Jason Whitlock: Cassel is smoke and mirrors

[Rob0729]

Can't put Cassel and Brees in the same category Rob. Cassel has had a good season here......time will tell what he does from here....This guy's article is not fair and insulting....but saying "Let's see what he does next year.....or will he succeed in another team's system?....are fair arguments...saying "He is all smoke and mirrors" is a terrible insult to Cassel and the entire team......OTOH,..Brees was one of the top QB's this year.....and has been near the top for several years now......

You can't now. But Brees at the point he left the Chargers and Cassel now is a fair comparison. Brees wasn't much better than Cassel when he left the Chargers. Even before Brees injured his shoulder in his last game as a Charger, the Chargers already planned to part ways with Brees after the season. The Dolphins decided to give up a high draft pick for Culpepper who was recovering from totally blowing out his knee rather than sign Brees with no compensation. Yes, there was a risk with his shoulder, but that shows how Brees was not considered a top QB at that point.

Cassel may never be anywhere near as good as Brees, but he might be better in the right situation. I think it is a fair comparison since many people felt that Brees was a system QB who benefitted from LaDamian Tomlinson leaving the Chargers.

 

[stevedogc]

All you have to do is look at #7 in his list to see how poor of a journalist he is as he completely contradicts himself:

7. I am riding the right horse with Peyton Manning and the Colts, my preseason choice to win the Super Bowl.

Manning is all in. He should be the unanimous choice for league MVP. He's had far better stats, but his intangible leadership value has never been more evident than this season. The Colts were ravaged by injuries on both sides of the ball and Marvin Harrison turned into a No. 3 receiver.

Still, the Colts are riding a league-leading, nine-game winning streak. If Reid and McNabb are Soprano and Walnuts then Dungy and Manning are Batman and Robin



I see he fails to mention that during that 9 game win streak the Colts beat teams like: Jacksonville, Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland, San Diego (.500 team), Houston, and a New England Team that had yet to play a consistant stretch of football. But to him Manning is the MVP and The Colts are heading to the superbowl. But he was so quick to tell us the poor teams the Pats beat over the final weeks of the season. How convienient!

 

[BradyManny]

Sorry if somebody already posted this but I hadn't seen it until just now. In his column today, NFL Truths: It's All About Character, Fox's Jason Whitlock suggests BB is going to have a good laugh at the expense of some poor GM stupid enough to trade the farm for Matt Cassel. His argument for Matt's success in 2008? It's the system of course!

Hmmm... where have we heard THAT before?

Here's the excerpt:

What a joke. Cassel may not be Brady or Manning, but he's not far off from the second tier QBs like the Rivers. Even if you call him an above average QB, that makes him a commodity in this league.

 

[sieglo]

I really don't understand how anyone with any modicum of sense cannot watch Cassel in action, compare what he does to what guys like Brady and Manning do, then compare what he does to lower tier QBs, and not see that he's got something special. This team was blessed this year to have him as a backup, and I will be absolutely shocked if he doesn't have a great NFL career ahead of him.

 

[tanked_as_usual]

I really don't understand how anyone with any modicum of sense cannot watch Cassel in action, compare what he does to what guys like Brady and Manning do, then compare what he does to lower tier QBs, and not see that he's got something special. This team was blessed this year to have him as a backup, and I will be absolutely shocked if he doesn't have a great NFL career ahead of him.

how many of those lower tiered QB got to work with the rest of the pieces of the most prolific offense of all time? how well would other QB's do with the offense the pats have in place now?

it somewhere in the middle.........he's no stiff, but I'd be very leery of making cassel my franchise QB if I was any other team ......

 

[Lampshade]

Whitlock is a contrarian. If Cassel was getting no pub, Whitlock would be praising him every day.

He also thought Belichick should sign Jeff George instead of giving Cassel a chance, so admitting Cassel turned into a legit QB would cause him to admit he was wrong about that.

 

[Boston Boxer]

well then, that is a pretty good system the Pats have then.

 

[spacecrime]

Whitlock says,

Halfway through the season, Cassel had thrown seven TDs and eight interceptions.

But he finished much stronger, so one of two things happened. Either a guy who was playing his first games in the NFL got better with a few games under his belt and got used to the NFL, or BB's system improved dramatically in the second half of the season.

This system stuff is junk. Coaching matter A LOT, but you have to watch to see the actual play. Anyone who watched the Patriots saw Cassel get better as he got used to NFL speed of play. And good decision making isn't part of a system.

