What reads is he missing ? Where is he not throwing the ball accurate enough ? When is he too slow ? I am not trying to be an ******* here but if all those things are so obvious then it should be easy to point to a couple of plays in the last couple games.
But to me the Buffalo game seemed to be the turning point for him. He still struggled against the Bills and our ultra conservative gameplan (i.e. kicking FG on third down before half) was also not favorable. But he looked a lot more decisive and since then there has been no blown timeouts, delay of game penalties and barely any free rushers (if it wasn't by design e.g. on a screen). Similarly, his footwork looks like it has rebounded since that awful stretch against the Broncos and 49ers.
In fact, I can only remember one pass that looked ugly against Baltimore and that was the third down to a wide open Jakobi in the endzone. I haven't rewatched it but according to Lazar the ball was actually tipped:
Apart from that he looked decisive, had a quick release, set his protections/changed plays quicker and his throws were accurate despite the elements.
What it boils down to is I feel much better about him and his trendline now than I did a 3 weeks ago. And most of this is only because the team finally is back in a practice rhythm.
So reading about all those issues that have not really shown up in meaningful ways since the Broncos/49ers game is confusing.
I said this before. Cam seems to scan the field like he is going through his reads, but until a couple of dump offs in the last game, he always throws to his first read like
@Lagaffe_07 pointed out. It was great when he dumped the ball off to Johnson in the last game - I smiled - Newton moved onto his outlet. He throws to the RB, but in those circumstances, it appears that is his first read.
There are a lot of All22 videos out there, like
@Lagaffe_07 says, that show guys wide open. Brady misses wide open guys too, just not nearly as commonly.
Footwork looking good? I missed that. Footwork looked better? Yes, but it could not have gotten worse. Decisive throws? Yes I agree, but again he is decisive because he is quickly throwing to his first read. Not a bad thing, but not a reason to celebrate either.
I agree that he is trending in the right direction. Cam tried to put some "touch" on some of his short dump off passes, and he knows the first read now. Just like when he scans the field and sees nothing, I am not convinced that when Cam changes the play at the line of scrimmage he is reading the situation correctly. There are too many "free runners" for Cam to be in control of what is happening. We have one of the best Olines in the league, and good RBs at picking up the 5th rusher, and Cam's pocket presence looks very confused too often.
Saying all that, I agree that Cam is improving when we need it. I am guessing that is why BB bemoaned the lack of practice, because without a pre-season, Cam desperately needs practice.
Maybe a better question would be if you had a choice between Gardner Minshew, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Cam, who would you pick? BB would not let Fitzpatrick be a gunslinger. Minshew is scrappy, does not have the strongest arm, but might fit our offense well on a temporary basis. I love Cam's attitude and leadership, I even like his hats ! But I think both Minshew and Fitz would be better in the NE offense, and we would be a better team in 2020 with Minshew or Fitzmagic (as examples).
