Updated: Discuss our Backup QB Situation (formerly Byron Leftwich)

I guess me, my fan friends, and most media i read/hear who say he does lock on to receivers are as expert as you and yours who say he doesnt.

Jim Zorn says it in a few press conferences. The first of which is on September 5th 2008 right after we played the Giants.

Redskins TV (http://www.redskins.com/do/videoGallery)

I think JC locked on to the primary receiver at the beginning of the year and then started checking down way to fast later on. It could be from not having any time due to the o-line play or it could be from it being drilled into his head to checkdown. Either way, I would think it is something he can adjust. If not, then there is a problem. We'll see.

I dont get the disagreement that JC has a tendancy to lock onto receivers? It was mentioned in his profile prior to the 2005 NFL draft (although this is not uncommon in college QBs), its been mentioned in the media countless times as one of his tendancies, and its blatantly obvious when watching games on TV that he does it quite a bit. its not hard to see - its not like hes sneaky about it: you see his entire head pointed at the guy hes going to throw to during the receivers entire route.

This isnt a tangible statistic where someone can say "Jason campbell does it x% while some other QB does it y%... but its an obvious problem that has plagued him most of his career. Some can make excuses (perhaps even legitimate ones) that he stares down his receivers because: 1) he doesnt trust them to run their routes, and 2) he's had to learn so many new systems he's never comfortable with the one he's in - but theres no denying that the tendancy itself exists.Okay, but now we're just shifting the definition to fit the argument. It's gone from "he absoultely can not play the position because he just stares down receivers and everyone knows it" to "some people observe that he may doing this a bit too much, and he needs to show improvement in order to develop".

I'm not going to bother to disagree with the last point, because it's totally opinional (as opposed to totally false, like the first one). I just like to deal with concrete evidences and leave as little guesswork in the analysis as possible. Concretely, [2008 Jason Campbell] was better than [2007 Jason Campbell] which was better than [the average NFL QB in this era] whom is better than [2006 Jason Campbell]. If that makes any sense. That's concrete.

Concrete doesn't mean undeniable, because there's plenty of different ways to evaluate performance. I'm just taking one specific way that isn't stupid.

Okay, but now we're just shifting the definition to fit the argument. It's gone from "he absoultely can not play the position because he just stares down receivers and everyone knows it" to "some people observe that he may doing this a bit too much, and he needs to show improvement in order to develop".

I'm not going to bother to disagree with the last point, because it's totally opinional (as opposed to totally false, like the first one). I just like to deal with concrete evidences and leave as little guesswork in the analysis as possible. Concretely, [2008 Jason Campbell] was better than [2007 Jason Campbell] which was better than [the average NFL QB in this era] whom is better than [2006 Jason Campbell]. If that makes any sense. That's concrete.

Concrete doesn't mean undeniable, because there's plenty of different ways to evaluate performance. I'm just taking one specific way that isn't stupid.

I never said he could not play the position. Alot of mediocre QBs stare down receivers and they still have starting jobs. Also, I dont see how recognizing a fact (Campbell has a tendancy to stare down receivers) can be a matter of opinion - its a fact. he does it a lot. He's always done it alot. In every system he's ever been in. The fact cant be disputed. The disagreement arises because the fact is not easily quantifiable. That doesnt mean its not a valid point in arguing the Pros and Cons to keeping him as the starting QB in 2009.

I never said he could not play the position. Alot of mediocre QBs stare down receivers and they still have starting jobs. Also, I dont see how recognizing a fact (Campbell has a tendancy to stare down receivers) can be a matter of opinion - its a fact. he does it a lot. He's always done it alot. In every system he's ever been in. The fact cant be disputed. The disagreement arises because the fact is not easily quantifiable. That doesnt mean its not a valid point in arguing the Pros and Cons to keeping him as the starting QB in 2009.Well, understood, but I've been openly challenging how much it actually happens for about a week now because it doesn't seem to make logical sense that this big, great problem that is going to prevent him from developing, you know, hasn't actually hindered his development.

