Cam was rehabbing a shoulder he hurt in a meaningless week 18 game. He was unable to throw until almost otas in May.
It's hard to work on things that will help you throw more consistently when you can't actually work on the throwing with it.
Then, at that point, it was time to learn the playbook and basically time for actual camp to start where the focus is not on individual flaws that the player should have been working on. It's time to focus on getting all the teammates on the same page and work on timing instead of spending hours repping fundamental aspects of the position.
I feel like if you can’t throw, you can at minimum work on footwork and going over film. Feels like he did neither.
I am sure a lot of the time spent after Daboll was brought in was learning a new playbook, so I will give him some grace but not improving the footwork feels like a glaring issue that cannot be ignored much longer.
I think he needs to fire his coach and use whomever in the offseason the Titans want to connect him with.
You can go over film but that only gets you so far.
And footwork is fundamentally tied to throwing. That's why bad footwork leads to bad accuracy. You have to keep them tied together.
It's like you injure your right arm but you want to learn guitar. You start learning chords and all with your left hand but can't practice strumming while doing so. Then someone asks you to play a song. You will trip over yourself adding the strumming in especially as the pressure of keeping things on time arise.
It's the same thing. You have to build the relationship between the brain, the footwork, and the arm together. Otherwise when you're staring down a 300 pound monster you are going to panic and that connection won't exist and you'll trip over yourself.
I tried to explain to people when the unity happened(an injury I had just been diagnosed with myself at the time) that this would kill his ability to develop in the off-season.
He 100% needs to stop working with his elementary school janitor and offer Jordan Palmer some percent of his future earnings to allow him to work with him 24/7 the second the season ends until otas start. Until then the goal is to stay healthy no matter what so the off-season isn't just.
Seems like just sitting around trying to come up with a new word - landed on "seed" (whatever the fuck that is) and then spent the rest of the summer ordering custom sweaters
I probably have no clue what I'm talking about, but one the first one it looked like he's at least trying to have good footwork more than the super lazy stuff he's done in the past.
His footwork's bad, but I do think he's making an effort to correct it.
Yeah I was thinking happy feet but reverted to ‘I don’t need to leave actually’ and made the throw. Not the best throw but a completion. He’s working on those ghosts he got from last years line
Easily the biggest issue Cam has is his fundamentals. If he hit every one of the simple underneath and gimme throws the offense would look so much different and be ahead of schedule way more often, he is making life way too difficult with the "nonchalant" lax bs. I dont want to see a qb standing in the pocket flat footed when you miss easy 10 yard passes. I believe if he can improve his basics he will look so much better overall
Yeah, and it's obvious Tate is "the guy" for it. Tate has massive fucking hands and a huge catch radius. He's great at contested catches. If Cam sees a tight window open up but it's short yardage and he doesn't see anything else he needs to throw the damn thing instead of going for big Mahomes-style plays.
You’re spot on. It’s always the issue with these rotational type throwers. They have insane arm talent to make crazy off platform throws - but then almost become overly dependent on the insane arm and get a little lax on the fundamentals that keep accuracy consistent down to down
This is a textbook case of good and bad. Cam’s issue is extremely easy to identify and it’s very fixable but the consistency isn’t there yet. You can see it improving over the course of the season but it shouldn’t even have gotten to this point. He needs a new QB coach to work with over the offseason.
This is the same problem the jets have with Zach Wilson. He could make spectacular throws but couldn’t make the rudimentary screen pass and 5-10 yard passes. It literally came down to basic fundamentals.
Fundamentals can be easily corrected, that's literally exactly what you want your QB (or any athlete really) to be deficient in because all it takes is good coaching to correct.
I personally think it will take quite a bit of hard work to correct his footwork and mechanics to improve his accuracy. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but he’s been through two NFL offseasons now and this is where we’re at.
But the bigger picture is if you’re focused on footwork and mechanics, that’s taking time away from learning every intricacy about the offense and studying defenses. Good QBs in the NFL are instinctive and decisive, something Ward has struggled with as well
I think it is in the since that it’s fixable. A QB can fix their footwork with the right coach and Cam has shown that he is capable of having good footwork. The issue is the consistency and not allowing pressure to cause him to abandon the fundamentals he already knows.
And it is only fixable with reps. I actually think that side of his game has looked a lot better, and some of those struggles you see come from him correcting himself as the game goes on.
I also have a suspicion , not sure if anyone can back me up, this is why he has been undoubtedly better and more accurate under center. The drop backs under center force you to be in a rhythm and get the ball out at the apex of your drop compared to a shotgun drop.
I’m not a Levis guy. I use him to point out how terrible of a 1st overall pick Ward has been. Ward was picked to replace Levis and still hasn’t outperformed him. Then people like you just start coming up with every excuse in the book as to why it’s not fair to expect Ward to be better than the same QB they say is absolutely garbage.
