How about AJ McCarron

[WhoDeySince81]

(01-12-2016, 02:06 PM)gobobro Wrote: I think AJ has shown to be the best backup of the Marvin Lewis era. I don't know if that translates to the growth that makes him a starter. Some guys keep growing year after year. Some guys plateau early. I just don't know. I will tell you the things I think he needs to work on:

1. He has to shorten that release of his. He has a slow wind up that was the reason for that fumble.

2. He needs to speed up his pre-snap work. He takes a long time getting to the point of snapping the ball, and that's caused a few delay of games. His mind isn't fast yet enough pre or post snap. He has to get faster... You can't get to the point of learning to audible to better plays if you're struggling to get the called play executed in time.

3. He needs to learn to anticipate. A very college thing for quarterbacks is to wait until a guy is open to decide to throw to him. You just can't always do that in the NFL, especially with the slow release. Dalton has always had the ability to read, react, and throw balls before a guy even makes his break. AJM needs to learn to do that... He left a lot of plays on the field in his starts.



If I'm AJM (and Dalton), I'm seeing Tom House several times during the off season. The progress is stunning with Andy, and needs to continue throughout his career. If AJM wants to get to a starting spot in the NFL, he needs to seek out the kind of help the other good quarterbacks look for...


He's a heck of a kid, and I think he can make strides. At this point, I wouldn't bet a penny that he will or won't make that leap to starter. He's projecting fine, though.

Dont know if I agree with you on the first point, but I do with the the others and I believe are both fixed through a little more time and familiarity with the offense. Just needs reps (game and practice) to get it to the point where he is reacting, not thinking so much. 

For the release, I guess it's KINDA slow, but not too terrible. Hopefully that's one of the things that he can work with House on in the offseason. If House can practically rework most of Dalton's throwing motion, I would think that he can improve AJM's release a little as well. 

One bright side to all this is that now he has plenty of tape that can be used (by House, Zampese, etc) to refine technique going forward.