Andy Dalton is for real

[Shake n Blake]

(09-13-2016, 08:51 PM)treee Wrote: 1. I would argue that, no, Andy's big throws down field yesterday were not close to perfect. Were they good enough? Obviously. We won the game. But for those of us who want Andy's development to continue, one area that clearly needs to be addressed is leading WRs down field. It's just not something that is not Andy's best attribute. 2. Luckily enough for him, that works out a lot of the time because AJ Green is without a doubt the best player in the league at coming back and going up to get the ball. If you go back and look at my first comment at the end of page 4 it was just a simple observation on how Dalton could improve. 

1. I never said ALL the throws were perfect. You're twisting my words. I said that the throw to LaFell was nearly perfect, and it was. If this were 2014, I feel this would be a more relevant discussion. Dalton made serious strides and had elite level accuracy on deep passes last year. That's why so many people were talking about his work with House, etc. He was flicking 50 yard ropes with ease. 

So with all of 2015 in mind, I'm not going to panic over 1 game and maybe 1-2 throws where Dalton didn't hit his guy perfectly in stride. Seems kinda silly ya know? Especially considering how the guy was looking through his ear hole half the time. If we get 5 games in and Dalton is still throwing a little short, maybe then we can discuss whether or not he's regressed in that department.

You and I also seem to differ on how bad Dalton's deep ball was (at one point). Like I've said multiple times now, if you watch other QBs - even the ones who are considered strong armed - they miss more deep throws than they hit. Just going off of numbers I've seen in past debates of this nature, I'd say the league average completion % for deep balls is around 35-40%. 

That's why I say if you get the ball where your guy can catch it (and the DB(s) can't, it's a good throw regardless of whether or not the WR had to slow down a tiny bit. I'd like to see Dalton hit guys in stride with regularity like he did last season, but I feel that's picking nits and people overestimate not only how important that is, but also how often it happens.

2. Having AJ Green does not automatically = deep ball success. Just look at Mike Wallace for example. Great deep ball WR with speed and is great at tracking the ball. Yet he was useless for Tannehill (a poor deep ball thrower). Now he's with Flacco and his deep ball prowess has magically returned. There are so many examples like that. It takes 2, no matter how great Green is.