That, and I've just never, ever have noticed anything of the sort. Not that I think I'm above error here, I'm sure I've overlooked quite a bunch of things from a bunch of players this season...but this isn't an analysis of HB Blades' lateral movement ability. This is the quarterback of the Washington Redskins. I feel like if your assessment was anywhere near correct, I wouldn't be so dumbfounded right now at how you came up with it.

I'm not asking you to prove it to me mathematically, I'm just wondering if it's as obvious as you claim it to be, why does it NOT show up on the television broadcast footage (or the rare coaches tape bit on NFL N), and if it's as significant for his future development as you think it will be, why haven't we seen it in his progress to date?

I think these are legitimate questions you at least should consider.

Stats are nice and JCs stats compare well but now Flacco & Ryan have taken their teams to the playoffs and won. JC hasnt taken his team anywhere. I think when you look at the talent all three have to work with that JC has the most and still cant score or get the team over the hump. Right now Flacco & Ryan are way ahead of JC on the development scale and JC has a bunch more years in the league than they do.the sky being blue is nice....but it's still green (sorry couldn't resist) :)

I would argue that neither QB "took" his team to the playoffs. They didn't lose games for the most part, but when asked to put the team on their shoulders, neither could get it done. Not a slight to either QB, because I think both will be good, but Flacco & Ryan are by no means ahead of JC in development, not even close.

JC was asked to carry the team late in the season, behind a poor OL (and yes that makes a HUGE difference) and unfortunately he's not John Elway or Dan Marino. If you watched the games or look at the numbers, the rushing numbers along with passing numbers declined in the second half of the season, due to injury/poor OL play.

As far as talent at skill positions I would take the 2008 versions of Roddy White, Jenkins and Finneran or Mason, Clayton, whoever the Ravens third WR is, over Moss, ARE and our third (Thomas, Thrash). The OLs of both the Falcons and Ravens are tops in the league, ours is bottom third.

Falcons: #2 in rushing attempts, # 2 in Yds, # 3 in TDs, # 10 in Yds/Att.

Ravens: # 1 in Rush Att, # 4 in Yds, # 7 TDs, # 24 in Yds/Att.

These numbers show the superiority of the OLs. They also show coaches who are trying to protect young QBs with a solid run game.

After Week 2 and up until the Steelers game, the JC bashing crowd was nowhere to be found. Did JC magically just go from being one of the top performers in the league to being crap in 2-3 weeks? Did Portis go from being a top performer to crap in 2-3 weeks? Or maybe OL problems were really the major issue for our poor offensive performance.

The same arguments were made last off-season, those who supported Campbell last off-season were correct. He improved significantly from last season. This is not a point for dispute, it is fact. JC is not the problem, we've got issues on the OL that must be addressed or we will struggle in 2009.

the sky being blue is nice....but it's still green (sorry couldn't resist) :)

I would argue that neither QB "took" his team to the playoffs. They didn't lose games for the most part, but when asked to put the team on their shoulders, neither could get it done. Not a slight to either QB, because I think both will be good, but Flacco & Ryan are by no means ahead of JC in development, not even close.

JC was asked to carry the team late in the season, behind a poor OL (and yes that makes a HUGE difference) and unfortunately he's not John Elway or Dan Marino. If you watched the games or look at the numbers, the rushing numbers along with passing numbers declined in the second half of the season, due to injury/poor OL play.

As far as talent at skill positions I would take the 2008 versions of Roddy White, Jenkins and Finneran or Mason, Clayton, whoever the Ravens third WR is, over Moss, ARE and our third (Thomas, Thrash). The OLs of both the Falcons and Ravens are tops in the league, ours is bottom third.

Falcons: #2 in rushing attempts, # 2 in Yds, # 3 in TDs, # 10 in Yds/Att.

Ravens: # 1 in Rush Att, # 4 in Yds, # 7 TDs, # 24 in Yds/Att.

These numbers show the superiority of the OLs. They also show coaches who are trying to protect young QBs with a solid run game.

After Week 2 and up until the Steelers game, the JC bashing crowd was nowhere to be found. Did JC magically just go from being one of the top performers in the league to being crap in 2-3 weeks? Did Portis go from being a top performer to crap in 2-3 weeks? Or maybe OL problems were really the major issue for our poor offensive performance.

