Shaub out for Season

[Thaid_Up]

Just saw it on espn that Matt Shaub had a fractured foot and is out for the season. Leinert will replace him. Wow what a tough break. They looked as if they were starting to gel into something.

[Jax Dawg]

Houston doesn't want to admit yet that Shaub is done yet. If Leinert looks bad again on this team his time might be over in the NFL...He can always go back to USC to work on the Graduate degree since he likes messing with the coeds more than developing his QB skills.

[Brown Warrior]

WHOOO! Matty Ice is back!

(I'm a little nervous. My QB legacy rests on his tentative left arm.)

[Thaid_Up]

I have this vision....Super Bowl 2012 Houston vs San Francisco Alex Smith vs Matt Leinert. Hmmmmm

[DieselPusher]

after Smith takes down Rodgers in the nfc championship game

[Tobalaz]

Someone please tell Matty you can't learn a playbook from beerbonging it in liquid form.
And you can't use rubber ducks in hot tubs to learn play formations.

[Brown Warrior]

Originally Posted by DieselPusher

after Smith takes down Rodgers in the nfc championship game

QB Guru III: Redemption City. Available now for X-Box.

I'm sold on Alex Smith being good over the past three years' progression. Not as sold on Matty. He's seemed terrified to throw beyond 10 for a while now. You see Smith driving on outs and stuff... haven't seen that from Leinart in a long while.

[Flugel]

Originally Posted by Brown Warrior

QB Guru III: Redemption City. Available now for X-Box.

I'm sold on Alex Smith being good over the past three years' progression. Not as sold on Matty. He's seemed terrified to throw beyond 10 for a while now. You see Smith driving on outs and stuff... haven't seen that from Leinart in a long while.

Of course you are sold. Alex is the only QB besides Harrington you were willing to give 6-7 years of "please be fair folks" to. That was because you made tons of "book it" promises regarding his stardom. Today, Alex is a game manager that REQUIRES the excellent defense, elite running game and skills of a TE that runs 4.3 forties. None of their WRs are starting for anyone's fantasy football rosters for good reason. He's basically the next Trent Dilfer that found the perfect fit where he's not asked to be THE DRIVER. Just a passenger that desperately needs Harbaugh + 3 first round draft picks on the oline + a 1st round TE + 3 different 1st round draft picks at WR (Crabtree, Ginn, and Edwards).

Just like Trent Dilfer or Alex Smith, if we handed our QB a defense that will only allow 3 points on game day he'll spin it to win it. For example, the day Seattle scored 3 we won and if we held held Cincy to the SAME 8 points SF could - we scored more than the 13 points SF scored on Cincy. Not exactly rocket science. NOW, add in a defense that scores TDs while limiting points and you have a closer apples to apples of passengers like Dilfer and Alex. And even better, if you add the extra years of experience via the growing pains that tarnished Dilfer's and Alex's reputations - I dare say you could see McCoy doing the SAME stuff Alex is asked to do in SF today. For example, throw to an uncovered offensive tackle or a dlinemen that lined up at FB so the coverages were brilliantly uncontested. I'm not about to mistake Shurmur for Harbaugh. The MAIN point here is if you predicted wonderful things for McCoy, you'd be telling everyone assessment in these conditions is incomplete/unfair as you did for the first 6 years of protecting your Alex Smith. It took 7 years for Alex to graduate to game manager status under a brilliant head coach that changed Stanford to a top 10 program. That being the case, you should understand and respect the perspectives of those of us that think there's still a chance for McCoy to be successful once we provide a better environment. And that stat avg yards per completion is a VERY good indicator of what passing games have the best foot speeds capable of turning 5 yard slants into 60 yard TDs. We never score by 1 missed tackle/accident outside of the 1 time Cribbs accomplished it vrs SF. If things were right here - Cribbs would be #3 and MoMass or Little would be #2 (still can't decide whom I like better but leaning toward MoMass when I count TDs per start) and we'd have a gamechanger on the perimeter to attack with.

