ESPN: Colts to release long-time QB Peyton Manning
March 6, 2012Looking for Leadership in All the Wrong Places
March 7, 2012While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
Some reasons why the Browns could pass on RGIII- “Robert Griffin III is a special and unique talent. I’ve heard comparisons to quarterbacks like Steve Young and Cam Newton. Griffin III is not the next someone, he is the first Robert Griffin III. Moreover, football pundits think he is a perfect fit for the West Coast offensive system. This is what the Browns’ employ to a certain degree. Yet because Griffin III is so unique, the team that does select him will have to tailor their offense. The Browns believe in their system from the top down. Holmgren, Heckert and Shurmur come from similar backgrounds and have similar beliefs in how to run a football team. That trio is more inclined to fit players to their system and not vice versa. [Delco/Orange and Brown Report]
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“I’m a sucker for a feelgood story. I mean, it’s my job to tell stories, so why wouldn’t I gravitate towards the tales that tell of people overcoming great odds to achieve success. This is one reason why I’m a fan of Cleveland’s Shelley Duncan.
If Duncan earned a spot on the Opening Day roster as the Tribe’s left fielder this spring, it would mean he found a way to shake off a label that was stamped on him long ago. Once a ballplayer is dubbed a utility man, or a good guy for the clubhouse and a fit for his specific role, it can be a tall task for them to convince the decision makers to roll the dice on them as an everyday option.” [Bastian/MLB.com]
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Arguing for Flynn over Griffin- “The Arguments for Matt Flynn: Flynn costs zero draft picks. Aside from which of these gentlemen is actually the better player, the cost of draft picks is the most important factor here. Draft picks are the lifeblood of an NFL franchise. Used properly, they keep a team stocked with talent and relatively cheap. You can’t exist as a quality team without using draft picks well. To get Griffin, you’re going to have to give up a bucketload of them.
He’s not an unknown quantity. Flynn has spent four years in Green Bay learning from the same people who helped Aaron Rodgers become great. That’s invaluable. Tape of him exists throwing 132 passes in real, live NFL games. It’s much easier to evaluate that than it is to evaluate tape of RGIII in a college system against college defenses. You won’t have to wait on him. Some rookies might take a year or two or three to mature into a very good NFL quarterback. Flynn should be able to step in and play his best football right now.” [MJD/Shutdown Corner]
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Rookie power rankings, Irving still on top- “My biggest concern was that defenses would attack his left hand, forcing him to put the ball on the floor and go right — similar to how defenses have begun to guard Jeremy Lin. But Irving is still very successful from the top of the key. According to data from Synergy Sports, Irving is posting a points per possession (PPP) of 1.333 in “top isolations,” among the top 2 percent of all NBA players. Most notably, defenses have not been able to stop Irving from his preferred move: He has landed in this top 2 percent while still going left 63.6 percent of the time. In fact, when Irving attacks the basket from the left side, he is posting the best PPP among all NBA players, scoring 1.467 points per possession” [Pruiti/Grantland]
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Finally, a long video, but really good stuff on secondary ticket markets, social media strategies in sports. From the Sloan Sports Conference. [ESPN Video]
25 Comments
Why do we have to keep calling him Robert Griffin THE THIRD? I think we all pretty much know that Robert Griffin I and Robert Griffin II are not in this year’s draft. And I’m not aware of any Robert Griffin IV, V, VI, etc.
While we’re at it, when is the NFL going to drop the stupid Roman numeralization of Super Bowls? When you’re reading an article about Super Bowl XXXIV, for example, do you ever stop to figure out which number that is? Or do you just glaze over the Roman numeral and keep going?
And let’s hope we never have to get around to World War III . . .
/Andy Rooney’d
Since you have to redesign your offense in order to fully utilize RG3, one would think that you would also need to have a backup QB with similar characteristics of your QB. If RG3 were to get hurt, would you change all of your offense again to find a whole different style of QB?
On draft day, the Browns will trade their entire draft for the #2 pick, then confidently announce, “With the #2 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns select Robert Griffin!” Robert Griffin the First, “RG3’s” grandpa, walks onto the stage and holds up the shiny brown #1 jersey. Two picks later, the Redskins draft Robert Griffin the Third, having traded Joe Theismann’s old cleats to the Rams for the #4 pick.
Precision matters. Especially when it’s the Browns.
“Holmgren, Heckert and Shurmur come from similar backgrounds and have similar beliefs in how to run a football team. That trio is more inclined to fit players to their system and not vice versa”
I think this line of thinking is ridiculous. Holmgren, Haskell, Heckert, Childress, Shurmur have all employed QBs with vastly different skillsets in their careers and structured their systems around them.
