phan1 said:
That's what's got me worried. We haven't seen anything from Carr that we haven't seen before, which is a bad thing. TEs getting involved is the only difference in Carr's play. He's not getting the ball to his WRs; he's not going over the middle; he only sees the front half of the field. Right now, it looks like Palmer is still running the offense, just with TEs and a better Oline. Carr needs to get much better, and I'm worried that he's already hit his peak. The fact that the offense looks different with Rosenfels than it does with Carr tells me that it's Carr and not Kubiak's system.
All that being said, I'm still Pro-Carr for the time being.
I promised myself I wouldn't do this...but I must. There's something in the Rams game that has me concerned about Carr. His throwing motion, from its beginning and all the way through the release of the ball, is seriously different than Sage AND different from most of the other QBs that I paid close attention to during highlights of other preseason games going on that same evening.
He squats when he rares back, his entire torso seems to rock backward and to his right, in somewhat of a circular motion, during the phase where his arm is going backward, and it just generally looks like Roger Clemens throwing a fastball. In addition, his right hand is releasing ball awkwardly...it's almost as if he is using his arm/shoulder to try and put "touch" on the ball instead of letting his wrist do the work.
All of this, IMO, telegraphs to the defenders the area of the field David is throwing the ball toward...giving the defender a chance to react to the ball. I specifically watched other QBs during that evening's highlight show on NFL Network, and I can say that when they showed slow motion footage of other QBs throwing the ball, it did not look like David's mechanics did.
Watching Sage more closely in the second half, I must admit that he was putting better overall touch on the ball. David is more athletic in the bootlegs and playaction...but he is (as Vinny points out) struggling in anything other than unerneath or shorter passes. I think he has a rocket arm, no doubt, but his throwing motion (to me) is a "tell" that gives a defender (especially a defensive back with good closing speed) just enough to read-and-react and get a better jump on the ball vs. a QB who stands up, does not have any wasted motion in his throwing mechanics, and snaps the release correctly.
I, too, am not anti-Carr or pro-Carr. I tended to be pro-Carr, but after racking up two straight wins (even though it is PRESEASON) and actually feeling proud of my team's accomplishment over two perennially good NFL teams, I could care less if it was Maurice Clarett at QB if he's putting up the production that we need for wins.
Again, don't parse my quotes and frame me as someone who is "turning" on David. I think he is VASTLY more athletic. In fact, we might be staring at David Carr as Elway, and Sage as Kubiak like it was back in the day. Kubiak was probably more "cerebrial" than Elway, but Elway was more athletic and heady in pressure situations. That might be a stretch, but it's all to say that we need to let things play out to a greater degree before acting as judge, jury, and executioner.
See, you CAN have civilized debate if you're sober and happy.
