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Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat
How can you claim (with a straight face) that Campbell fits Zorns offense better? I cant think of many worse mis-matches in football today. Campbells improvement (primarily fewer fumbles and INTs) is nothing more than a testament to Zorns teaching ability combined with Campbell being too scared to make a mistake. Cutler is by far a better QB for Zorns system and I have no doubt Cutler would cut his INTs in half and fumble less here. Cutler also had far fewer offensive weapons and a weaker offensive line and running back than Campbell has been blessed with.
Campbell has been given more tools to succeed than most young quarterbacks and he continues to fall short.
I dont think Campbell is undervalued or Cutler is overvalued at all. Campbell is nothing more than a mediocre quarterback. He's average. Cutler has been extremely impressive on a team with a horrible defense, weak offensive line, weak running game, although with better receivers than what Campbell had in washington. If Campbell had been behind denvers line and with their defense last year, theres no question he'd have been cut or traded already. The Campbell/Zorn marriage is never going to be successful. So far, chosing Zorn to be OC and later HC while keeping Campbell, is by far the worst thing Cerrato and Snyder have done in recent memory.
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I don't like the term "average" because too often, it is used to make an above average player seem worse than he really is. I don't know what you define as average, BHA, and it's very possible that Campbell is only average. But, then you see Cutler as better than average. But they are very similar players. So, you're putting one guy down (who happens to be the QB of your favorite team), to the point where you are clearly undervaluing his skill set in order to try to make a point.
Here's the thing: according to Football Outsiders, in 2008, the average performance from a quarterback was Dan Orlovsky/Trent Edwards
FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Football analysis and NFL stats for the Moneyball era - Authors of Pro Football Prospectus 2008
In their stats, an average performance always seems to be weighed down by the very worst players of the year, so average always comes out between the 20-25th best player at the position. This is only one way to define average, but I do not reject their assumption that there are more above average QBs in this league that start than below average QBs.
As you can see, Cutler was clearly more effective in Denver's offense last year than Campbell was in the Redskins. I am not disputing this. I'm disputing two things:
1) Why you think that Zorn's conservative, fundamentals-heavy style will mesh better with Cutler's caution-to-the-wind playing style than Campbell's.
and
2) When you replace Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal with Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle El, and replace the Denver OL with the Washington OL, how you don't account for a significant drop in Cutler's output.
Obviously, if we don't improve on offense, Cutler isn't going to be as good here as he was in Denver. If we DO improve, he probably would be. And obviously, Campbell will be much better as well.
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Campbell has been given more tools to succeed than most young quarterbacks and he continues to fall short.
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What he's been given is a bunch of different terminology, and short, underwhelming receivers, and an aging OL. That's a lot of tools, but I would argue that save for an expansion team, that's pretty much as tough a situation as it gets for a young QB.
I kept a straight face though most of your points, but that one there was a little over the top, wouldn't you say?