You can't expect your qb to keep on 'engineering' game winning drives when a defense constantly gives up the lead you just got. Seriously? And pulling out games from last year when we allowed TJ Watt to basically batter the crap out of our qb the whole game or a Saints game where the coaches literally didn't let him throw as 'proof' he he's ineffective in crunch time?
Give Geno a defense and some of those td drives in the 4th or late in the game will be the 'game winners'.
It's like this fan base now prefers an offense that can't do squat for 3.75 qtrs but manages to put one or two solid drives together to win the game.
Should they pay him now? No. You need to see hiw he finishes the year.
Should we forego a qbotf? No. Draft our guy next year anyway. But the dude is performing at a top 5 level in the league. If he finishes top 10...?
How many FOs in the league have a top 10 qb and let him walk? Top 12?
The talk all off season was about how you HAVE TO HAVE a good to great player at the position ton win anymore in this league. Top 12 is good. Top 10 is good to great. Cherrypicking 'comebacks ' as a stat to say he's not shown enough when your defense can't stop anyone and your young o-line takes points off the board is bonkers.
You make some fair points, but Geno has a history of choking at crunch time, basically freezing up and taking very untimely sacks, fumbles, and generally just being very "unlucky". What I'm looking for is for him to succeed in at least SOME game-on-the-line 4th quarter situations. I think we MAY start seeing that as part of Geno's natural development. Earlier in the season, an issue for me was, "can Geno continue his first half success in the second half?" Geno has now shown that he can. It may have been Waldron, rather than Geno, that had the problem, of adjusting to opponent's defensive halftime adjustments.
I would love to cite the Lions game where Geno led the offense to crunch-time scores. I'll give Geno credit for audibling into well-designed run plays that Penny took to the house in crunch time, that wound up being the game-winner. I would just love to see an example or two where Geno marches the team methodically down the field with his passing in these crunch time situations. Did I miss one?
It might also need to be Waldron (and sports psychologists?) that help Geno past his crunch-time choking problem. He seems to "freeze" in these situations. To me it seems like he's trying to do too much. I don't feel like I (or others who cite this deficiency of his) are moving the goalposts. We're simply waiting and hoping to see him improve. It was a 3rd and 2-ish, IIRC, in the Saints game, where Geno took a big sack that made going for it on 4th down a moot point. Geno held the ball, held the ball, Hero Ball, got sacked. We've seen this movie several times now. Geno does not have Peak-Russell's elusiveness and scramble drill QB superpowers. I don't expect him to. Very few QBs do. Geno's Hero Ball sucks, leads to sacks. Maybe Waldron has to fix this by making things simple and short in these situations, running minimal-risk-of-sack plays that get the ball out of Geno's hands quickly.