Hasselbeck
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Out of sheer boredom tonight, decided to fire up the ol' NFL Game Rewind to see if I couldn't get a feel for this unknown 6th round QB and former camp fodder for the now 11-3 Arizona Cardinals, and the one team standing in our path for hosting the NFC Playoffs in Seattle for a second consecutive year.
First things first.. I wanted to brush up on the scouting report of him entering the draft. As a proud alum of a Mountain West Conference school.. I vaguely remember seeing Lindley play in his final two seasons at San Diego State, and actually thought he had some sleeper potential in the later stages of the draft.. not necessarily as a starter, but as a nice option at backup.
The scouting report (not to jump ahead of myself here) .. is pretty damn accurate in regards to Lindley, and you immediately see it when you watch the limited action he has seen thus far..
I watched the following games .. and only passing plays, because I don't really care how he hands the ball off.
2012 - vs. St. Louis, his first ever pro start (31/52, 312 yards, 4 INT)
2012 - at New York Jets, start #2 (10/31, 72 yards, INT) (as an aside.. this may have been the worst game ever)
2012 - vs. Chicago, start #4 (17/30, 141 yards, INT .. eventually benched for Brian Hoyer)
2014 - at St. Louis (4/10, 30 yards)
Lindley started off showing some real promise in his first start, leading a very nice touchdown drive against the Rams .. then having their defensive coached by Dave McGinnis and not the suspended Gregg Williams.. but the bottom immediately falls out as the game goes on. He would throw 4 picks on the day, all of them terrible.. and two of them returned to the house by Janoris Jenkins (remember that name, he will resurface a bit later).
The second start.. my god. The Cardinals would go 0 for 15 on 3rd down against the Jets that day. Greg McElroy would lead the Jets to a thrilling 7-6 victory.. and Lindley was PUTRID this day. The Jets defense played well, but Lindley flat missed throw, after throw, after throw, after throw. Any other decent QB that day probably has pretty good success and wins going away considering the opposition. Really.. I hate myself for even watching the Cardinals drives on this day. And I wanted to give Larry Fitzgerald a hug or something.
Finally I finished watching his 2nd half against the Rams, because after all.. he's playing under a new coaching staff now with slightly better talent around him offensively .. at least at WR. It could be argued in 2012, the Cardinals running game was a bit better with Beanie Wells.. though with their anemic passing game with whatever they were trotting out there.. it's hard to say entirely.
What I gathered from all four of these games, is Lindley definitely has a killer arm. He can flat let it fly. You can see why Arians would be moderately interested in having him back on the roster for this very reason, as he loves the QB's with a big arm to take deep shots down the field.
Really though.. that's where the positives abruptly end. Lindley has awful footwork. And it's not just awful when he's under duress either. There were many times where even in a clean pocket, he would throw off his back foot and miss by a mile. Because of his terrible footwork, as one can expect, most of the time he's missing these passes high. That bodes very well if you're a Seahawks fan, and if you're Cardinal superfan 'ringless' .. well.. not as much.
There were constants in the games from 2012 and his one half of play so far this year. You see his accuracy issues in all 4 of these games, and even in the one start he won against Detroit (a game Matt Stafford threw 2 pick sixes and Lindley did relatively nothing in a 38-10 win).
Another interesting thing of note.. Lindley was only sacked 12 times in 2012, and went unscathed against the blitz happy Gregg Williams a week and change ago. Why this is important to jot down is.. unlike a lot of QB's that are happy to just eat the pressure and live another down, Lindley will force throws if he feels pressure. And happy feet soon follows. Again... leading back to shoddy footwork that will haunt him even with no pressure.
The only real time Lindley had consistent success was on quick hitters to his tight end, or screen passes to his WR's. Against the Rams most recently, Arians would have him take some shots down field.. but he missed on every attempt.. one of them should have been picked successfully by Janoris Jenkins (hi 2012) who let the ball hit the ground.. another was nearly tipped and picked in the end zone a few drives later. Of his 4 completions on the night, only ONE was not a quick throw/screen from the shotgun.. and that would be a 12 yard completion on 3rd and 6. Williams of course blitzed 7 on the play.. for.. God only knows why.
Lindley will struggle reading the Cover 1/Cover 3 .. and if we continue to get a steady pass rush with just 4 and 5 guys.. I see no reason why we can't force him into some really bad decisions resulting in turnovers.. or at the least.. errant throws to lead to punts.