Just laziness or stubbornness in not admitting that what he thought in August was wrong.

 

[Absurdly Metro]

Whitlock says flat out that Cassel is "not very good." My question is, could any reasonable, unbiased observer come to the same conclusion based solely on the weight of evidence (i.e. the body of work submitted by MC this season)? I think not.

 

[Absurdly Metro]

This system stuff is junk. Coaching matter A LOT, but you have to watch to see the actual play. Anyone who watched the Patriots saw Cassel get better as he got used to NFL speed of play. And good decision making isn't part of a system.

I couldn't agree more! If it were about the "system", wouldn't Drew Bledsoe still be the QB in NE? After all, Drew had all the tools (tall, strong arm). Yet, IMO, BB saw him as a "coach killer." IOW, no amount of coaching or "system" could make up for the bad habits, bad decisions, etc.

Eric the Rat found this our first hand with Lord Favre this year. What do you think would have happened had Favre held out until after the Brady injury and come to NE instead of NY? Would Favre's talent coupled with the BB "system" have produced more wins and more success than we saw from MC this year? I doubt it. My sense is Favre would have crapped the bed in NE too.

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

Whitlock is a tool, an absolute hack who just loves to spout uninformed opinions.

Having said that, however, of course not every offense will ideally suit Matt Cassel. His accuracy on quick slants, screens, skinny posts, and the like is truly outstanding, as is his ability to move in the pocket and run if necessary. He improved greatly in knowing when to run, when to not take a sack and throw it away. His touch and accuracy on the deep ball (>20 yards) is not his strong suit though, so a heavily vertically-oriented offense just won't suit him.

I'm not saying he has to be a dink-and-dunk guy, but a "chuck it up there" offensive philosophy like Oakland's or even New Orleans' isn't ideal for him.

The offensive coordinator had better be prepared to tailor his offense to his strengths (accuracy in the 5-20 yard range) and his GM needs to get him good receiving backs and posession receivers. It always puzzled me why Matt and the tight ends never seemed to synch much, but I think that is on Watson and Thomas. He would be a great fit with a tight end that has good hands.

If somebody like Tampa Bay gets him they won't regret it. If a rotten-to-the-core dysfunctional organization like the Detroit Lions takes him and they expect a Dolphins-like quick turnaround, what are the odds of that happening?

 

[TruthSeeker]

I usually like Jason Whitlock, but he must not have even watch Cassel play. I watched every play of every game this year. Flat out - Whitlock is wrong! In fact, if it was not for some perfectly thrown balls THAT WERE DROPPED, Cassel would have had this team at 12 and 4 or 13 and 3, and in the playoffs.

Also, why does Whitlock mention only the lesser teams played. He didn't mention 47 to 7 over playoff bound Arizona, or the win in Miami over the playoff bound Dolphins. He doesn't mention Cassel going head to head with Peyton, a game that was a dropped TD pass away from victory.

Jason Whitlock is my least favorite journalist because I rarely agree with him on any substantive issue. (In other words, he's consistently wrong. ) I was happy ESPN kicked him off for expressing his overly critical thoughts about the network that allowed him on the air (and believe that ESPN handled the situation reasonably since Whitlock was wrong again with the harshness of his criticiscm).

But Whitlock is not alone in cherry-picking the reasons for his pre-conceived conclusions. This is standard fare, partially due to lack of space but also because self-justication is endemic in our world and even-handedness loses out all the time. There are hundreds of examples of this on this message board every day.

 

[tanked_as_usual]

Whitlock says flat out that Cassel is "not very good." My question is, could any reasonable, unbiased observer come to the same conclusion based solely on the weight of evidence (i.e. the body of work submitted by MC this season)? I think not.

based solely on the weight of the evidence.....lets see......last year, the pats played 7 games against top 10 defenses ....... this year, the pats had one game against a top 10 defense.......in fact, as strange as it sound, 15 of 16 games the pats played this year were played against statistically inferior defenses to that of the pats.......

not sure of the level of relevance on this, but it actually pretty hard to base a decision on all of the evidence without a months worth of research

this year, the pats played 6 of the 8 worst defenses in the entire NFL......if you look at his game log, cassel's performance tails off versus decent defenses to the point of calling him ineffective

does this seal his fate? no, but these things must be considered along with anything else

to be fair, it would be interesting to see how he would work out here if he was the 'starter' through all of training camp..........

