What a bunch of wishfully subjective hooey. The Patriots shipped him for good reason and unless you're a Colts fan, your fawning over the player makes little sense. Brissett is a fine young man, hard working and apparently dedicated. However, that did not sufficiently compensate for the limited skill set he thus far has demonstrated as a passer, obvious even from his college days, to keep him in New England. Yes, he has a strong arm but that's pretty much it. His mechanics are inconsistent (footwork, release, touch) leading to problems with accuracy on short and intermediate routes, especially timing routes in which an offense like New England's specializes.
He showed no real improvement since last year and they traded him away. Can his strong intangibles transcend this over the long term if he works hard on becoming a better passer vs. thrower? Possibly, but I wouldn't hold my breath. The hardest thing for ANY quarterback to permanently change is his mechanics. Tim Tebow was a classic example of this syndrome: in practice, when mindful of adjusting his mechanics, he could be OK. In games, when he had to think about other things, his mechanics went to hell. Garoppolo is the exact opposite of that -- his passing mechanics are superb and that's why he's still on the roster.
Nobody with a brain thought that Tebow was going to succeed long term. If you're convinced that Brissett's mechanics are as bad as Tebow's were, you are simply wrong.
The kid has a big arm and some bad habits. How you value him depends on whether you think:
1: Brissett can break those habits
2: Brissett can learn to compensate for those habits in other facets of his game
or
3: A gameplan can be devised that takes advantage of what Brissett does well while minimizing his weak areas.
That couldn't be done with Tebow because he was just so far removed from what a successful NFL quarterback actually looks like. Tebow's accuracy was literally dreadful, and while he was humble in the media, he was incredibly stubborn about learning or making adjustments in practice. When Tebow's famous luck ran out there was nothing for him in the NFL because his skills were just not there to succeed.
Brissett's accuracy and mechanical issues are not nearly so bad as Tebow's. He's not elite with either his mechanics nor his accuracy, but I think in both cases he's good enough to work with. More to the point he's also both intelligent and humble enough to take good advice. He spent a lot of time this preseason learning how to throw out of the pocket, which is a completely different style to the one he played in college, and the dividends were starting to show before the trade.
I'd Brissett's accuracy and mechanics both as average, to perhaps a tick above average on a good day. Not great, but nothing a good coach can't find a way to work with if he's got enough going for him in the rest of his squad.
Belichick already proved that with a good running back to help power the offense, Brissett can at least win an NFL game. Are you really straining this hard to convince yourself that a kid who has been separately praised to the roof for his intelligence, humility, competitiveness and leadership, can't make some kind of adjustment and figure out how to win?
As for your longwinded speil about failure to improve -- are you kidding me? Kid's barely finished his second preseason, and he was good enough to manage the game to a win in his rookie year. How much improvement do you expect a kid to show in 16 months? Hell,
at this stage of the Great One's career, he hadn't started an NFL game yet. If you really expected a third string second year quarterback to become Steve Young overnight, you seriously need to check yourself. By any reasonable measurements Brissett has done an amazing job both improving and advancing himself, wildly exceeding expectations in both areas. He has made enormous strides professionally and steady progress on the field. If all you can do is sit there whining that he isn't perfect yet, I don't know what to say.
Personally I think that Brissett has already justified Parcells' raving about him. I wish him well in getting the **** out of Indianapolis and finding some little midmarket to call home for the next 10 years or so.