One of the things you rarely ever explain well is WHY some QBs deserve 6 or 7 years and others don't. In all my years of being an NFL and Browns fan, I have noticed a couple things. First, QBs emerge at different rates. Not everyone gets 3 years to observe a HOF QB up in GB before start #1 comes in season #4. By then, as we all know - GB was accustomed to frequenting playoffs meaning the surrounding environment, continuity and chemistries were alll in tact pretty much. Second, there are environments like the one Troy Aikman went to can lead to such false negatives from arm chair GMs/Head Coaches such as the rebellious "JJ needs to go if he ain't startin dat dere Steve Walsh over Aikman." Of course there was a Herschel Walker trade that speeded up things and ended concussions/growing pains. Just because a couple exceptions to the rule have popped up here and there - doesn't change what we have in Cleveland in terms of chess game attack pieces. Hence, my endless reluctance to blame the poor basterds that have inherited this talent pool from the front officer every damn time while NOBODY ever wanted to hold guys like Policy and Savage the least nbit accountable. Believe me when I tell you that I wish the problem was always just the coordinator, coach or QB. If so, we would have solved this a LONG time ago. EVERY time we change it, we rip out the little foundation in tact and start over by ADDING needs such as RB when we already have a Peyton Hillis on board. I couldn't make sense of that if I wanted to.

[Brown Warrior]

Tom... huh? No quarterback is allowed six years to develop by design. In fact, with a draft cap, I expect they'll actually get less time with less investment.

The Niners didn't actually stick with Smith. He missed two complete seasons to injury (combined). When marginally healthy at different points, he sat behind a Who's Not of quarterbacks who actually turned out to be worse. It's its own unique circumstance... but the truth of Smith over the past three seasons is different from the Smith of the first four. He's been pretty damn good, completing about 64% for 43/25 over that time, better than a lot of starting QBs in the league.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with a plan at QB and certainly nothing to do with McCoy. He was just my first draftnick darling and I've always been something of a 49ers fan. You keep trying to turn it into something sinister... and it just won't take because it isn't.

[Brown Warrior]

By the way, there's no "just like Dilfer and Smith." Dilfer gets irrational credit for "game managing" that quirky Super Bowl champion, but he was actually just bad (14/13 when nobody's guarding the pass???). They won in spite of him.

Smith is at 11/3 with a 96 QBR and he's playing very good football. They beat the Giants last week without Gore, something Dilfer couldn't have done without Jamal Lewis. Apples and oranges.

I will be watching to see if SF keeps winning cutting against the grain of the league-wide trend to pass, pass, pass to victory. If the other serious contenders are Green Bay, New England, and Pittsburgh, they're definitely pass first teams. None of them run the ball particularly well and the first two are not very good defensive teams this year.

SF might be the most complete team in the league... although you can be all kinds of complete and still not compete with a passer having the best season in history.

[Flugel]

Originally Posted by Brown Warrior

Tom... huh? No quarterback is allowed six years to develop by design. In fact, with a draft cap, I expect they'll actually get less time with less investment.

The Niners didn't actually stick with Smith. He missed two complete seasons to injury

Quit your spin doctor nonsense for the pretty boy you predicted NFL stardom for and read the inconvenient facts of the first 3 seasons and realize that team didn't start winning until his 7th season:

Year Team Comp Att Att/G Pct Yds Yds/G Yds/Att TD Int Sack Rate
2005 San Francisco 49ers 84 165 18.3 50.9 875 97.2 5.3 1 11 29 40.8
2006 San Francisco 49ers 257 442 27.6 58.1 2890 180.6 6.5 16 16 35 74.8
2007 San Francisco 49ers 94 193 27.6 48.7 914 130.6 4.7 2 4 17 57.2
2008 Injured Reserve
2009 San Francisco 49ers 225 372 33.8 60.5 2350 213.6 6.3 18 12 22 81.5
2010 San Francisco 49ers 204 342 31.1 59.6 2370 215.5 6.9 14 10 25 82.1
2011 San Francisco 49ers 151 236 26.2 64.0 1709 189.9 7.2 11 3 21 95.8
Totals: 1015 1750 27.8 58.0 11108 176.3 6.3 62 56 149 75.4

If any QB here had a passer rating of 40.8 followed by 74.8 followed by 57.2 - you would be throwing that guy guy out of town especially if he had freckles and big ears. Even worse for you since you are always explaining what average yards per complete summarizes for a QB - Alex began with 5.3 yards per complete followed by 6.5 followed by 4.7. You're free to like whoever you want; but don't go pretending Alex has ever been a game changer because he makes you change your underwear whenever you watch him.

[hiwaygal]

He was a good FF guy....and I had to pick up a replacement.

The best I could do was Vince Young