AndyJohnson said:
I would not be surprised at all to see Davey back here.
We have absolutley no one as a #3 QB. Given that the #3 QB doesnt even count as a game day active, you dont sacrifice much by keeping one on the roster. (the guy whose spot he took is going to be sitting on the ps anyway).
Regardless of Davey's ability or lack thereof, BB felt good enough about him to keep him the #2 at one point, he left on good terms, and an emergency option that knows the offense isnt a bad idea.
I think I would be extremely surprised to see Davey back here. In fact, I was very surprised that he was kept on the 2005 roster. The only thing I can think of was that he may have had some contribution on scout teams.
I suggest to you that Davey is not close to NFL passing caliber and, personally, I kind of doubt that he can be coached to get to that level.
I know that might sound strange given his apparent success in NFLE, but there are some things to consider.
For example, going way back to his NFLE game against Frankfurt Galaxy in about week 7 or 8 - that was a good one to evaluate his capabilities. Preseason games didn't show anything to controvert what could be seen in NFLE.
If you slow motion his passing plays, you see several critical things.
1. Most critical - as you really watch the plays, you will see that his delivery of the ball gets to the receiver too slow. You will notice the receivers have actually completed their initial route and are looking back for the pass several strides (sometimes even 4 strides) prior to when they get the ball. The only way that Davey was successful in NFLE was that the coverage was nowhere near as tight as NFL coverage. In the NFL, the cover backs would have recovered to the receiver and his delivery to the receiver would either be knocked down, or, I think if you look at the plays, a number of them would probably be intercepted. In the last quarter, he threw a touchdown to Gessner in the corner of the end zone and Gessner had actually completed his route and was standing still while the cover back took several strides recovering towards him before the ball got there. Later on a pass play, when the Thunder were pinned back to their goal line, the receiver got the ball four strides after he looked back for the ball - and consequently got hit immediately for an incompletion.
It would appear to me that Davey's instinctive pattern that he has developed and plays with involves seeing the receiver actually into his final cut path before he releases the ball. That just cannot be done in the NFL. My guess is that coaching cannot change that pattern. I have to question whether he can even read ahead as to where receivers and coverbacks are going to be, much less do more than one read.
One of the consequences, also, of this in preseason seemed to be that Davey runs out of time with the NFL rush and then takes off scrambling. Not permissible in Belichick offense.
2. Davey's long throws are much too high in their arc (altho they are pretty). It gives the cover backs too much time to recover to the receiver. I really doubt that this can be changed by coaching either.
3. Davey is prone to throw the occasional pass to a fully covered receiver. It is interesting that he could get away with this in the NFLE because he had bigger receivers like the 6-5 Gessner who could go up and get the ball anyway even with the cover backs going up for the ball at the same time. The fact that he does this bothers me - I don't think it is deliberately thought out. Perhaps he can be coached out of that, but one worries about basic holdover instincts taking over in pressure situations.
4. His long balls seemed to be off target a little more than acceptable. eg pass underthrown, sideline pass getting to the receiver just out of bounds, etc. On the other hand, this could just be normal variations that even top quarterbacks experience and might have gotten better with more experience.
5. His passes over the middle tended to be high rather than low. That can be a real problem, although, again, even the best quarterbacks have that problem at times. If his instinct was to throw high though, I doubt that could have been coached out.
6. He did (a lot of) extra footwork in the process of throwing the ball - even when there was no pressure. That could perhaps have been corrected with coaching. If he hadn't been able to correct that, of course, it slowed him down too much and telegraphed much too much to the cover backs. Even after the extra movement, he still seemed like he threw flat-footed much of the time. If the pocket time he required was as high as I perceived it to be, it was an absolute no-fit for the NFL.
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