Brandon Weeden on time with Cowboys: 'It wasn't like I stunk it up in Dallas

[DandyDon52]

Mark Twain dropped out of 5th grade and was forced into bankruptcy which took him several years to recover. It's fun to quote his more humorous observations on life in general but I wouldn't count on him as an intellectual giant.

It's interesting to note that people who dislike statistics are those whose opinions are destroyed by statistics and have no ability to dispute them. Statistics are an organized set of data or information that cannot be ignored, refuted or disagreed with and that's why many don't like them. Statistics evaporate B.S.

It cannot be denied that Brandon Weeden has the highest completion rate among all quarterbacks this season with 100 or more pass attempts, he is the only QB completing more than 70% of his passes. Tony Romo is in 3rd place. Russel Wilson is 4th. Matt Cassel is 36th.

Weeden completed 5 of his 14 deep passes, 6 of the 9 that were incomplete were thrown to Williams who had the most attention without Dez.

Cassel completed 14 out of 40, exactly the same percentage as Weeden which was 35%, Romo completed 40% of his deep passes.

Weeden wasn't moving the football? Incorrect. He averaged 7.5 yards per attempt, Romo averaged 7.3 and Cassel 6.2.

Weeden threw an INT every 49 passes. Cassel threw one every 29 passes, Romo every 30 passes.

Weeden too slow in the pocket, a sack magnet? Wrong again. Yes, he averaged a sack every 12 passing plays but Cassel wasn't far behind in any way, he averaged a sack every 14 passing plays, Romo every 20 plays. A slew of quarterbacks had a higher sack rate including Russell Wilson, Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel, and Colin Kaepernick. The majority of these guys are known for their elusiveness.

Nobody can dispute the fact that Brandon Weeden's quarterback rating of 92.7 is ranked 17th in the NFL. In other words, his rating is better than half of the starters in the league. Tony Romo is ranked 33rd, Matt Cassel is 37th.

The offense, under Weeden, provided an average of 18.3 points per game compared to 13.3 fo Romo and 13.4 for Cassel.

Dez Bryant did not participate in any game with Weeden. He was ready to go for Cassel. The defensive players on suspension had just returned for Weeden's last game. The starting RB was still Randle. As the starter, two of Weeden's three opponents were undefeated at the time.

Cassel was given every advantage over Weeden.

Who really decided to cut a guy with a legit 1st round arm and a 92 passer rating this season? Weeden was barely out the door when he was snatched by another team. Cassel will go back on the streets where he was wandering before Jerry Jones decided that the leagues most accurate passer so far this season just wasn't good enough.

It's very possible that Brandon Weeden will be quarterbacking his team in the playoffs this season. Now that sucks.

you make some good points, lets see how he does the next 2 games.

 

[tyke1doe]

He played well in relief v. PHI and in the first half v. ATL. NE was going to make any of our backups look bad.

He wasn't good enough, but he also wasn't as bad as some of you guys like to pretend. He was generally just a very mediocre backup QB.

With all due respect, I don't quite understand this. So he wasn't as bad as some of us think he was yet he was a very mediocre backup QB.

So what would he have had to do to be more than a mediocre backup?

And if he was mediocre for a backup, doesn't that make him bad?

Maybe you can explain it better than I'm interpreting it.

 

[Idgit]

With all due respect, I don't quite understand this. So he wasn't as bad as some of us think he was yet he was a very mediocre backup QB.

So what would he have had to do to be more than a mediocre backup?

And if he was mediocre for a backup, doesn't that make him bad?

Maybe you can explain it better than I'm interpreting it.

He wasn't a dumpster fire. And much of the board wants to pretend that he was. You could drive a Mack truck between 'mediocre backup QB' and the 'generic board perception of Brandon Weeden.'

Reality is right that Weeden was an accurate line-of-sight passer who lacked the anticipation to throw receivers open. He wasn't a quick decision maker. Beyond that, he was an accurate QB who'd stand in the pocket and take a hit to make a throw.

 

[tyke1doe]

He wasn't a dumpster fire. And much of the board wants to pretend that he was. You could drive a Mack truck between 'mediocre backup QB' and the 'generic board perception of Brandon Weeden.'

