The most alarming thing I saw last night was Fitzpatrick's reluctance to go down the field, or perhaps it was Bowles and Gailey recognizing his limitations (that chicken-wing he calls an arm) and reacting accordingly.
Even scarier, from my observation he threw ONE intermediate route to Brandon Marshall, about a 20 Yard Button-Hook at the left hash, and the pass literally died before it got there. It traveled about 18 Yards and BAM!!, it fell like it was shot, resulting in an incomplete pass that hit the ground before it reached Marshall who was open and should have secured a first down. I believe thats how the series ended in yet another 3 and Out.
We can't have it, you can't win games in this league if your QB can't even drill a 20 Yard Button-Hook at the hash. I understand that he can't throw the deep out and that in itself is a huge problem. If you can't make a defense cover the whole field in this league, particularly the better defenses, they will game-plan accordingly and eat your lunch. You can at least be competitive verses poor to mediocre defenses, so long as you can make all of the throws between the hash marks including a deep post, but if you can't even do that on passes beyond 20 Yards, you might as well not even play the games.
Honestly, you would be better off starting a "not ready for primetime" Bryce Petty and going strictly to a shotgun spread offense like he ran at Baylor. Thats why he looked pretty good last night. Gailey essentially put him in the spread on 80% of the snaps, other than designed runs between the tackles, but you don't want to telegraph your offense like that in the regular season and you can design runs from the shotgun, so just put him in the spread and let him stay in his comfort zone, and live with the inevitable growing pains.
I know its not ideal, trust me, I KNOW THAT, I spent a lot of time pointing out that I like Petty's potential, but he's not ready for the NFL, his rookie year needs to be viewed by the team and fans as a quasi redshirt year, then if all else fails and you want to get him some real game experience late in a lost season, that would be fine, at that point you have nothing to lose and it might be helpful to at least get him a taste of the NFL and the speed of the game on Sunday's.
That was my position from the outset, even while I was lobbying for Petty in the draft, but that was before Geno had his jaw broken and before I saw a 20 Yard Button-Hook DIE at about 18 Yards, and he wasn't even pressured on the throw, its not like he was throwing off his back foot, he was able to plant and throw it and still he didn't have enough arm to get it there. And please lets not pretend that I'm basing all of this on one throw. I'm not and you know that I'm not. I'm just using this one throw to exhibit what we've all known to begin with, Fitzpatrick's main problem is his lack of arm strength, only even his harshest critics never imagined that would also pertain to intermediate routes between the hashes.
The other thing you have to be concerned about, as I eluded too at the beginning, is his penchant to checkdown to the underneath routes, play after play after play. If I saw it once last night (last week too), I saw it a million times. He was getting the time to set up in the pocket and make some throws downfield, and you could see him looking downfield, but you could also see his reluctance to pull the trigger, then turning his attention to the underneath safety valve. The Jets beat guys are noticing it too. One reporter is already calling him "Captain Checkdown", and thats not good.
Anyway, if the alternative is Fitzpatrick, I seriously have to consider designing the offense to fit Petty's skill set and comfort zone, then letting the kid go out there and wing it. For sure we'll make a lot more mistakes, but it won't be boring and at least the kid can force defenses to defend the whole field, and he will score points in his offense. If Gailey essentially gives him a variation of the Baylor offense to run, he will score points.
Even scarier, from my observation he threw ONE intermediate route to Brandon Marshall, about a 20 Yard Button-Hook at the left hash, and the pass literally died before it got there. It traveled about 18 Yards and BAM!!, it fell like it was shot, resulting in an incomplete pass that hit the ground before it reached Marshall who was open and should have secured a first down. I believe thats how the series ended in yet another 3 and Out.
We can't have it, you can't win games in this league if your QB can't even drill a 20 Yard Button-Hook at the hash. I understand that he can't throw the deep out and that in itself is a huge problem. If you can't make a defense cover the whole field in this league, particularly the better defenses, they will game-plan accordingly and eat your lunch. You can at least be competitive verses poor to mediocre defenses, so long as you can make all of the throws between the hash marks including a deep post, but if you can't even do that on passes beyond 20 Yards, you might as well not even play the games.
Honestly, you would be better off starting a "not ready for primetime" Bryce Petty and going strictly to a shotgun spread offense like he ran at Baylor. Thats why he looked pretty good last night. Gailey essentially put him in the spread on 80% of the snaps, other than designed runs between the tackles, but you don't want to telegraph your offense like that in the regular season and you can design runs from the shotgun, so just put him in the spread and let him stay in his comfort zone, and live with the inevitable growing pains.
I know its not ideal, trust me, I KNOW THAT, I spent a lot of time pointing out that I like Petty's potential, but he's not ready for the NFL, his rookie year needs to be viewed by the team and fans as a quasi redshirt year, then if all else fails and you want to get him some real game experience late in a lost season, that would be fine, at that point you have nothing to lose and it might be helpful to at least get him a taste of the NFL and the speed of the game on Sunday's.
That was my position from the outset, even while I was lobbying for Petty in the draft, but that was before Geno had his jaw broken and before I saw a 20 Yard Button-Hook DIE at about 18 Yards, and he wasn't even pressured on the throw, its not like he was throwing off his back foot, he was able to plant and throw it and still he didn't have enough arm to get it there. And please lets not pretend that I'm basing all of this on one throw. I'm not and you know that I'm not. I'm just using this one throw to exhibit what we've all known to begin with, Fitzpatrick's main problem is his lack of arm strength, only even his harshest critics never imagined that would also pertain to intermediate routes between the hashes.
The other thing you have to be concerned about, as I eluded too at the beginning, is his penchant to checkdown to the underneath routes, play after play after play. If I saw it once last night (last week too), I saw it a million times. He was getting the time to set up in the pocket and make some throws downfield, and you could see him looking downfield, but you could also see his reluctance to pull the trigger, then turning his attention to the underneath safety valve. The Jets beat guys are noticing it too. One reporter is already calling him "Captain Checkdown", and thats not good.
Anyway, if the alternative is Fitzpatrick, I seriously have to consider designing the offense to fit Petty's skill set and comfort zone, then letting the kid go out there and wing it. For sure we'll make a lot more mistakes, but it won't be boring and at least the kid can force defenses to defend the whole field, and he will score points in his offense. If Gailey essentially gives him a variation of the Baylor offense to run, he will score points.
