SB Nation User Blog: rmatheny

Jason Cambell Comments on Fumbled snaps

rmatheny — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:57:56 -0000

Well Mr. Campbell there are QB's in the leagues who wear gloves for this particular reason. (See Tom Brady, and Kurt Warner). I also didn't really see Stafford have this problem, not that I'm complaining, I just have to post at least 75 words in order to share this with the good folks here at Pride of Detroit. One of those botched fumbles led to a big gain backed up in their own endzone.

The Redemption of Michael Vick

rmatheny — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:14:21 -0000

Before I get going at all I need to express two facts. Number one, I am a dog owner. My best friend is a 2 year old American Bulldog named Bazooka. Second, my brother is an ex convict on his last year of a 3 year parole after serving a 3 year prison sentence. So, with that out of the way I would like to continue. The acts of dog fighting ring that Michael Vick pay-rolled was no doubt horrendous, as a dog owner and lover I find them to be personally sickening. There's no excuse for what he did, and he will have always done it there's absolutely no taking it back. However by blindly hating the man for the rest of his life about the worst thing he's ever done is not going to get us anywhere. Michael Vick could very well be a rehabilitated man, but just his word alone is not enough to suffice for me and I'm sure a very good portion of the rest of the country.

What I need to see from Michael Vick is more than just "I'm sorry, now I'm gonna go play football." I need to see him actively involved in the rescuing of animals, I need to see large donations, new funds, and attempting to use his publicity to further awareness. I also need to see Michael Vick reaching out to young people about being in prison, and leading a life free of crime. Now, Mr. Vick has the luxury of being god gifted with a unique set of skills. Many former convicts do not have that opportunity. I'm hoping that he does in fact fully turn himself around and make himself a role model. The fact of the matter is it's very difficult for many ex-convicts to find suitable work. The only jobs that hire them are jobs with close to minimum wage, which isn't enough for a grown adult to live on. Granted it is one of the punishments for breaking the law however it's also one of the reasons there are so many repeat offenders of petty crimes. I think (hope) Michael Vick can be an example that incites some change in regards to this matter.

However, that remains to be seen. In my opinion Michael Vick right now is just going through the motions, in his press conference I did not see a man who was genuinely sorry he did what he had done. I see a man who was sorry he got caught. He's been out of prison for 2 months and has done very little in the community. Now, I don't know the extent of his parole, and he could very well be on house arrest, but he could have issued a statement expressing his sorrow months ago (if someone knows of if he did I'd appreciate a link). I would very much like to be wrong here. There's a lot of good that can come of this situation, but I'm just not seeing it from him. The owner of the Eagles was spot on when he said his actions would speak volumes, and thus far it has. NFL fans may redeem Michael Vick as a player, but as a person his actions off the field will speak for who Michael Vick really is, and if he's truly a redeemed, and remorseful man.

Quarterback possibilities and did the running game really get better?

rmatheny — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:36:35 -0000

Assume for a moment that we will not be taking a quarterback with the first overall pick.

On board at the moment we have Orlovsky, Kitna, Culepepper, and Stanton. Kitna has all but been released so I think that we can realistically rule him out of the picture leaving us with Culepepper, Orlovsky and Stanton. In all reality I belive that you're looking at Daunte as being the starter for the beginning run of the 2009 season. I do not however see him as being healthy for that long. Which will eventually lead into Orlovsky starting. I don't think with the players we have in place right now that Orlovsky could really thrive or be a difference maker in the game, and when the team finds out that Culepepper's injury is season ending they're going to need to make a play at a FA QB to fill that 3rd spot. I didn't think Mayhew was the type of person to shake things up, but he did that when he went out and signed Culepepper late last season. Drew Stanton seeing some playing time I think is a real distant possibility.

I'm not going to lie, I'm one of those people that's on the Drew Stanton bandwagon. Grew up in Michigan, played very well at MSU and didn't make any great big huge mistakes when he did see playing time last year. Like say for instance running out of the back of the endzone, or coming out of retirement. I do not however think he has the potential to be the QB of the future. He's not the next coming of John Elway but I do strongly believe he is the teams best chance at winning some games this year. As mentioned previously on this site he did just as well as Orlovsky under center and didn't have the benefit of receiving all of those snaps that a starter does during the week that Orlovsky did.

Now lets rebuttle my initiall assumption. Lets say we do draft Matt Stafford what is the best way to go about his learning curve? Do you throw him to the wolves and hope that he can build some type of chemistry with Johnson early? Or do you allow him to mature on the sidelines while learning the system? In the recent years I can only think of a few first round QB picks that have panned out to be worth a crap: Eli Manning, Ben Rothlesberger, Phillip Rivers, Carson Palmer and now Matt Ryan. With the exception of Matt Ryan all of those QB's were drafted by a team that already had a lot of key components in place. Especially Big Ben and Eli. 5 QB's in the last few years worth a crap 3 of them taken in the same draft. Also on that list of 1st round picks Michael Vick, Patrick Ramsey, Joey Harrington, David Carr, Kyle Boller, Rex Grossman, Byron Leftwich, JP Losman, Jason Campbell, JaMarcus Russel, Brady Quinn and Alex Smith. If you go all the way back to 1990 you'll see maybe 3-4 more quarterbacks that really panned out to be anything taken in the first round. Manning, McNabb, McNair and Bledsooe.

Honestly with the quarterback being the most important piece of the offense I think we need the tools at hand to set that QB up for success before we start picking one at the first overall pick. We could argue that Calvin Johnson and Kevin Smith are in fact weapons and I can't really argue that but I will dispute the running game being good enough to lean on while that QB learns the NFL ropes.

We're all given the positives of how the running game "pieced together" towards the end of last season. Smith's YPC went up and so did his YPG. I say the numbers are slightly misleading. I say look at when he improved. Late in the season when he won back the starting job, when more teams, playoff contending teams, realized that they don't need to put forth much effort to beat the Lions. So the point that's not in the numbers is that those YPC and YPG could have been "boosted" so to speak by the fact that the Lions were playing 2nd team defenses and not looking at dominant starters like they would if they were a viable threat week in and week out. Schwartz and Mayhew need to realize that almost EVERY aspect of this team is essentially broken with the exception of Calvin Johnson, and the way to make the biggest impact right away is by improving the lines. Let's hope they see that come draft day.