Reality is right that Weeden was an accurate line-of-sight passer who lacked the anticipation to throw receivers open. He wasn't a quick decision maker. Beyond that, he was an accurate QB who'd stand in the pocket and take a hit to make a throw.

Thanks for the explanation. But on this level, if you're a line-of-sight thrower, that's pretty bad. Tebow was a line-of-sight thrower not to mention not very accurate.

 

[DenCWBY]

I'm actually glad to see a player rise above his past poor indiscretions/play and become successful. I don't know if he'll ever amount to anything as a QB however good to see a bright spot in his career as long as it's not directly against the Cowboys. I think he tried his best here and the system was not friendly to him and he also has limitations. Go figure.
It's all just another example of how poor the DC FO and Coaching staff is with player personnel and it's offensive strategy.

 

[Idgit]

Thanks for the explanation. But on this level, if you're a line-of-sight thrower, that's pretty bad. Tebow was a line-of-sight thrower not to mention not very accurate.

It's damning for any long term starter, for sure. It's something he might improve on with enough reps, but those are obviously hard to come by.

Playing QB in the NFL is incredibly difficult. Reps are gold, and players figure things out at different rates, if they ever do. It's why it's such a hard position to scout.

At the end of the day, you just want to see steady progress. Weeden wasn't progressing, so letting him go was probably the right call. Cassell actually regressed during his time here, and he's a guy who'd already had enough reps. Which is why he turned out to be a mistake.

Hopefully, we see a little progress from Moore. Enough to justify bringing him into camp to compete for QB2 next season.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

He wasn't a dumpster fire. And much of the board wants to pretend that he was. You could drive a Mack truck between 'mediocre backup QB' and the 'generic board perception of Brandon Weeden.'

Reality is right that Weeden was an accurate line-of-sight passer who lacked the anticipation to throw receivers open. He wasn't a quick decision maker. Beyond that, he was an accurate QB who'd stand in the pocket and take a hit to make a throw.

Binary is more simple though! Anything more complicated than bestest and worstest is unreasonable.

 

[Nightman]

But, of course, you can't show me a single example.

Statistics cannot be manipulated, just misrepresented to those with a poor understanding of it's relevance. For example, tossing a coin and getting a heads does not prove that every time you toss a coin you will get a heads.

However, I you toss a coin 10 times and record your results, then 100 times and then 1000 times, a trend will develop that enables you to claim probabilities for future results when you toss that coin.

It is important for this coin toss to be independent of any other influences on the results. For example, you cannot attach something to one side of the coin and expect the results not to be influenced.

I say this because, football being a team sport, the fact that he lost 11 straight has absolutely no bearing on his future performances with different teams, different systems, different set of teammates, it's ignorant to think it does,

Archie Manning, father of Eli and Peyton, was the 2nd player taken in his draft. He ended up on the worst team in history, the New Orleans Saints, when there was no free agency, no salary cap. His career was practically given a life sentence of playing with the most inept group of offensive teammates and ineffective coaches.

His team there never once had winning record. His overall record as a starter there was 35-101-3.

And yet, he made 2 Pro Bowls. Perhaps his two best completions were performed on a more enjoyable type of field, two of his sons are Super Bowl MVP's. That is not associated with any statistical probability, just an opinion regarding poetic justice.

I gave you a stat and chose to disregard it.

A starting QB is not a flip of the coin. He has more of an impact than any other player in the game. His record can absolutely be used to predict the future.

And maybe Archie wasn't as good as you want him to be.

 

[Nightman]

It's damning for any long term starter, for sure. It's something he might improve on with enough reps, but those are obviously hard to come by.

Playing QB in the NFL is incredibly difficult. Reps are gold, and players figure things out at different rates, if they ever do. It's why it's such a hard position to scout.

At the end of the day, you just want to see steady progress. Weeden wasn't progressing, so letting him go was probably the right call. Cassell actually regressed during his time here, and he's a guy who'd already had enough reps. Which is why he turned out to be a mistake.

