WhitewalkerInPhilly

As happy as this makes me, I won't believe it until Rex comes out and says it. Right now it's Glazer and Rap reporting on Glazer. Honestly I'm happy with how Tyrod did this preseason. What I heard at first was that he had a rocket arm and could run. The fact that we've watched him sit back in the pocket and go through progressions and hit on the high percentage throws makes me feel a hell of a lot better. And it's not Cassel. Thank God it ain't Cassel.

I stand by that, if you are playing a high output offense like Brady, or the Eagles the way you beat them is to keep them off the field. You gobble up time, you get their defense on the field as break them down while keeping ours fresh. You don't get that trying because 1 out of three times you're able to connect on a deep throw.

OH SWEET BUTTERY CRAP, WILL YOU STOP TWISTING MY WORDS. *deep breath* I am not against the deep ball. I am against stalling out drives. As such, I support the QB who has done the best and most consistent drive management. Taylor has done so using the run game, his legs, and decent short to intermediate passes. And there is NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. Deep strikes are great, but if that ability comes with QB play which occasionally takes the risky play, and you start seeing three and outs/turnover risks you have to balance the risk and reward. You aren't wasting talent if you don't constantly go deep. You are if you load up on stalled drives and leave your D hanging. Edit: Regarding "longer drives which score fewer points had one caveat: Early in the game. Beating teams down early helps if you need to speed it up in the fourth.

And you somehow think that this is impossible to do with Taylor? No screens, no slants, no jet sweeps, no putting Clay at LT while using 6 linemen, and having Clay be hot read off the play action? It's like we've barely been looking at G-Ro's tape.

And funnily enough, he hired an OC who over the last few years had a 55-60% run play percentage. Not as skewed as we'd think but the Niners philosophy was absolutely based around the run. And you're acting as if McCoy is CJ. Yes, he dances a bit, but he's been used effectively by Reid with a fullback. Plus Karlos, plus Freddy, plus Boobie. We are built right now with a great stable of runners (when healthy) and players known for getting GREAT YAC. I heard relying on that was the plan all offseason. It's a good plan. It can work. I don't understand the sudden desire to throw it away because we had one great preseason game.

I never thought I'd be coming down on FireChan's side here, but yeah, what I've been saying is the Seahawk model. It was also the 49ers model. And "heavy run game and strong defense with a streaky QB" was the Giants and Ravens model. Last year, I would have killed for a 92% completion rate, 9.4 YPA QB performance.

I think you guys are taking me a bit out of context. If Fred Jackson scampers off to a long running touchdown I am sure as hell not going to ask that he walk it 20 yards back. But do you think that we are going to win in a high speed slug out with some of the more offensively minded teams? As better I feel about our quarterback situation than I did at the beginning of the offseason I still think that our best option is a control game. We have the home run playmakers who can take small short plays and turn them into big gains. That doesn't necessarily making deep throws down the field. I'll take an efficient offense moving off and that grinds the opponents down so that their dog tired later in the game. Again let's go over what Rex said when he was first hired. We are going to ground and pound. Ground and pound. Ground and pound. We will run it 50 times a game if we can. Every minute we have the offense in possession is our opponents nor scoring. A long drive for points early that's awesome well in the fourth quarter. That is my biggest objection to Cassel. cassel can sustain drives but so far he hasn't scored any points. To me Taylor is splitting the baby just right between being efficient and consistent and still giving us big play potential. IF EJ is the guy I'll be thrilled, but the talking heads are coming down on Cassel or Taylor and of those two I am sure as hello who I want starting.

Metz, I know you and I don't agree a lot. I know that we've clashed on EJ, and I still think the kid can sling it and has some potential. But considering what brought the 08-09 Jets and 11-13 Niners to championship games was a certain pattern: you play great defense, you run the ball effectively, and your QB does enough to move the chains. EJ connecting on incredible deep balls is fantastic, but that means the defense comes right back out against the likes of Brady, Luck, Eli, Romo and Bradford (who we are all likely to play) to shred and wear down your D. I will take a 8 minute drive for only a field goal in the 1st quarter, because that means opposing D is worn down in the 4th, when it matters. I know a lot of people here like Chip Kelly. While I am skeptical of him as a GM, he's had a lot of success on offense and I heard his philosophy summed up last night: he doesn't care about the deep play. He will take sure 5 yard completions and runs every time, because eventually someone misses a tackle, or coverage breaks and you're off to the races. 12/13 for 122 yards, plus a 20 yard TD run is absolutely the kind of metric were looking for. If it HAS to be TT or Cassel, I think it's an unfair argument, but I am comfortable with TT.

I could also see Rex telling all three they're the starter, and instructing them not to tell anyone, not even their agents, just to see how trustworthy they can be.

I said this in another thread but it bears saying again: I have no idea how anyone can watch the last three preseason games and expect Cassel to start. Cassel, in both games dinked and dunked his way for a few first downs, but no points. It was like a painful reminder of last year. Yesterday Cassel wasn't just the one with the fewest points, we was the one with worse yards per attempt, worst overall yards and, most importantly, worst accuracy %. Again, worst accuracy %. The whole premise behind Cassel is that he was the safe option, that he could be the most accurate one to deliver the ball to our skill players. That narrative needs to die.

