CloakNNNdagger
Hall of Fame
It should be noted that Schaub became a starter after watching for three seasons behind Michael Vick in Atlanta. That's three training camps, three preseasons, a variety of appearances in 38 games (ranging from no-throwing cleanup-time hand-off duty to a pair of starts (one each in 2004 and 2005).
By the time Matt came to Houston to be a full time starter he'd already attempted 161 NFL passes, completing 84 of them for 1033 yards, and 6 TD's to go with his 6 INT's. About a 55% percent completion percentage.
He'd started out with a 42 passer rating in Atlanta and climbed up as high as 98 before settling back to 71.
Compared to Keenum's introduction to the starting QB job Schaub had it pretty damn good in terms of prep time. Even then he still only played in 11 games in 2007 and threw as many picks as touchdowns (9/9).
In his 8 games starting last year Keenum threw the ball 5 more times per game that Matt did in 2007. Keenum also threw for 9 TD's but only 6 picks. Neither one of them had much in the way of a running game. Schaub's protection was much better but more than that Schaub already knew how to handle being pressured at this level.
Matt won 3 games his first year here. Keenum won none in his. Matt had a passer rating over 100 in each of his 2007 wins. Keenum had a passer rating over 100 twice but both games were losses.
What does it all mean? To me it means the line between being a "success" who gets 7 seasons to run your course and being a failure who's already peaked after 8 games is a very fine line indeed. It probably means nothing really. just pointing out that those two players had completely different paths to their first chance at being the full-time starter on their respective teams.
I really wouldn't wish Keenum's so-called "opportunity" on any promising young QB much less on an UDFA that half the fan base thinks isn't worth the trouble to begin with.
Great post, Herv! I believe Keenum will get his fair chance to compete for the starting role.......and that is all I would ask for. Last year, Keenum wasn't just simply thrown into the fire...............he was thrown into Hell.