And if he decides to take deep shots down field.. we all know how that usually goes.
First things first.. I wanted to brush up on the scouting report of him entering the draft. As a proud alum of a Mountain West Conference school.. I vaguely remember seeing Lindley play in his final two seasons at San Diego State, and actually thought he had some sleeper potential in the later stages of the draft.. not necessarily as a starter, but as a nice option at backup.
The scouting report (not to jump ahead of myself here) .. is pretty damn accurate in regards to Lindley, and you immediately see it when you watch the limited action he has seen thus far..
I watched the following games .. and only passing plays, because I don't really care how he hands the ball off.
2012 - vs. St. Louis, his first ever pro start (31/52, 312 yards, 4 INT)
2012 - at New York Jets, start #2 (10/31, 72 yards, INT) (as an aside.. this may have been the worst game ever)
2012 - vs. Chicago, start #4 (17/30, 141 yards, INT .. eventually benched for Brian Hoyer)
2014 - at St. Louis (4/10, 30 yards)
Lindley started off showing some real promise in his first start, leading a very nice touchdown drive against the Rams .. then having their defensive coached by Dave McGinnis and not the suspended Gregg Williams.. but the bottom immediately falls out as the game goes on. He would throw 4 picks on the day, all of them terrible.. and two of them returned to the house by Janoris Jenkins (remember that name, he will resurface a bit later).
The second start.. my god. The Cardinals would go 0 for 15 on 3rd down against the Jets that day. Greg McElroy would lead the Jets to a thrilling 7-6 victory.. and Lindley was PUTRID this day. The Jets defense played well, but Lindley flat missed throw, after throw, after throw, after throw. Any other decent QB that day probably has pretty good success and wins going away considering the opposition. Really.. I hate myself for even watching the Cardinals drives on this day. And I wanted to give Larry Fitzgerald a hug or something.
Finally I finished watching his 2nd half against the Rams, because after all.. he's playing under a new coaching staff now with slightly better talent around him offensively .. at least at WR. It could be argued in 2012, the Cardinals running game was a bit better with Beanie Wells.. though with their anemic passing game with whatever they were trotting out there.. it's hard to say entirely.
What I gathered from all four of these games, is Lindley definitely has a killer arm. He can flat let it fly. You can see why Arians would be moderately interested in having him back on the roster for this very reason, as he loves the QB's with a big arm to take deep shots down the field.
Really though.. that's where the positives abruptly end. Lindley has awful footwork. And it's not just awful when he's under duress either. There were many times where even in a clean pocket, he would throw off his back foot and miss by a mile. Because of his terrible footwork, as one can expect, most of the time he's missing these passes high. That bodes very well if you're a Seahawks fan, and if you're Cardinal superfan 'ringless' .. well.. not as much.
There were constants in the games from 2012 and his one half of play so far this year. You see his accuracy issues in all 4 of these games, and even in the one start he won against Detroit (a game Matt Stafford threw 2 pick sixes and Lindley did relatively nothing in a 38-10 win).
Another interesting thing of note.. Lindley was only sacked 12 times in 2012, and went unscathed against the blitz happy Gregg Williams a week and change ago. Why this is important to jot down is.. unlike a lot of QB's that are happy to just eat the pressure and live another down, Lindley will force throws if he feels pressure. And happy feet soon follows. Again... leading back to shoddy footwork that will haunt him even with no pressure.
The only real time Lindley had consistent success was on quick hitters to his tight end, or screen passes to his WR's. Against the Rams most recently, Arians would have him take some shots down field.. but he missed on every attempt.. one of them should have been picked successfully by Janoris Jenkins (hi 2012) who let the ball hit the ground.. another was nearly tipped and picked in the end zone a few drives later. Of his 4 completions on the night, only ONE was not a quick throw/screen from the shotgun.. and that would be a 12 yard completion on 3rd and 6. Williams of course blitzed 7 on the play.. for.. God only knows why.
Lindley will struggle reading the Cover 1/Cover 3 .. and if we continue to get a steady pass rush with just 4 and 5 guys.. I see no reason why we can't force him into some really bad decisions resulting in turnovers.. or at the least.. errant throws to lead to punts.
And if he decides to take deep shots down field.. we all know how that usually goes.