I have no idea how anyone can watch the last three preseason games and expect Cassel to start. Cassel, in both games dinked and dunked his way for a few first downs, but no points. It was like a painful reminder of last year. Yesterday Cassel wasn't just the one with the fewest points, we was the one with worse yards per attempt, worst overall yards and, most importantly, worst accuracy %. Again, worst accuracy %. The whole premise behind Cassel is that he was the safe option, that he could be the most accurate one to deliver the ball to our skill players. That narrative needs to die.

12/13, 9+ yards per attempt, a 20 yard run for a touchdown...I'll take that all day long.

More reasons: -It'll be because he don't do it against the starters, who will somehow magically come in the second Cassel takes the field, thus explaining Cassel looking Meh. -Pittsburgh will be attempting a novel 7-7 drill concept, but they failed to tell the Bills, who will have 11...but the success will be mitigated when the Bills are called for having too many men on the field, the refs having assumed that 7 was the right number somehow. If EJ comes out and realy sh*ts the bed, I can't think of any. It's the third preseason game of his third year. I've been defending him for a long while and he's no longer our only hope, he's finally with the OC I one said "is the only one who can salvage him", the O-line starters have looked decent, and Woods and Freddy, the two players he's most comfortable with will be back. If this truly is the end of the experiment, I think I'll finally accept it.

So, like his QB play?

If he gets injured, maybe. But of all of the money they have set for him in 2016, not a dime is guaranteed, and they would have zero dead money cutting him. If they really are going to bench him, I'm pretty sure he gets cut the second the league year is over. If they do...honestly, I think it would be worth taking a sniff. Gruden is trying to make RGIII a traditional drop back passer, and he's doing it with O-line play that makes ours last year look incredible. He definitely has talent. We saw it his rookie year, and then his coaching staff bungled it every resulting step of the way. Maybe the damage is too extreme to be recovered. But when our options look like ours right now, I'd pay Orton money to take a shot.

Easy answer: Perhaps he wins the starting job.

That is hilarious.

Wow, I take a couple hours off this board and this shoots to 22 pages...

Honestly, I'd rather he sink or swim in two games we're mostly favored to lose and then go with the conservative option and wonder all year. But if you actually read the article, it puts a lot of misconceptions to bed.

A) So, you're more convincing with your "Well, he had twice as many TD's to INT and passes my eye test" argument? You know who else had that argument? Derek Carr, and I'm not calling him elite. B) It's not one statistic. Yours neglects that there are a lot of bad QBs, a decent crop on third tier guys (the Tannehill, Flacco, Daltons, alex Smith and Cutlers) who you can go far with but need a strong supporting cast, the guys who need help but put on a good show year after year (Big Ben, early Rivers, Romo) and the truly elite who can drag a limping franchise deep in the playoffs (Brady, Peyton and Rodgers) It is the plurality of the stats that informs me. Despite passing far more than running, and with an at least decent group of receivers they didn't crack top ten in total yards. When you factor in that they passed far more than they ran, and the low YPA and the fact that they had players like Wallace, Hartline, Gibson and Ckay who get YAC plus a 66% accuracy rating, that sounds like overinflation of stats due to a West Coast offense using short high percentage throws. If that sounds familiar, it's what the plan of attack is if Matt Cassel is our starter and what Roman did for Smith. And there is nothing wrong with doing that. But no one, and I mean no one, is mistaking either of those two for an elite QB, never mind someone you're paying more than Brady or Manning.

Fine, if YPA of an individual QB is a stat that is "myopic" by itself, let's have some more: 11th in team passer rating, 17th in yards per game, 16th in ESPN's QBR. Everything about that to me screams "slightly above average". And yet the prevailing wisdom on this thread is that it's not at all surprising or somehow confusing to overpay one at the expense of at the expense of the 52 others.

And Mario isn't a difference maker on every play? I'm not saying there isn't a difference. But let's not pretend that A) Ryan Tannehill is anywhere near the best of his position, or ever has been and B) the presence of an above average QB, or even a very good QB is a guarantee of success. I consider Phillip Rivers, Eli Manning, Matt Ryan and Drew Brees to be good to very good quarterbacks, and each was on a losing team last year. I would take one pf them over Tammy in a heartbeat. The other 52 players matter.

Pardon me while a list a few QBs who had better, or as good as, Yards gained per passing attempt: Brian Hoyer. Geno Smith. Mark Sanchez. Austin Davis. Drew Stanton. Kirk Cousins. Mike Glennon. Shaun Hill. You know who was right behind? At a whopping 6.8 YPA to Tannehill's 6.9 was the Uncle Rico impersonator himself, Kyle Orton.

Yeah. If Tannehill signed an extension for 4 years at 19.6 M a year after his rookie option year, I can't imagine what Luck's will be. Considering the franchise tag is 18.5... It seems now that you either get lucky when drafting, or you build around a subpar QB like the Cards did.

I agree with you. And I like to think that we're seeing the onset of change there by having a few teams succeed using a system rather than a star QB. Chip Kelly, for all my doubts of him as a GM, achieved a lot of success with a beaten down Vick (who looked dreadful after he left for the Jets), Foles (who has not looked good this preseason, and Sanchez (who is a known quantity). Harbaugh and Roman gave the Niners a great run, and that team looks to be imploding now that they're gone. I'm hoping Rex and Roman can do the same thing here.