Article critical of Denvers QB's
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_15130828
Krieger: Throwing Cole on QB fire
By Dave Krieger
Denver Post Columnist
Posted: 05/21/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
Denver Broncos QB's Brady Quinn (9) and Tim Tebow (15) look on during drills at practice Monday, May 17, 2010 at Dove Valley. John Leyba, The Denver Post (JOHN LEYBA)
An open competition to play starting quarterback in the NFL is a rare treat for fans, sportswriters and radio talk shows, like a rogue version of "American Idol" that actually produces something useful.
The more contenders the merrier, we say. The only way to improve it would be to get them to live in the same house and broadcast 2 4/7, like "The Truman Show."
So I mention Jason Cole's opinion at Yahoo! Sports not to provoke hate mail for either him or me, although in especially orange quarters it probably will. I mention it to offer a counterweight to the local exuberance of the various campaigns.
Cole writes from a national perspective for Yahoo. The other day, he ranked all 32 teams by their quarterbacks. The big news was the Steelers slipped from top four to seventh because of Ben Roethlisberger's suspension.
The Broncos? Cole had them 29th.
"What do you get when you combine Kyle Orton, Brady Quinn and Tim Tebow?" he asked. "A backup, a flop and a prayer."
I'm ducking for cover already. Even Cole admitted he might have taken a little literary license. "Yeah, that's harsh, but let's face reality," he went on.
"Orton has always been exposed as a take-no-chances passer. Quinn didn't get a fair shake in Cleveland, but he didn't help himself, either. As for Tebow, it's hard to root or bet against him, but he was a reach in the first round when you consider how much work he has to do to make it in the NFL. Great kid, great work ethic, but first round? Oy . . ."
Personal opinion aside, there's not a lot of logic to the ranking. Orton was a middle-of-the-pack quarterback last season — 14th in passer rating. So unless you assume Broncos coach Josh McDaniels is about to replace him with someone substantially worse — a light goes on — the Broncos should still be somewhere in the middle of the pack. How Matt Leinart, Matt Cassel and Matt Stafford end up ahead of them I don't know, unless Cole has a son named Matt.
But one reason for some of the more jaundiced views from afar is that uncertainty at quarterback is almost always bad. Think about teams that aren't sure who their starters are. Carolina. Arizona. Buffalo. Not real promising situations, no matter how much you like Ryan Fitzpatrick's Wonderlic score.
Uncertainty doesn't matter this time of year, but it's going to start to matter here pretty soon, so it seems worth wondering how it gets resolved.
When I asked McDaniels the other day whether four quarterbacks — we mustn't forget Tom Brandstater, quarterback of the future a year ago — are too many, he acknowledged it will work for only so long:
"I've had four before at one point. During passing camp and the early parts of training camp, when you have 80 guys, or in this case 86 or 87 guys, you can get enough work because you've got a lot of reps. I think we had 35, 36 reps of 7-on-7 (Monday), so they all got, I think, somewhere in the neighborhood of nine or 10 plays apiece. There's not too many things that they're not getting an opportunity to rep out there. So that's the most important thing, is they're getting an opportunity to do that.
"Ideally, would you like to have an opportunity to give everybody more reps? Sure. But we're going to let that situation play out, and the competition will sort itself out and we'll end up with the right number."
So what's the plan?
Does McDaniels stick with the status quo, the incumbent Orton, design a few plays for Tebow, and let wins, losses and injuries sort it out once the season begins?
Does he look to trade Orton, his only proven commodity, to open the door for Tebow, with Quinn as his insurance policy? This would be a high-risk play that might raise the ceiling on the Broncos' quarterback play, but also lower the floor.
Does he simply drop Brandstater when reps get precious and host a three-way free-for-all right through the preseason?
Your guess is as good as mine. McDaniels has suggested several times that Tebow could be ready long before outsiders expect him to be, so a dramatic, possibly premature handoff seems possible.
The other worrisome scenario I imagine is Tebow as a part-time signal-caller, sent on to run certain plays in certain situations, then withdrawing to let Orton run the rest of the offense. I've never seen co-quarterbacks work at the pro level.
But frankly, the longer McDaniels takes to decide, the better for my racket. We can argue about this stuff endlessly, as we have only just begun to demonstrate. Come Monday, we'll be out there counting reps.
Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297, dkrieger@denverpost.com or twitter.com/DaveKrieger
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by claymore
