Quote:
Originally Posted by SMC
There is so much at stake, and the fact that they put this most precious commodity in the hands of Schitty and Cavanaugh is professional malpractice. Plus, drafting and starting a rookie QB on a veteran team makes no sense. You can't start a rookie day 1 and tell him, "Don't screw it up." That's not the way to learn the position.
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Agree with you wrt Shotty and Cavanaugh. Kind of disagree with the "dont screw it up" part though. It really depends on just what was meant by that.
I mean, there's a big difference between asking a young guy to step in and be a "game manager" by practicing ball security and trying to minimize mistakes compared to making someone afraid to even take minimal risks to the point where they become paralyzed with fear.
There's more than one school of thought on QB development. Yes, one of those is that you don't start rookies. You sit them on the bench and let them learn behind a veteran QB.
BUT, another widely accepted method is to go ahead and start them. If you go this route, the best case is when they are surrounded by a good/strong team, at least on the offensive side of the ball. That is what Sanchez had. This isn't a situation like the ones faced by David Carr or Tim Couch, or even Brandon Wheedon in Cleveland this year.
BTW, we can go back through the history of the NFL and find plenty of very successful QBs who were placed in situations much worse than what Sanchez faced. Guys like Joe Namath, Drew Bledsoe, Troy Aikman, Phil Simms, Terry Bradshaw, John Elway and Dan Fouts.