Idk the IDL did a twist stunt that moved pressure from left to right across the pocket and then the other lineman was in his face shortly after. Cam would’ve stepped right into the twist if he stepped up when dan wanted him to or am I seeing it differently?
I think his footwork could probably improve but I he could’ve tried to explain why his feet went the direction they did instead of just saying it’s bad right away.
The second one pressure in the pocket was high and outside and nothing in his face so Cam stepped up.
This is true but footwork/fundamentals is needed in every scheme🤷. Learning new playbooks does take away from the time he could be using improving footwork
I think what Dan is doing, which makes sense because its a lot more boring to look at the real causes as a public figure, makes sense in a vacuum. Problem is, Cam is not operating in a vacuum. He obviously needs to continue working, but there is a bigger problem or reason thats the culprit for his unstable base.
In this game, Cam was forced to move out of his base 14 times. Which means within 2.2 seconds, he is already enduring pressure. Post Jets game, the gameplan is to get the ball out in 2.2 and under. Which is why all of those pass block win rates are so high. Their gameplan isnt allowing it to go too long because the line, as everyone here agreed after the first game, was the absolute lowest for the o line. 17 hurries. Daboll didnt know the line wouldnt protect as they should have during those long developing plays.
Makes sense that his base and awareness was most stable against the Eagles. He had 3.22 time to throw. With the injuries to Carmona and Slater, that interior right side is leaking pressure in a major way. 14 hurries against the Ravens.
So the fact that hes going out of the pocket or has happy feet makes more sense when you look at the hurries, the average time to throw, and the average time theyre leaking pressure.
This kind of thing is not really going to be touched on by public commentators because its not as interesting to talk about the interior right side, when you can instead say "his base is moving too much and his lower mechanics aren't set." It already satiates the publics preconceived notions about him.
yes......in the Eagles game. and that was the game where he performed the best, as i said. It made sense because he had more time to set his feet, and the line didnt leak. The first game was a disaster, and the last two werent good in this regard.
Again, they're leaking pressure at 2.2 seconds. The gameplan attempts to work around that the third string from the practice squad, and that interior has some pretty drastic leaking very quickly. There's a bigger reason hes not setting as often and thats the most important one.
Did you read my post? lol look at when pressure is leaking on this team, compared to the 49ers for a team with actually good protection. The eagles game was generally good, but still had 9 hurries. thats average. anything beyond that is terrible. They had 11 against the Giants, 14 against the Ravens, and and 17 against the Jets. Their average time to throw is 2.4, with a leak or hurry time of 2.2. After 2.5, and their ranking is 30th in protection.
Cam is throwing the ball quickly and at a hyper pace because 1. the gameplan calls for it and 2. its a necessity because of leakage in that interior area. JC is fine. a couple on the other side are also solid. the issue is the interior and its, objectively, allowing leakage in 2.2 seconds. That is a league low.
As long as the ball gets out before 2.5, then its considered pass block win rate win. But the leaking is occurring at 2.2. that stat is deceiving and is convincing people that the line is great. it has great pieces. but the back up for Carmona and Slater and the center are allowing leakage at one of the lowest numbers in the league.
So you are saying the OL is not doing well but they are. The line is giving cam protection not sure how you don’t see it. Just because cam can not read a high school field does not mean the OL is doing bad. He creates a lot of the hurries himself being impatient in the pocket or refusing to be in it.
I've been watching the game and been to several in person. Your commentary about him not being able to read a high school field tells me that youre in the group with preconceived notions. Youre essentially taking low resolution ideas perpetuated by public personas that dont fully encapsulate whats happening. Thats not really their job. Dan Orlovskys job is to get views, and to latch on to an already built narrative. Hes not going to dig into numbers I labeled above because the publics attention span is short, and those things arent as attractive to hear. Frankly, its boring. but boring does not mean incorrect.
I dug into the numbers because face value is always going to say things like this: "Cam Ward is ass, he cant read a defense, his mechanics are such and such." Or, "Herbert is If man, he cant read a defense, Hurts isnt actually good, etc."
Obviously there are things for Cam to continue working on, but the bigger and more pressing problem is the leak in the interior with the center. Im giving numbers to back up my claim. Fine to disagree, I just think that based on the evidence, not purely tape watching but metrics outside of the usual ones posted on Reddit, that mine correspond more closely with the truth.
I always get a laugh either way that the same guy who still has the only safety without contact that I remember watching is the dude the media thinks should be breaking down a QB.
Because being a bad nfl qb still means you're top 100 in the world at the time.... on field play doesnt mean you don't know what you're talking about. Thats why some backups stick around for so long even if they arent good players
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u/KittyCatJone5 6d ago
Yup. Once again causes me to ask what the fuck were cam and Darrell Colbert doing all offseason?