Hopefully, we see a little progress from Moore. Enough to justify bringing him into camp to compete for QB2 next season.

You have to know when to fold a losing hand. Weeden had plenty of time to show improvement in CLE and DAL and he failed both times. There is no reason to argue against his release.

 

[Idgit]

You have to know when to fold a losing hand. Weeden had plenty of time to show improvement in CLE and DAL and he failed both times. There is no reason to argue against his release.

Are people arguing against his release? Or just saying he wasn't as bad as fans want to believe?

We had a lot of other issues this year. It wasn't just Weeden and Cassell.

 

[BoysFan4ever]

The Texans won't ask alot of Weeden. They will run the ball down the Titans throat...throw a few to the TE...and try to get the ball to Hopkins.

And put a ton of pressure on their QB.

O'Brien worked with Tom Terrific. He knows what's he got with Weeden. Not much.

 

[gmoney112]

I always get the impression Brandon cares more about his stats than he does about the team. Comments like this don't help.

Yes you did/still do stink Brandon. Sorry bro. Not everyone can be an NFL QB.

You can't read a defense, you can't anticipate a simple out route, you hand the ball off willingly into a 10 man box.

You literally can't or won't throw to your left for some reason. You can't throw an accurate pass unless it's the checkdown 5 yards in front of you, which you threw it to an overwhelming majority of the time because you were scared of damaging your QB rating, which I guess is another reason why you constantly checked down on 3rd down while not even attempting to get the first.

Probably all so he can tell the media "Hey guys, I wasn't that bad, see?"

Cassel being terrible is the primary reason Weeden is getting any accolades. Sure, Houston won a game with him where he had a whopping 100 yards passing over more than a half of football, and the Colts put out about 200 yards of total offense. Weeden also looked good his first game here too. What was it, like 20 straight completions? Then teams knew they'd be facing him and promptly shut him down.

Weeden isn't even backup material. I don't think you can win with him if he's starting. His one attribute is his big arm which he's too afraid to use, probably because he knows limiting turnovers is the single thing he does well.

If Houston hadn't shut down the Colts who displayed a Weedenesque offensive performance themselves, no one would even care about his "not terrible" performance where he totally didn't stink it up with 100 yards passing on 18 attempts.


*drops Mic*

 

[robbieruff]

Not sure if he is talking about compared to Cassel or in general.

Compared to how Cassel has looked Weeden was Joe Montana. Lol.

 

[DallasEast]

I beg to differ with you, Monsieur Weeden, HO HO!​

 

[percyhoward]

Nobody can dispute the fact that Brandon Weeden's quarterback rating of 92.7 is ranked 17th in the NFL..

Nobody can dispute it, but anybody could explain it. Weeden's 92.2 rating with Dallas was as high as it was because of the inordinate amount of short passes he threw and completed, particularly (but not limited to) his 3rd-down completions that gained yards but ended up short of the sticks.

Here are the top 5 highest rated passers on 3rd down, with a minimum of 30 attempts.
McCown 129.5
Palmer 122.1
Wilson 115.5
Weeden 111.6
Brady 109.3

Now here are the 3rd-down conversion percentages of the same five QB.
Palmer 47.9%
McCown 44.9%
Wilson 44.0%
Brady 40.8%
Weeden 26.7%

Passer rating gives the QB credit for the completions and the yards, even if the pass doesn't result in a first down. But we don't see players go a full season with a high rating and low conversion percentage because over the course of a full season, a QB who wasn't successful converting on 3rd down would have already been replaced after so many games, like Weeden in fact was.

 

[plasticman]

He did not do enough to win.
There were times he did not do enough to lose...but in the end he did not do enough to win.

Every week half the starting QB's in the league don't do enough to help their team win.

The job of a backup is to not do enough negative to lose and allow his teammates to do enough to win. Any time a starter goes down its expected that there will be leas productivity at the position.

If that wasn't true then he would or should have been the starter in the first place. Randle was the main guy arrying the ball so a typical set of downs for Weeden was 1st and 10, 2nd and 8, 3rd and 5. Werden threw a lot of shirt passes because that essentially was the running game.

