Revisiting The Cassel-Weeden Decision

[Alexander]

Meh.. both are complete garbage

Practically any QB not named Romo is going to suffer in this system.

It is not QB friendly.

It requires an elite talent to re-image practically every passing play so it has a chance to succeed.

 

[Mr Cowboy]

it's not just a crappy back up problem, the coaches are due much of the blame. They continue to game plan for Tony Romo and expect Tony Romo results with these bozo backups. Instead of making adjustments to fit the crappy QB's strength, their game plans have not changed the whole season. I can pretty much call every play the Cowboys are about to run in every game. It's a little harder with Romo, because he changes the plays so much. But IMO, Garrett and his Jr. High level, flag football offense is the biggest problem with this offense. As bad as Weeden is, he took the Cowboys to overtime his rookie year, and Cassel has won games in the NFL. I've said it before, Garrett is Mike Brady of the Brady Bunch, he is trying to sell the same outdated architectural plans he drew up when he became an architect.

 

[MRV52]

Practically any QB not named Romo is going to suffer in this system.

It is not QB friendly.

It requires an elite talent to re-image practically every passing play so it has a chance to succeed.

Really its a JV offense kids can succeed with it.

 

[Eric_Boyer]

We wouldn't have won anything with Weeden. Weeden was figured out. He was lucky that Randle was getting monumental gains in the first half of games. Cassell isn't much better, but having Weeden here would have done nothing different. There's a reason nobody picked him up after his awesome qb rating.

Weeden was immediately picked up after we released him (and that was the most factual part of your post)

 

[Eric_Boyer]

Practically any QB not named Romo is going to suffer in this system.

It is not QB friendly.

It requires an elite talent to re-image practically every passing play so it has a chance to succeed.

complete nonsense, as usual from you

 

[Wolfpack]

it's not just a crappy back up problem, the coaches are due much of the blame. They continue to game plan for Tony Romo and expect Tony Romo results with these bozo backups. Instead of making adjustments to fit the crappy QB's strength, their game plans have not changed the whole season. I can pretty much call every play the Cowboys are about to run in every game. It's a little harder with Romo, because he changes the plays so much. But IMO, Garrett and his Jr. High level, flag football offense is the biggest problem with this offense. As bad as Weeden is, he took the Cowboys to overtime his rookie year, and Cassel has won games in the NFL. I've said it before, Garrett is Mike Brady of the Brady Bunch, he is trying to sell the same outdated architectural plans he drew up when he became an architect.

Bonus points for the Mike Brady reference.

 

[Cowboy4ever]

With Weeden I think it was mental. He has the arm but I don't think he trust his eyes. I don't for one minute think the staff forced him to check down every throw. He just refused to throw the hard passes for whatever reason. Thus he was demoted and cut. Matt was brought in with the intention of opening up the passing attack that Weeden refused to do. But after his 3 pick first game he has gone in a shell. In reality the coaches are stuck at this point with a qb that is scared. But putting in the youngster would appear to be throwing in the towel and they can't do that when they preach to keep fighting. I would make the change and go with the young guy. I had hope for Matt after his first game even with the picks, at least he wasn't scared to take the chances but that has completely changed after that game. This season is far more disappointing than any recent year for me. But I honestly don't think the game plans would have changed the out comes. You can't win in this league with QB play that we have had.

 

[Eric_Boyer]

it's not just a crappy back up problem, the coaches are due much of the blame. They continue to game plan for Tony Romo and expect Tony Romo results with these bozo backups. Instead of making adjustments to fit the crappy QB's strength, their game plans have not changed the whole season. I can pretty much call every play the Cowboys are about to run in every game. It's a little harder with Romo, because he changes the plays so much. But IMO, Garrett and his Jr. High level, flag football offense is the biggest problem with this offense. As bad as Weeden is, he took the Cowboys to overtime his rookie year, and Cassel has won games in the NFL. I've said it before, Garrett is Mike Brady of the Brady Bunch, he is trying to sell the same outdated architectural plans he drew up when he became an architect.

we went into the Atlanta and Saints games with good plans, and Weeden executed them pretty well. He gave us chances to win both of those games but in both cases the defense couldn't hold when needed.

New England was gifted a bye and two full weeks to game plan against a cowboys team without Romo and Dez. It was the disaster we all expected. It took until recently for Cassel to even show he knows the offense, it was a knee jerk reaction to placate fans to make that switch - and those are moves you will always get with Jerry Jones leading the ship. I'm not calling Weeden a savior, but he knew the offense, and was moving the chains for us at a level Cassel was clearly not ready to duplicate out of the bye.

 

[PJTHEDOORS]

Dez was never Dez when he 1st came back. Nor is he now. Weeden wouldnt have done any better with Dez

 

[Dave_in-NC]

The nightmare continues.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I'll say this about Cassel... I watched a lot of Bills preseason action and the guy was much more efficient in the Bills system than what he's shown in Dallas. I wonder how much of Cassel's problem goes back to the scheme.

