ghz in pittsburgh
07-31-2005, 02:15 PM
I just love Losman's media savvy: he wears everything on his sleeves and everyone can see it. The one quote that struck me from the infinite number of articles about him yesterday was that Losman had been study hard on the plays so that he can let his nature ability take over without thinking too hard or worrying about defenses. Now there is also a Boston.com article mentioning that Brady is the best among all NFL QBs to process defense information in the few seconds after a ball is snapped so that he can attack effectively.
If you put 2 and 2 together, I got Kordell Stewart for you.
Because that's exactly how Mularkay got Kordell back on track after Gilbride could not turn Kordell into a rocket science of dissecting defense!
And with that, I'm beginning to find the handle of how Mularkay is going to use Losman this season.
I'm not saying JP is as dumb as Kordell and will never assemble defense information at the helm. But I think the order of business for Losman will be simple: go and execute the called play; if it's not there, let your physical ability take over - scramble, run whatever, make something positive.
Which is exactly what Kordell did in his successful years.
Which the Bills could not do with a statue like Beldsoe.
Knowing the playbook like the back of your hand is important: 1) you need to be able to execute the play in the first place and 2) know where people are when the play break down while you are on the run.
Studying defenses? I'm sure he'll do some for each opponent every week. But Mularkay may not want to overwhelm him with all the possibilities, logical reasons, thinkings right now. You got the physical ability and instinct (which is evident from his college days), use it.
There is nothing wrong with this approach. Even Michael Vick is still at this stage as far as I'm concerned. But I think it'll take an exceptional athlete to pull it off. Kordell was an exceptional athlete and durable. Vick is probably the best athlete in entire NFL.
Can Losman translate his superior athletic ability from college to NFL and still be superior to most of his peers?
Over time, when you gets older, this approach may not work any more. It happened to Kordell. But this is now. Losman is only 25.
Another quote that caught my eye is that Losman said that Wyche keeps telling him what he did so far is good enough. This tells me that no matter how cocky he sounded, he still has a confidence issue, like every young QB getting their first kick at NFL. Looking back to Roethlisberger's success last year and how he credited that the early success - winning games - made him feel much more confident and play up to his ability, I'm convinced that it'll be much safer to go with the conservative approach at the beginning (vs letting Losman air it out as someone feared that opponents will be gearing for McGahee). The worst thing would be for Losman to throw picks, fumbles, and lose a couple of games because of that. Hand off to mcGahee, let the defense and ST do their thing, let your instinct take you as far as running/scrambling and making something positive, win a few games even if they are ugly. You get a young QB confidence up, understanding what it takes to win a game. Maybe just like Roethlisberger figured out last year, it may not be as difficult and you may not need to do it all to win at this level.
If you put 2 and 2 together, I got Kordell Stewart for you.
Because that's exactly how Mularkay got Kordell back on track after Gilbride could not turn Kordell into a rocket science of dissecting defense!
And with that, I'm beginning to find the handle of how Mularkay is going to use Losman this season.
I'm not saying JP is as dumb as Kordell and will never assemble defense information at the helm. But I think the order of business for Losman will be simple: go and execute the called play; if it's not there, let your physical ability take over - scramble, run whatever, make something positive.
Which is exactly what Kordell did in his successful years.
Which the Bills could not do with a statue like Beldsoe.
Knowing the playbook like the back of your hand is important: 1) you need to be able to execute the play in the first place and 2) know where people are when the play break down while you are on the run.
Studying defenses? I'm sure he'll do some for each opponent every week. But Mularkay may not want to overwhelm him with all the possibilities, logical reasons, thinkings right now. You got the physical ability and instinct (which is evident from his college days), use it.
There is nothing wrong with this approach. Even Michael Vick is still at this stage as far as I'm concerned. But I think it'll take an exceptional athlete to pull it off. Kordell was an exceptional athlete and durable. Vick is probably the best athlete in entire NFL.
Can Losman translate his superior athletic ability from college to NFL and still be superior to most of his peers?
Over time, when you gets older, this approach may not work any more. It happened to Kordell. But this is now. Losman is only 25.
Another quote that caught my eye is that Losman said that Wyche keeps telling him what he did so far is good enough. This tells me that no matter how cocky he sounded, he still has a confidence issue, like every young QB getting their first kick at NFL. Looking back to Roethlisberger's success last year and how he credited that the early success - winning games - made him feel much more confident and play up to his ability, I'm convinced that it'll be much safer to go with the conservative approach at the beginning (vs letting Losman air it out as someone feared that opponents will be gearing for McGahee). The worst thing would be for Losman to throw picks, fumbles, and lose a couple of games because of that. Hand off to mcGahee, let the defense and ST do their thing, let your instinct take you as far as running/scrambling and making something positive, win a few games even if they are ugly. You get a young QB confidence up, understanding what it takes to win a game. Maybe just like Roethlisberger figured out last year, it may not be as difficult and you may not need to do it all to win at this level.