bucky

Another good one on ESPN

As Tom Brady's injury showed last year, every NFL team needs a good backup plan at quarterback - ESPN

Here's a blurb:


The Patriots actually ensured that Cassel remained focused through a different method: trial under fire. Every so often, during the middle of a game week, Patriots coach Bill Belichick abruptly would pull Brady out of a team drill and insert Cassel into the lineup. The idea was to see how Cassel would react to being thrown into a surprising situation with all eyes on him. Cassel never embarrassed himself in those moments, but the impact of those tactics weren't lost on him, either.

..........

Added Denver Broncos coach and former New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels: "It would piss Tom off every time we did it, but Bill would just say we have to get Matt ready. When you put that kind of pressure on a guy, it only takes one time for him to go into a huddle and humiliate himself by not knowing what he's supposed to do. I've been there when it's happened and the players don't forget it. The last thing you want is for your team to be looking at the backup and thinking, 'We can't win with this guy.' That's why it's vital to keep those players focused."

Frezo

It's tough to forget that Miami game when he came in and went right back out.

maverick4

The comment below that article cracks me up:


'longest article on backup QB's ever'

jmt57

Wait a minute, wasn't it right about this time one year ago that espn (and the rest of the national sports media) was calling BB foolish for not having a backup QB with starting experience in the NFL, and arrogant for not having a backup plan at QB?

PatsWickedPissah

By implication I wonder if K O'C failed such tests, perhaps more than once?

__________________
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as "bad luck." RAH

robertweathers

I think you are 100% correct. Not sure if you heard him on EEI, but when asked what factors (physical, mental, etc.) lead to KOC being waived BB said it was a combination of things. He also said that KOC could be sucessful in other programs and systems but it was clear to him that he just didn't think he was going to be successful here. In other bits, BB has said that KOC did not make the most of his opportunties. Gotta assume that the opportunties that BB refers to are not just pre-season games...I'm sure that they include the situations and pressure-type moments that the article referrs to.

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“I'm not really concerned about the other 31 teams,” - Bill Belichick

"If a player has talent and doesn't succeed, that means that they either don't want to be successful or I have failed as a coach." - Bill Belichick

Deus Irae

To me, what was interesting in that WEEI interview was that he spoke almost the same words about O'Connell as he did about Jackson, with the "he has the talent, it just didn't work out here... he could play in the NFL... etc...".

It might just be the canned "I couldn't wait to ditch that one" speech for high draft picks.

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"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius

patchick

Not just high draft picks, either -- see the identical spin on Vince Redd.

Belichick is always polite as he waves goodbye.

Bluto

I respect BB's judgment regarding players and their abilities - if you don't fit the peg he has for you with the PATS he won't try to shave you down to the correct size!

BradyFTW!

Exactly. These annual backup QB ratings are stupid for a number of reasons, mostly because they're based almost entirely on name value and past starting experience. The only people who have any idea how good most of these backups are are the people who are coaching them, and even they don't really know.

Invariably, the team with the 'best' backup QB in these rankings is the team that has a QB competition for starter, because neither of them are good enough to nail it down.

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