The "Inside Word" on the QB Search

Isn't there a veteran backup out there that put up some astronomical numbers a few years back in college? Had a funny name, Colt something? Maybe he's worth a look.

My biggest fear with Flynn is not that he'll be the next Kolb but rather the next Brees. An UFA franchise changing QB that was there for the taking but passed up by us.
Brees was a good QB before he banged up his shoulder and SD decided to play craps with the Manning pick. Flynn is a...former 7th(?) round pick who has played two NFL games well and had a decent college career. Not the same thing.

Flynn is going to cost too much for what he really is worth.

It is a bad idea because Barkley will be pick number 1

Not a bad idea if the 'skins finish with the worst record in the league. Although they'll also be looking for another coach as well if that happens.

The biggest thing with Tannehill is figuring out why he regressed at the end of his senior year as a passer. I don't have an answer, just a question. Could be a team-oriented issue. It's just when you have a guy who hasn't played a lot of college football at quarterback, and he's beating ranked teams right away because the position is a natural fit, you don't expect him to struggle with more experience. Tannehill did.

One thing I can't deny is that he faced some really good defensive teams in a short time as a starting QB at Texas A&M.

The other thing that's weird with Tannehill: in the first half of 2011, he rushed for 231 yards on 29 carries and three TDs. In the second half of 2011, he rushed for 75 yards on 29 carries and one TD.

Tannehill was a completely different player in the second half of the season, and I have no idea why that was
Not to be trivial but perhaps he was injured in some way...or did he lose some weapons due to injury? If there aren't any extenuating circumstances than I too would be concerned with a sudden unexplained decline in play.

Well, A&M pretty much fell apart as a team in the second half of the season. The same season which resulted in Mike Sherman's firing. Looking at his split stats (http://espn.go.com/college-football/player/_/id/232059/ryan-tannehill), his comp % and rushing yards went down and his INTs went up a bit, but the passing yards and TD passes were still there.

I haven't watched much film of Tannehill, so I have no idea why he had a drop off either. All I know is when a team implodes they way they did (losing 4 of 5 down the stretch) and the coach gets fired, lots of things are going wrong. How much of Tannehill's struggles fall squarely on him? Again, your guess is as good as mine.

My sense is that your are on to something with the team implosion. Although I haven't studied video - I just watched games - my anecdotal sense is that the A&M offensive line became more disorganized, distracted, whatever, but stopped providing Tannehill with the protection and running lanes that he previously enjoyed. As well, the defense lost its moxie, which meant that Tannehill played more from behind and felt more pressure to make big plays downfield. Just watching games made me feel that Tannehill did not lose much off of his individual game but instead lost the support of his surrounding cast.

saw Tannehill against OU and I thought Landry outplayed himIMO.

Not to be trivial but perhaps he was injured in some way...or did he lose some weapons due to injury? If there aren't any extenuating circumstances than I too would be concerned with a sudden unexplained decline in play.

My sense is that your are on to something with the team implosion. Although I haven't studied video - I just watched games - my anecdotal sense is that the A&M offensive line became more disorganized, distracted, whatever, but stopped providing Tannehill with the protection and running lanes that he previously enjoyed. As well, the defense lost its moxie, which meant that Tannehill played more from behind and felt more pressure to make big plays downfield. Just watching games made me feel that Tannehill did not lose much off of his individual game but instead lost the support of his surrounding cast.

Both of these would make sense. I'm having trouble finding a lot of tape from the last six or so Texas A&M games so it's just as hard for me to say "this is what was happening before, this is what is happening now."

I will say this, his splits (see GMScud's link or click here (http://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/ryan-tannehill-1/gamelog/)) in the first half of the 2011 season were almost identical to the numbers he posted in 2010. It was clear he was the same QB then as he was before.

The problem is that Tannehill didn't play quarterback enough to say which one was the real Ryan Tannehill. He looks pretty good on film from the first 12 starts of his career. But in live games he was clearly more limited down the stretch. I'm trying to get my hands on game cut ups from late-season Tannehill, but in the mean time if anything shows up on YouTube, I'll pay it forward.

Oddly, the same thing that happened to Tannehill also happened to Dominique Davis as soon as I said I liked him as a prospect: he really started to struggle down the stretch with his reads and throws. Against very mediocre college defenses.

I can't find an ECU weekly injury report anywhere so I have no idea what happened to Davis either.

saw Tannehill against OU and I thought Landry outplayed himIMO.I have Landry Jones graded above Ryan Tannehill. And yet, I never feel good about watching Landry Jones on film. I'm always asking myself things like: who does that? why does that happen? Sometimes he's just guessing out there.

Jones' arm talent is undeniable, and gives him a huge edge over Tannehill, and he's a better athlete than I gave him credit for earlier. He's not a statue. But I don't think he's been coached all that well in college (or maybe more seriously, hasn't responded to the coaching). He's good enough to throw people open, and he's talented enough to drop in a throw 40 yards downfield in a hole in the coverage (which Tannehill can't do), but too often, Jones just plays confused. And I can't understand why.

Would you say the OU coaches are just frustrated with his lack of development? They don't even leave him in on the goal line anymore, which is why he threw one TD pass in his last five games. It almost seems like they look for reasons to take the game out of his hands, which is totally different than last year when they let him lead all of FBS in passing attempts and completions. It seemed before, they were willing to take the really, really good with the inexplicably bad, and now, they just don't want to deal with him anymore.

I guess what I'm saying is that if Jones isn't going to respond to coaching, I can't justify keeping him ranked above Tannehill, no matter how talented his right arm is.

As an ecu grad and someone who watched Davis play every game of his college career...no thanks..i can't imagine him being drafted..makes terrible decisions and seems to learn nothing from them on the next series. Never heard anything about an injury. He had a few games last year, when he first ran that air raid offense, where I thought he'd be much better than he ended up being. He was never the quarterback for that type of system though. He transferred from BC when skip holtz was still the coach and was pegged to run a much more conservative offense. He got stuck in an unexpected situation. To be fair, the playcalling was mostly awful this year too.

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