Parallels between Burrow and Andrew Luck in Year 1

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(05-06-2020, 04:41 PM)SHRacerX Wrote: Not so sure I agree with these points...The Colts had poor QB play and a bad offensive line.  Sound familiar?  They didn't tank for luck.  Their team was just bad, and their division was pretty good.  

The Bengals had several bad drafts that caught up to them and, prior to now, they were unwilling to cut bait with their draft busts and address in FA.  The Bengals were not a bad team last year, but losing your LT, the guy that was going to be the starting LG, the best offensive weapon on the team, a starting CB, and a three game evaluation of a dud QB, all contributed to a 2-14 season.  The good?  They showed signs of improvement during the season.  They made major changes to the defense through FA and draft, and have another really good WR option for depth.  

So, in other words, I don't think the Colts were as good as you give them credit for and I don't think the Bengals were as bad as you make them sound.  

How?

Colts 2008: 12-4, playoffs
Colts 2009: 14-2, SB Appearance
Colts 2010: 10-6, Division Champion
Colts 2011: 2-14, chose to start Curtis Painter (6th rounder), Dan Orlovsky (5th rounder), and 39-year-old Kerry Collins. Everyone knew they could have easily found better. None of the 3 ever started a game in the NFL again.

Bengals 2016: 6-9-1
Bengals 2017: 7-9
Bengals 2018: 6-10
Bengals 2019: 2-14, starting QB played 13 of the 16 games, only got benched after an 0-8 start

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One is a good team that had just one bad year to get the 1st overall pick. The other is a bad team that continued to get worse until they got the 1st overall pick in the midst of a 4 game losing streak.

Luck's OL was never as terrible as some made it to be. The guy hung onto the ball for AGES.

https://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/andrew-luck-needs-to-get-rid-of-football-faster-but-is-it-out-of-his-hands-101316
(From 2016, before he missed the entire 2017 season.)

Quote:According to ESPN’s Mike Wells, Luck is holding the football 2.81 seconds, which is 0.33 seconds longer than the league average this season. Per Pro Football Focus, at least entering last week, Luck held the football on average longer than any other quarterback except one in the NFL.

I am aware that is a 2016 article and not a 2011/2012 article, which is the OL we were talking about, but it goes to show a pattern/habit that Luck simply held onto the ball for way too long and paid the price for it. In the process he made his OL look much worse than it was because all the other OLs in the league had to block for much less time.
To give a point of reference, Peyton Manning in 2014 averaged 2.24... meaning his OL had to block for over 20% less time than the Colts OL did for Luck in 2016.
That's actually what made the Bengals OL performance over the last few years so much worse. Andy Dalton has always been known as a QB who could quickly get rid of the ball. I know a couple years here he was in the 3rd quickest in the league range. Can't for the life of me find the article talking about it, though.