The same arguments were made last off-season, those who supported Campbell last off-season were correct. He improved significantly from last season. This is not a point for dispute, it is fact. JC is not the problem, we've got issues on the OL that must be addressed or we will struggle in 2009.

The sky is often green in LA.

I can only chuckle that anyone would think JC is ahead of Flacco or Ryan. If nothing else having playoff experience puts F & R ahead of JC. Like I said in another post, CP's production went down in the second half because the Skins were often playing from behind and had to pass which put more on to JC that he didnt have to do in the first half when his numbers were good (because he didnt have to do more than flip short passes). The O line is very important but not critical to success as Pgh didnt have a very good O line this year but what they did have was a QB that could make/extend plays to win games. The Skins dont have that in their QB.

JC did improve a lot during this past offseason (there wasnt really anywhere to go but up but he did improve) and at his current rate the Skins will have a decent QB in 5 or 6 years.

Like I said in another post, CP's production went down in the second half because the Skins were often playing from behind and had to pass which put more on to JC that he didnt have to do in the first half when his numbers were good (because he didnt have to do more than flip short passes).Just because you said it doesn't make it right. The Redskins abandoned the run when it wasn't successful, not because they were "playing from behind" and needed to pass. They were only out of (down by more than 8 pts) in the following games: Steelers, Giants, Ravens. They weren't generating anything with the run game in any of these three games.

The O line is very important but not critical to success as Pgh didnt have a very good O line this year but what they did have was a QB that could make/extend plays to win games. The Skins dont have that in their QB.
Poor argument. The Steelers success this year had a lot more to do with their # 1 defense than their offense. Big Ben's QB rating was actually 80.1 (JCs was 84.3) and his production was way off from last year when his OL was solid. The Steeler run game dropped off from last year from # 3, to # 23 in Yds. The Steeler offensive ratings are all in the bottom half of the league. This indicates pretty clearly that an OL drop-off hurts any offense, and is critical to offensive success.

JC did improve a lot during this past offseason (there wasnt really anywhere to go but up but he did improve) and at his current rate the Skins will have a decent QB in 5 or 6 years.
If JC improves his QB rating another 7 points (as he did from 07 to 08) it will put him as a top ten QB in the NFL.

Just because you said it doesn't make it right. The Redskins abandoned the run when it wasn't successful, not because they were "playing from behind" and needed to pass. They were only out of (down by more than 8 pts) in the following games: Steelers, Giants, Ravens. They weren't generating anything with the run game in any of these three games.


Poor argument. The Steelers success this year had a lot more to do with their # 1 defense than their offense. Big Ben's QB rating was actually 80.1 (JCs was 84.3) and his production was way off from last year when his OL was solid. The Steeler run game dropped off from last year from # 3, to # 23 in Yds. The Steeler offensive ratings are all in the bottom half of the league. This indicates pretty clearly that an OL drop-off hurts any offense, and is critical to offensive success.



If JC improves his QB rating another 7 points (as he did from 07 to 08) it will put him as a top ten QB in the NFL.

When a team only averages 16.6 ppg being down by 8 means the game is over. Being down by something less means you have to pass. They did and CP didnt run because of it. Spin it how you want but they didnt run as much because they were down and needed to pass more.

The Pgh D helped them be successful and did take pressure off the O. That said the O did avg 21.7ppg which isnt the best but by no means down in Skins territory. Why do you think they had a run drop off? They lost Fanneca and the line was just not that good. They really went the entire season without much of a running game (due to injuries) but they had a QB who could make plays and win games. The Skins didnt.

Stats do lie and I'll bet you my next paycheck that if you polled all NFL GMs and coaches asking them if they'd rather have BR or JC I am certain 99% take BR. JC has been in the NFL for 4 years now and we are still talking ifs. I think after one more year of excuses the Skins will decide to go in a different direction with the QB position.

It's kind of funny how we've gone 12 pages here talking about Jason Campbell and his future, or lack thereof possibly, with the Redskins when a)we have another multiple page thread going on that right now, and b)the original intent of this thread was not to discuss Leftwich as a replacement for Campbell but as one for Todd Collins.

So, in an attempt to bring us back home so to speak, I am going to modify the thread title and ask the following question:

Are we comfortable with our current QB situation if Campbell goes down?