 

[khiladi]

Mark Twain dropped out of 5th grade and was forced into bankruptcy which took him several years to recover. It's fun to quote his more humorous observations on life in general but I wouldn't count on him as an intellectual giant.

It's interesting to note that people who dislike statistics are those whose opinions are destroyed by statistics and have no ability to dispute them. Statistics are an organized set of data or information that cannot be ignored, refuted or disagreed with and that's why many don't like them. Statistics evaporate B.S.

It cannot be denied that Brandon Weeden has the highest completion rate among all quarterbacks this season with 100 or more pass attempts, he is the only QB completing more than 70% of his passes. Tony Romo is in 3rd place. Russel Wilson is 4th. Matt Cassel is 36th.

Weeden completed 5 of his 14 deep passes, 6 of the 9 that were incomplete were thrown to Williams who had the most attention without Dez.

Cassel completed 14 out of 40, exactly the same percentage as Weeden which was 35%, Romo completed 40% of his deep passes.

Weeden wasn't moving the football? Incorrect. He averaged 7.5 yards per attempt, Romo averaged 7.3 and Cassel 6.2.

Weeden threw an INT every 49 passes. Cassel threw one every 29 passes, Romo every 30 passes.

Weeden too slow in the pocket, a sack magnet? Wrong again. Yes, he averaged a sack every 12 passing plays but Cassel wasn't far behind in any way, he averaged a sack every 14 passing plays, Romo every 20 plays. A slew of quarterbacks had a higher sack rate including Russell Wilson, Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel, and Colin Kaepernick. The majority of these guys are known for their elusiveness.

Nobody can dispute the fact that Brandon Weeden's quarterback rating of 92.7 is ranked 17th in the NFL. In other words, his rating is better than half of the starters in the league. Tony Romo is ranked 33rd, Matt Cassel is 37th.

The offense, under Weeden, provided an average of 18.3 points per game compared to 13.3 fo Romo and 13.4 for Cassel.

Dez Bryant did not participate in any game with Weeden. He was ready to go for Cassel. The defensive players on suspension had just returned for Weeden's last game. The starting RB was still Randle. As the starter, two of Weeden's three opponents were undefeated at the time.

Cassel was given every advantage over Weeden.

Who really decided to cut a guy with a legit 1st round arm and a 92 passer rating this season? Weeden was barely out the door when he was snatched by another team. Cassel will go back on the streets where he was wandering before Jerry Jones decided that the leagues most accurate passer so far this season just wasn't good enough.

It's very possible that Brandon Weeden will be quarterbacking his team in the playoffs this season. Now that sucks.

First of all, Cassell was traded and he wasn't wandering..

Second, your stats are predicated on the fact that Weeden's numbers would have followed the same trend as Cassell or even better with Dez.. Dez for example, was awful and dropped some balls right in his hands which would have upped Cassell's percentage...

It's not the same sample set..

That being said, Moore should have been playing, because he had three years in the Linehan offense. It's clear Garrett wanted a guy like Cassell..

 

[khiladi]

What's ridiculous is the Texans were in disarray at the beginning of the season..

They were 1-4 to start the season and are now on their 3rd string QB... Even Yates wasn't their starting QB, Hoyer was..

But apparently only Garrett faces circumstances that can prevent him from winning..

 

[Idgit]

What's ridiculous is the Texans were in disarray at the beginning of the season..

They were 1-4 to start the season and are now on their 3rd string QB... Even Yates wasn't their starting QB, Hoyer was..

But apparently only Garrett faces circumstances that can prevent him from winning..

Teams lose games for lots of reasons. Many of them aren't related to the coaching, and even when they are, there are generally compound circumstances that lead up to teams falling short. Which is what we've seen in Dallas this season, whether people want to acknowledge that like reasonable adults ought to, or not.
Bad QB play and all, we've been in position to win every realistically winnable game. And that includes the GB game, which was a one-score deal with 5 minutes left to play.

 

[mattjames2010]

This guy does nothing but feel sorry for himself and make excuses. It's incredibly annoying.