I know its pre season but how can you not like what you have seen from Ryan Finley.

Yes it wasn't against the ones, but the kid has looked poised in the pocket, makes the throws he should and has the prototypical size for a NFL Quarterback. He doesn't have a cannon for an arm but I think we are looking at our future QB and don't see us resigning Andy.

With all that said we need to fix the misfit O-line next year in the draft and free agency. The "island of misfit" toys as I call it is an embarrassment. We have whiffed on o-lineman taken early (Ced, J Fish, Price) but we need to build from the trenches out.

Call me optimistic but I think Finley will be more than serviceable once we can get some protection and save $$$ while having him on his rookie contract. Use Andys $$$ if we need to go out and spend for a "book end" tackle.

I want to see Ryan Finley play with the first team offense against a first team defense before anointing him the heir apparent.

Honestly, he looked like what I would expect a backup QB to look like. He made good throws, he looked poised in the pocket - but against #2s and #3s. If your backup can't do that, then you have a problem (see Jeff Driskel).

Our QB of the future hasn't been drafted yet. It won't be Finley. Frankly, with how this team has looked thus far, I'm starting to wonder if even 6-10 is too optimistic. Would not surprise me at all if this team was in prime position to draft one of the top 3 QBs next spring.

(08-16-2019, 09:36 AM)corpjet Wrote: I know its pre season but how can you not like what you have seen from Ryan Finley.

Yes it wasn't against the ones, but the kid has looked poised in the pocket, makes the throws he should and has the prototypical size for a NFL Quarterback. He doesn't have a cannon for an arm but I think we are looking at our future QB and don't see us resigning Andy.

With all that said we need to fix the misfit O-line next year in the draft and free agency. The "island of misfit" toys as I call it is an embarrassment. We have whiffed on o-lineman taken early (Ced, J Fish, Price) but we need to build from the trenches out.

Call me optimistic but I think Finley will be more than serviceable once we can get some protection and save $$$ while having him on his rookie contract. Use Andys $$$ if we need to go out and spend for a "book end" tackle.

Peel back quite a bit of what you said;

1. FIK is right; have him play with the ones.
2. Even if, Andy is the better QB, 100%. Come on.
3. The oline was superb in pass protection yesterday (on the whole).
4. Price was probably the best lineman on the team last night, far and away; way too early to say he was a bad pick (and he isn't).

Finley is noted for his smarts, but you can clearly see he doesn't have touch on many throws; he needs A LOT of work to play with the vets of the league.

this crap cant really be starting again can it?

(08-16-2019, 09:38 AM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: I want to see Ryan Finley play with the first team offense against a first team defense before anointing him the heir apparent.

Very much so ! We need to see way more, deeper throws for one, how does he do against better DB's and on and on.

(08-16-2019, 09:41 AM)Big Boss Wrote: Honestly, he looked like what I would expect a backup QB to look like.  He made good throws, he looked poised in the pocket - but against #2s and #3s.  If your backup can't do that, then you have a problem (see Jeff Driskel).

Our QB of the future hasn't been drafted yet.  It won't be Finley.  Frankly, with how this team has looked thus far, I'm starting to wonder if even 6-10 is too optimistic.  Would not surprise me at all if this team was in prime position to draft one of the top 3 QBs next spring.

Being able to handle pressure and having that pocket awareness and ability to maneuver and keep eyes downfield matters not whether it's against the 1st string, 3rd string, or 5th string D. 

I'm not trying to say he's our surefire starter but in the same breath he shows a lot of what you look for in a starter. We need to see way more to be sure but he's off to a fine start.

And in saying this I'm in no way saying we should bench Dalton and put him in, it's to early, way to early !

(08-16-2019, 11:06 AM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Very much so ! We need to see way more, deeper throws for one, how does he do against better DB's and on and on.


Being able to handle pressure and having that pocket awareness and ability to maneuver and keep eyes downfield matters not whether it's against the 1st string, 3rd string, or 5th string D. 

I'm not trying to say he's our surefire starter but in the same breath he shows a lot of what you look for in a starter. We need to see way more to be sure but he's off to a fine start.

And in saying this I'm in no way saying we should bench Dalton and put him in, it's to early, way to early !

If Dalton asks for a big contract and doesn't necessarily "earn" it this year, I'd be fine with letting Dalton go and rolling with Finley in 2020 to see what he's got.  Especially if we do just well enough this season to take us out of the running for one of top QB prospects in the next draft class.

Worst case scenario, we end up drafting a QB in 2021 if Finley doesn't cut it.  Could be Lawrence.

(08-16-2019, 09:54 AM)XenoMorph Wrote: this crap cant really be starting again can it?

I thought about sarcastically starting a thread last night just to be first... I knew it was coming.


It looks like we have a legit backup QB. That's as far as I'm willing to go right now.

(08-16-2019, 09:42 AM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: Peel back quite a bit of what you said;

1. FIK is right; have him play with the ones.
2. Even if, Andy is the better QB, 100%. Come on.
3. The oline was superb in pass protection yesterday (on the whole).
4. Price was probably the best lineman on the team last night, far and away; way too early to say he was a bad pick (and he isn't).