 

[Absurdly Metro]

based solely on the weight of the evidence.....lets see......last year, the pats played 7 games against top 10 defenses ....... this year, the pats had one game against a top 10 defense.......in fact, as strange as it sound, 15 of 16 games the pats played this year were played against statistically inferior defenses to that of the pats.......

not sure of the level of relevance on this, but it actually pretty hard to base a decision on all of the evidence without a months worth of research

this year, the pats played 6 of the 8 worst defenses in the entire NFL......if you look at his game log, cassel's performance tails off versus decent defenses to the point of calling him ineffective

does this seal his fate? no, but these things must be considered along with anything else

to be fair, it would be interesting to see how he would work out here if he was the 'starter' through all of training camp..........

If your argument is that there is not enough evidence to base a decision on, I'm okay with that. Although IMO, most of us would have to admit that we've drawn conclusions based on much less evidence in the past. That's okay. But if you're suggesting that the evidence supports the conclusion that MC is "not very good" then I think you're either a hater or a moron.

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

Whitlock says flat out that Cassel is "not very good." My question is, could any reasonable, unbiased observer come to the same conclusion based solely on the weight of evidence (i.e. the body of work submitted by MC this season)? I think not.

2 400 yard games back to back and look at how he performed in the elements, rain, snow and wind....what a poor excuse for a journalist....

 

[dhamz]

Smoke and mirrors is ridiculous.

Now if someone wanted to make the point that if he goes elsewhere as expected that he will never be as good there as he was in NE with this coaching staff and Moss/Welker, that would be something I think many would consider a fair comment.

 

[tanked_as_usual]

If your argument is that there is not enough evidence to base a decision on, I'm okay with that. Although IMO, most of us would have to admit that we've drawn conclusions based on much less evidence in the past. That's okay. But if you're suggesting that the evidence supports the conclusion that MC is "not very good" then I think you're either a hater or a moron.

I don't really care what you're OK with.......considering the fact that this is all it takes to call someone a moron, you'd have to be one yourself

but of course, you must be a genius because you think matt cassell is all that

 

[tanked_as_usual]

Smoke and mirrors is ridiculous.

Now if someone wanted to make the point that if he goes elsewhere as expected that he will never be as good there as he was in NE with this coaching staff and Moss/Welker, that would be something I think many would consider a fair comment.

well, that's problem of the guy whose job hangs in the balance when he considers to sign cassel to be his franchise QB........there are some huge positives about him........but when cassel is off, he looks as bad as anything I've ever seen in the NFL

 

[Absurdly Metro]

I don't really care what you're OK with.......considering the fact that this is all it takes to call someone a moron, you'd have to be one yourself

but of course, you must be a genius because you think matt cassell is all that

I didn't say you were a moron. I said IF you are saying that the body of evidence Cassel submitted this season supports Whitlock's conclusion that he is "not very good," then you are either a hater (most likely) or a moron.

Are you honestly saying the evidence supports that conclusion?

 

[Jackson 2]

Whitlock is a tool, an absolute hack who just loves to spout uninformed opinions.

Having said that, however, of course not every offense will ideally suit Matt Cassel. His accuracy on quick slants, screens, skinny posts, and the like is truly outstanding, as is his ability to move in the pocket and run if necessary. He improved greatly in knowing when to run, when to not take a sack and throw it away. His touch and accuracy on the deep ball (>20 yards) is not his strong suit though, so a heavily vertically-oriented offense just won't suit him.

I'm not saying he has to be a dink-and-dunk guy, but a "chuck it up there" offensive philosophy like Oakland's or even New Orleans' isn't ideal for him.

The offensive coordinator had better be prepared to tailor his offense to his strengths (accuracy in the 5-20 yard range) and his GM needs to get him good receiving backs and posession receivers. It always puzzled me why Matt and the tight ends never seemed to synch much, but I think that is on Watson and Thomas. He would be a great fit with a tight end that has good hands.

If somebody like Tampa Bay gets him they won't regret it. If a rotten-to-the-core dysfunctional organization like the Detroit Lions takes him and they expect a Dolphins-like quick turnaround, what are the odds of that happening?

Speaking of tools, do you think Michael Wilbon still thinks that the Patriots are "the Chiefs" without Brady as he stated in the pre-season?