"Oh what tangled webs we weave"....The Finley situation

[*rfaulk34*]

(11-01-2019, 10:42 AM)fredtoast Wrote: So here are the possibilities for what is about to happen.

Finley plays lights out throwing to back up WRS on an offense with one of the worst run games in league history behind pass protection that has been allowing the third most sacks in the league. Result?  Everyone is thrilled.

Finley looks much worse than Dalton.  Result?  Pretty much everyone agrees we have to devote resources to finding a new QB in the offseason,

But here is the third option. I think it is the most probable.  Finley struggles in this offense but shows a few flashes.  Result?  Civil war among the fans.  Some will support him.  A lot of the "anyone but Dalton" crowd have invested a good bit in pumping up Finley.  They will have to stand behind their words and support him.  They will rave about his ability and claim he has what it takes to be a great NFL QB if we could just fix the O-line, playcalling, etc.  Others will argue that Finley has many weaknesses that caused him to fall to the fourth round and that we should give up on him and move on to another QB.  Others will just say that you have to give any QB more than 8 games his rookie season to see what he has.  They will say we should roll with Finley next year while using our resources to fix other problems around him and then get a QB the next offseason if he fails.

Personally I liked what I saw from Finley in preseason, but I have learned that I can't tell much about players from preseason games.  Coaches may be able to make judgements based on the nuances and details they can recognize, but preseason games are useless to me when evaluating players.  (And based on the history of these boards that seems to be the same for everyone else here.)  But I know it will be hard for me to judge Ryan based on the situation he is being thrown into.  It would be an amazing break if we were to have found our future QB with a fourth round pick.  So that is what I hope has happened, but what I mostly expect is another year of circular arguments based more on pre-concieved notions that what we will actually see on the field.

8 games is plenty. I don't think it will be that hard to tell if he's worth keeping as a starter or if he needs to be replaced. Last year, Driskel was clearly not an NFL starting QB, once he was given enough time to show his "talents". Plenty screamed for him and there's nothing wrong with that if you're not happy with the current starter. He showed what he had and now he's gone. 

If Finley moves better in the pocket and is able to extend plays and complete passes, increasing the ToP for the offense and decreasing it for the defense--if he's able to get the ball in the endzone from the redzone--if his passing causes the defense to soften up and play deeper, helping the run game--it will not be hard to decide if he's worth building around or if he needs to be replaced. 

There's too much "dalton hater/dalton lover" going on. It's possible to be done with the guy and not have to hitch your wagon to the next guy. I want a guy that can do the things i described above, whether it's Finley, Dolegala, Tua, Herbert, Eason or Hurts. I don't care as long as they get a guy that can produce. And if someone comes in and stinks it up, i'm going to be yelling for him to be replaced. 

That should be what everyone wants and not to "be right" about Dalton or not.