Finley is noted for his smarts, but you can clearly see he doesn't have touch on many throws; he needs A LOT of work to play with the vets of the league.

I agree with you, he needs a little work on touch.  Some of his short throws looked like fastballs, credit the backs and receivers for looking them in.

I will say that I was impressed with his ability to step up in the pocket, extend the play, and keep his eyes down field.

(08-16-2019, 11:52 AM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I agree with you, he needs a little work on touch.  Some of his short throws looked like fastballs, credit the backs and receivers for looking them in.

I always thought that was one of the kinks in Elway's game. He'd throw 100 mph fastballs to receivers 5 yards away.

I’ve defended Andy to a fault (I suppose). If I have a favorite player, it’s Andy.

I knew AJM wasn’t good, but this kid Finley looks good. Great pocket awareness and timing. He may not be able to throw it 60 yards (or even 50, lol), but I wanna see more!

If we had a top notch defense, I’d be all for giving him the reigns.

(08-16-2019, 11:55 AM)bengalfan74 Wrote: I always thought that was one of the kinks in Elway's game. He'd throw 100 mph fastballs to receivers 5 yards away.

Off topic.  When I coached little league, I once had a 9 year old player that could throw 70 mph.  As a coach, there's nothing quite like the first time you have a 9 y/o throw the ball to you, at 70 mph, from 15 feet away.  Catching that ball was more an act of self defense..  

(08-16-2019, 11:52 AM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I agree with you, he needs a little work on touch.  Some of his short throws looked like fastballs, credit the backs and receivers for looking them in.

I will say that I was impressed with his ability to step up in the pocket, extend the play, and keep his eyes down field.

His pocket awareness is very impressive! 

The kid has shown me there another way to avoid a sack that to get rid of the ball in a nanosecond. This kid stands tall in the pocket and seems to have a good feel for it. The arm doesn't appear to be the greatest but that may be easier to work on than the intangibles he appears to have.

(08-16-2019, 09:54 AM)XenoMorph Wrote: this crap cant really be starting again can it?

Zeal for the backup QB is pretty cliched, but since the days when we were nuts about McCarron there has been a trend in the NFL where young offensive minded HCs have paired up with QBs on rookie deals and had success.

So, it wouldn't be too wild to consider something more to the Finley madness since we may be following the Rams' model and it's a "new dey" and so on.  So, I'll just say right now this is cliched "backup QB being the most popular guy on the team" bolstered by a bit of the Goff/Wentz/Dak/Trubisky/Mahommes/Watson model of turning a team around.

But yea, it's still mostly knee-jerk stuff seeing as 8 days ago we were worried ZT was going to be too soft to cut the guy.

Let's pump the brakes a bit. In the meantime, let's just be happy that they seemed to turn a 4th round draft pick into an upgrade (at backup QB). Any draft pick that makes the team better is a good one!

(08-16-2019, 12:23 PM)NKURyan Wrote: Let's pump the brakes a bit. 

I don't log onto the internet because I want to be reasonable.

(08-16-2019, 09:42 AM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: Peel back quite a bit of what you said;

1. FIK is right; have him play with the ones.
2. Even if, Andy is the better QB, 100%. Come on.
3. The oline was superb in pass protection yesterday (on the whole).
4. Price was probably the best lineman on the team last night, far and away; way too early to say he was a bad pick (and he isn't).

Finley is noted for his smarts, but you can clearly see he doesn't have touch on many throws; he needs A LOT of work to play with the vets of the league.

His awareness has been very good for a rookie, he seems like a QB that will manage a game well (no, I am not labeling him a game manager, just one of the many attributes needed to excel at QB in the NFL), he seems fairly accurate, but has shown signs of missing some throws just off target or touch as you mentioned.

I think he is an upgrade at QB2 in 2019 over Driskel in 2018. But, I think he has a long way to go to be  better than AD is right now. Many  dismiss just how good AD is at managing the game, the blitzes and reading of coverages. AD needs to be more consistent and accurate too, but one thing is excellent is game management. Finley can be it appears, but not all the way to AD level as of yet.

(08-16-2019, 12:23 PM)NKURyan Wrote: Let's pump the brakes a bit. In the meantime, let's just be happy that they seemed to turn a 4th round draft pick into an upgrade (at backup QB). Any draft pick that makes the team better is a good one!

I'm thrilled that we've found an upgrade in quality at the backup QB position.  Everyone knows that the backup QB is always just one play away from having to lead the team.  I get that many of the rule changes in recent years have been in an effort to see a lot less backup QBs having to step up, but it still happens.

You know who else had good pocket awareness and other qualities that supposedly meant he should get a chance with the 1s to see if he was better than Dalton? AJ frickin' McCarron.

You know who else looked really good in the preseason against 2nd and 3rd stringers? Jeff frickin' Driskel.

And look where they are now.

People need to calm down with Finley being the heir apparent to Dalton, let alone even being the starter this year. I like the dude and hope that if he ever does see the field during the regular season, he slings the ball like Tom Brady, but damn, some of you just need to take a cold shower or something. Sheesh.