Favre is very different than Montana who is different than Steve Young who is different than Hasselbeck who is different from McNabb who is different from Favre again, et cetera.
But, we’ll just keep throwing out the lazy line that our FO/coaches are too dumb to adjust. Got it.
Colt McCoy and Seneca Wallace are QBs with pretty good mobility. I assume we would keep Colt as the backup and drop Seneca, but either way we would still have the same offensive structure with those guys (just not the ‘elite’ mobility)
I’m not sure that it’s a dig on their intelligence. I also think that the statement is fairly accurate, at least from what we’ve seen with the Browns under their control. They clearly did everything that they could last year to fit Colt McCoy into their system rather than forming the system around Colt. All year I was screaming (privately) for them to allow Colt to play out of the shotgun, as he almost exclusively did in college. I assume I wasn’t the only one. Indeed, their committment to their system and they way they employed McCoy has always been one of my prime concerns with them drafting Griffin – but I’m okay with it.
I agree with you that these guys have all, to some degree, structured systems around their best QBs in the past, but our limited body of evidence with Browns doesn’t show that same tendency. Hopefully, if they do draft Griffin, and if he really is the super-special guy that everyone hopes he is, they will be more inclined to deviate from the system structure than they have been with Colt.
Because if we select just Robert Griffin at the #2 or #4 pick we wind up with
http://www.baylorbears.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/griffin_robertt00.html
You know, Robert Griffin, from Baylor!
a couple of things.
1. I noticed that we did a fair amount of roll-outs especially early in the year. I believe this was specifically targeted to help Colt use his mobility and ability to throw on the run as well as cut the field in half for him (making it easier to go through his progressions).
2. Shotgun is a different animal. Shurmur was quoted a few times in preseason and early on that he wanted Colt to work on his footwork and shotgun does not help in that matter. To instill this footwork in Colt, it is quite possible he decided to “force” him to go more under center. This, to me, has more of an eye on the future as no matter the QB, there are more options out of that formation than in the shotgun (yes, we will likely have shotgun formations in our 2-minute offense and we may run that more often depending on situation).
3. I have a hard time divulging too much from last season. With such a condenses “learning” schedule, I am not sure how much extra the team wanted to put in. SF is cited as an example of success in a short time period and yet there was a lengthy grantland article that demonstrated they chopped the playbook up to only include the simple stuff. That’s great for a 1yr fix (and was worth it to SF), but not necessarily good long-term (I think defenses will dissect and destroy).
I guess it’s just all measures of how much one thinks we should cater to the QB or to the system.
First team all big 12. Looks like a nice RT
Pretty sure he’d be able to make the transition to all-world QB. Pull the trigger, Heckert.
That was THREE things!
I even numbered them to spell out my own demise. I will refuse to use the edit button so that all may know of my evil wickedness of getting you to read through 3 items on the promise of there being only 2.
and teams think Cam Newton is automatic on 3rd and short
A Trevor Crowe tweet because at least he’s doing something:
https://twitter.com/#!/tcrowe4/status/177239800959606784/photo/1
“a few” not a couple
RGIII or Flynn?
Peyton Manning.
If he comes into the league and stinks will he be called “the turd” instead of “the third?”
The picture and caption are both hilarious! Thank you for sharing that!
Only if he’s the new QB Coach.
Peyton: ok, see that double-team, well throw a laser-guided rocket pass over the first defender and have it drop into the gut of the WR before the 2nd defender can reach his hand in there. it’s only 35yds away, so this one will be easy.
Now hold on I’ve heard some good things about RG I. Rumour is he was the one who taught Paul Brown the ORIGINAL West Coast Offense that Walsh stole some years later. Apparently, because of the 50 year lapse we don’t even have to draft him we can just sign him. My sources say that Gene Hickerson has been suspended in a cryogenic freezer with orders to thaw and come out of retirement if and only if RGI and Jim Brown can both be coaxed back into playing. Just think about a Hillis/Brown backfield with a healthy Steinbach and Hickerson at the guards, while we use all of our draft picks to snag top flight talent.
Sorry, I refuse to stop commenting on the RGIII talk but I will not take it seriously until at least the guy has a pro day.
Same reason Ron Artest is now Metta World Peace.
I think RG III is a future superstar, we would be stupid to pass him up.
RGlll will give us 2 more years of what we just went through. Flynn leapfrogs at least past the Bengals & into the playpffs.