At the end of preseason, many thought Cassel was going to be the Bills starting QB this year. It wasn't that he was head an shoulders above Taylor (or Emmanuel) because it was more like all three guys were even. Many just figured Cassel would get the starting nod just because of his experience.

 

[cheftjpeck]

I don't know... Having to compare these 2 to see which is better is like having to choose between losing both your arms or both your legs .. Both would be painful and the outcome still sucks

 

[Dave_in-NC]

I'll say this about Cassel... I watched a lot of Bills preseason action and the guy was much more efficient in the Bills system than what he's shown in Dallas. I wonder how much of Cassel's problem goes back to the scheme.

At the end of preseason, many thought Cassel was going to be the Bills starting QB this year. It wasn't that he was head an shoulders above Taylor (or Emmanuel) because it was more like all three guys were even. Many just figured Cassel would get the starting nod just because of his experience.

This has a lot to do with it IMOP. Most can call our plays from their couch.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

This has a lot to do with it IMOP. Most can call our plays from their couch.

The Bills offensive scheme is of course run-heavy, which is going to benefit a QB.

But what they do to protect Taylor... lot's of short routes which result in a high completion percentage, with a mix of long throws– 30-40 yards downfield, that if they get picked... well it's 30-40 yards downfield.

They simply do not do a lot of medium depth routes in the middle of the field. Their medium depth routes seem to be focused on side-line routes that are either completed or end up out-of-bounds.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

The Bills offensive scheme is of course run-heavy, which is going to benefit a QB.

But what they do to protect Taylor... lot's of short routes which result in a high completion percentage, with a mix of long throws– 30-40 yards downfield, that if they get picked... well it's 30-40 yards downfield.

They simply do not do a lot of medium depth routes in the middle of the field. Their medium depth routes seem to be focused on side-line routes that are either completed or end up out-of-bounds.

It's a novel idea though. Some thing our staff has no idea how to do.

 

[Tenkamenin]

Weeden could not push the ball down the field and he had no patience to allow a play to develop, good riddance. Cassell sucks in his own right but atleast he'll take some chances down the field. Jerry was correct in saying it's hia fault for the backup situation.

 

[dallasdave]

Got it the first time champ.

Since you like to talk about QB's did you see where Johnny Football got 270 yards, a win, and only 1 INT !!! Still think Weeden and Cassel are better than Johnny Football ????

 

[Idgit]

Weeden got a bit of a raw deal. He gave us our best 4 quarters of QB play all year (how sad is that) in his first four quarters as a starter. Who knows how that Saints game might have turned out for him had we gotten he ball first. He had no Dez, and he had a lot less defensive support. I don't believe for a second NE wouldn't have made Cassel (or any backup we might realistically have had at that point) look just as bad in that game. And then that was it.

That said, he really didn't have what it takes to be anything more than an average/below average backup. And he's too old to develop, so it doesn't really matter.

Cassel is another story. He obviously needed a little time to get comfortable with the offense, but he showed signs of being able to move the ball in the NY and PHI games. He's regressed awfully, though, the last two weeks, to a point where, in my opinion, he's not serviceable. I don't know what it is, but he can't move the ball downfield anymore, and he's inaccurate even on the check down passes. And it's horribly boring to watch.

I'd be playing Moore from this point on if it were my call.

 

[dallasdave]

Weeded got a bit of a raw deal. He gave us our best 4 quarters of QB play all year (how sad is that) in his first four quarters as a starter. Who knows how that Saints game might have turned out for him had we gotten he ball first. He had no Dez, and he had a lot less defensive support. I don't believe for a second NE wouldn't have made Cassel (or any backup we might realistically have had at that point) look just as bad in that game. And then that was it.

That said, he really didn't have what it takes to be anything more than an average/below average backup. And he's too old to develop, so it doesn't really matter.

Cassel is another story. He obviously needed a little time to get comfortable with the offense, but he showed signs of being able to move the ball in the NY and PHI games. He's regressed awfully, though, the last two weeks, to a point where, in my opinion, he's not serviceable. I don't know what it is, but he can't move the ball downfield anymore, and he's inaccurate even on the check down passes. And it's horribly boring to watch.

I'd be playing Moore from this point on if it were my call.

I agree give Moore a chance, then you know if can play in the NFL or not.

 

[Idgit]

I agree give Moore a chance, then you know if can play in the NFL or not.

We won't do it on a short week, traveling, against the Jets, but yeah, I'd like to see it. Even watching a young guy make huge mistakes would be more interesting than another four quarters of watching Matt Cassel catapult beanbags more-or-less in the area of his check down targets every third down that he's not throwing it to Jason Witten two yards shy of the marker.

We could petition Dean Blandino to change the definition of a catch to be 'somewhere in the relative vicinity of a Cowboy receiver' and we'd still only be about 50% on third downs the last two weeks.