to finish at .500? Does he feel that yanking Joey now would do permanent damage to his confidence?

If I'm Saban, I would call together my team leaders and explain that I want to start Lemon in order to get a jump on next year. I think players like Zach and JT would understand that if Culpepper goes down again next year, a QB like Lemon could mean the difference between them ending their careers with Super Bowl rings or ending their careers with just Ring of Honor status.
 
Let me ask this. What happens if Nick starts Cleo and Cleo plays horrible? What happens if Daunte is not able to return in 07 and Joey is Nick's best option for 2007? Does that do anything mentally to Joey?

I would like to see Cleo play, however, the team played pretty well with JH back there and he should remain the starter for the rest of the season.
 
I think Saban wants to win. I think that he feels Joey gives us the best chance to win.
 
dolphan81 said:
Let me ask this. What happens if Nick starts Cleo and Cleo plays horrible? What happens if Daunte is not able to return in 07 and Joey is Nick's best option for 2007? Does that do anything mentally to Joey?

I would like to see Cleo play, however, the team played pretty well with JH back there and he should remain the starter for the rest of the season.
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Agree totally. Dauntes injury is a total ? I would like to see Lemon but Joey is our starting QB and one bad performance to Saban isnt going to make him throw Cleo in.
 
Another thing. None of us want the players to give up during a game. Why do we want the coach to give up on the season?
 
whatever Qb gives us the best chance to beat the jets should start next monday. trust me saban knows better than any of us arm chair qbs
 
IMO there are three possible reasons that Saban is sticking with JH:

1. Saban over estimates the value of experience. We saw that with Tillman/Bell. Fans and players kept wondering why Bell was on the bench. Eventually Saban made the switch. The results make it clear that Saban was wrong in waiting.

2. Saban doesn't want to raise the value of Lemon who is a RFA next season.

3. Saban doesn't want to destroy JH's confidence. If we lose Lemon then JH is our only viable backup.

I guess there is a 4th possible reason, that he just thinks JH is better, but I'd rather not go there b/c if Saban is that poor at analyzing QB play then our team's immediate future (through Saban's tenure) will be in serious doubt.
 
dolphan81 said:
the team played pretty well with JH back there and he should remain the starter for the rest of the season.
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the defense has played well with JH back there. The offense looked managable if that. There were minor flashes of what it should be but for the most part, its really lack luster.

besides, Harrington is so screwed up, i don't know if he will ever get over being in detroit.

The worst that would happen if we started Cleo is that we lose.
 
dolphan81 said:
Another thing. None of us want the players to give up during a game. Why do we want the coach to give up on the season?
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Good posts.
I agree 100%. Just because we're out of the playoffs doesn't mean that we start playing experiments. This isn't pre-season.The season is still going on and I'm sure that if Saban thought that Lemon would give us the best chance to win, he would have been in the lineup a long time ago.
 
Maybe Saban see's what Joey can be and Saban just has to keep coaching him to get him there and he cant coach Joey on the bench.
 
Funkymonks said:
The worst that would happen if we started Cleo is that we lose.
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I understand that, however, I don't want this team to lose any more games. Maybe I am in the minority, but I think Saban knows more about the Dolphin players than I do. If he thinks JH gives this team the best chance to win, who am I to second guess.
 
rafael said:
IMO there are three possible reasons that Saban is sticking with JH:

1. Saban over estimates the value of experience. We saw that with Tillman/Bell. Fans and players kept wondering why Bell was on the bench. Eventually Saban made the switch. The results make it clear that Saban was wrong in waiting.

2. Saban doesn't want to raise the value of Lemon who is a RFA next season.

3. Saban doesn't want to destroy JH's confidence. If we lose Lemon then JH is our only viable backup.

I guess there is a 4th possible reason, that he just thinks JH is better, but I'd rather not go there b/c if Saban is that poor at analyzing QB play then our team's immediate future (through Saban's tenure) will be in serious doubt.
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Great, great point! If Cleo goes in, plays great and leads us to 2 wins, we overpay to keep him, or lose a guy whom Saban maybe considers a diamond in the rough. Prior to this post, I was all for starting Cleo to see what we've got. But if he is anything decent, in the longrun it hurts the team to start him these last 2 games. Keep Joey in, and let him try to get in tune with CC. With DC a big ? for '07, we need to continue to get Joey as many snaps as possible.
 
rafael said:
I guess there is a 4th possible reason, that he just thinks JH is better, but I'd rather not go there b/c if Saban is that poor at analyzing QB play then our team's immediate future (through Saban's tenure) will be in serious doubt.
Click to expand...

So i guess in your master analysis of player personel, you've come to the conclusion that Cleo Lemon is a better option that Joey Harrington? What exactly led you to this determination? Was it the 10 mins. of tape from the end of a game that was desperately out of reach? That sure seems like a reach, "coach".. You are a coach or a scout, right??
 
Bottom Line is .... unless you believe that Lemon can start next year ... which would seem highly unlikely ... then why would we start him ????

I have to believe after the QB camps, training camp, etc ... that the coaching staff is pretty confident in their assessment of Lemon -- and that would be that he just isn't Philip Rivers in waiting ... [granted there were reports during camp that intimated that Lemon had at a minimum 'caught' Joey for the back-up position]

I don't buy the whole, afraid to drive Lemon's stock up routine, but equally, it wouldn't be prudent to bench Joey if there was any thought of trading him ... thus, I'm not sure we could raise or lower Joey's stock at this point thru his play on the field -- but benching him for Lemon, would certainly hurt it ... and lower whatever offers there would / could be significantly

Maybe we are all fools, and Lemon will be the starter next year if Culpepper isn't healed .... who knows -- but right now today -- that just doesn't seem overly likely
 
Frank B said:
I don't understand Saban's rationale for not starting Cleo Lemon at this point in the season. Does he feel he owes it to the rest of the team to not start an inexperienced quarterback? Does he feel it is important for the psyche of the team to finish at .500? Does he feel that yanking Joey now would do permanent damage to his confidence?

If I'm Saban, I would call together my team leaders and explain that I want to start Lemon in order to get a jump on next year. I think players like Zach and JT would understand that if Culpepper goes down again next year, a QB like Lemon could mean the difference between them ending their careers with Super Bowl rings or ending their careers with just Ring of Honor status.
Click to expand...

A logical reason is that Cleo is a restricted FA this year... and that the team may not want to show him off, because if a team out-bids us for him, we dont get any compensation because he was an UDFA.

With that said... I want to start Cleo...
 
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