John63":316sqpi6 said:
OKay first ye she can he has been taking the layup on 60-70% of his passes before the Sf game. That said you have to take shots sometimes. Also, we are not a WCO team. What the rams run is not a WCO. We have 2 of the best deep-ball threats in the game. Just because he throws a long ball or tries to make a play does not mean he can't, he has been and does. Go back to 2015 and you will see what it can look like. If you really objectively look at every season he throws short a lot taking what they give him, he just does not do it all the time. However, keep in mind we had more WCO capable WRs then. Dk is not a WC wr, Baldwin was. Lockett can be, Eskridge and Swain can be. But remember you also risk DK going off because he is not getting his deep shots.
ow if you saying he can only take the layups well then you are saying only play half an offense. You have to do both and he does. Maybe not to your liking, maybe not all the time, but he does. Sometimes those attempted bombs are not just about a completion but also reminding the other team you can do it so they don't start taking away the layups. Just like you run sometimes even when it is not working to remind them you still can or want to.
I swear it is incredible how he can miss or not take a layup and all of a sudden he never does.
To me it seems you are stuck in black/white, either/or thinking. Constantly inventing things people didn't say and then arguing against what they didn't say. Did anyone mention WCO or trying to turn Russell into a WCO QB? The discussion was about reading what the defensive coverage gives you, based on the route concepts that are being run, and quickly identifying the best places to go with the ball.
Did learning to quickly read defenses and get the ball out quickly when called for keep Brees, Warner or Brady from recognizing and taking deep shots and hitting them? No, of course not, and it won't take away Russell's deep-ball superpowers either. It's all about recognizing the defense and taking what's available, moving the chains, and putting up points
Russell has a deficiency in the area of reading coverages and understanding where the opportunities will be, based on the route concepts being run. He's been working around it with his own set of concepts that the rest of the NFL has largely figured out, though it took them years. Russell is so good with his own concepts that he can often succeed with just them, IF he has enough time to process and find them. When the opponent has a good pass rush, like the Rams and Cardinals, Russell mostly won't have time to do it "his way". (The Rams had Robert Quinn who could run Russell down) IMO it's near-pointless to say, "Russell needs an O-Line that can pass block", because there aren't linemen who can consistently protect a QB for 5+ seconds. If there were such a thing, the team couldn't afford them under the salary cap without crippling the depth and talent elsewhere. No, what's needed are affordable road-grader run blockers who can pass-protect for 2.7 seconds. Sounds like what we had in 2013 and 2014, doesn't it? Along with that, we need Russell to develop a Manning or Warner-like ability to read quickly and get throws out in 2.5 seconds against a heavy rush.
If Russell developed the quick-read, quick-throw part of his game, he *could* carry the team past deficiencies in other areas. Russell is always going to have the deep ball skills that make him special. But only sometimes will he be able to create 5 seconds to throw. He does read single-high safety coverage sort of OK. Against two-high safeties and a team with a pass rush, he struggles horribly, because he never learned the reads. I believe and hope Russell is working hard on learning those reads and adding to his game.
