11-02-2019, 12:11 PM
(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.
I think you're right about the third outcome being very realistic. I trust your judgement in debates turning into circular arguments.
It is tough to grade Finley in this situation, but the mistake to learn from is properly grading prospects. Otherwise the FO is just passing on the next Mahomes, Watson, or Jackson vs settling for Finely or Dolegala replacing Dalton in the same circular argument. It's not that the incumbent isn't good enough, it's that they (and I) saw Mahomes overrated and a possible system guy and didn't see what the Cheifs saw.
Forget timing and the whole what good is a qb without a line argument. It is the FO's job to have a much better or near fixed OL pre draft, failing to do that has nothing to do with grading a prospect let alone a QB.
I hope for Finley he does well, but if he is indeed a solid backup type lets evaluate QB's properly instead of hoping he turns into Dalton.
