The Dallas Cowboys ‘DID’ Strike Gold With Alex Tanney!

[Blue Eyed Devil]

Projecting QBs is one of the most impossible things in sports. Who knew David Carr would be worthless and Russell Wilson would be high quality?

But I like Tanney. I've seen more in him this pre-season than I ever saw in Stephen McGee.

 

[Idgit]

Geez, that's a little harsh for a rookie. I'm sure every QB at some point stared down a receiver early in their career and I wouldn't make an assessment on his potential based on a single play. His body of work in that game was impressive. It will be interesting to see what he does the rest of preseason. The fact that he has put himself in the conversation is pretty amazing because when I was at camp this year he barely got reps and never with the first teamers.

It's a lot harsh. Staring down WRs in this league is very common for young QBs...so much so that it'd be more surprising if he weren't doing it, given the level of experience he's playing with. It's also one of the easier things to correct with a little time. Much easier than not having an NFL arm or NFL accuracy.

 

[Eskimo]

I agree. You cannot improve a QB processing speed, velocity, accuracy, touch or pocket presence very much. You can teach him how to read defenses, go through reads and avoid bad habits like staring down the intended receiver and just trusting him to be in the right place at the right time.

Everyone has to remember that he has been here only 4 weeks so he does not have a lot of familiarity with the offense or his receivers.

I just notice that he puts the ball on the numbers time and time again, gets rid of the ball fairly quickly and moves around in the pocket pretty well.

If receivers made a couple of tough catches for him his overall numbers would look a lot better.

 

[KJJ]

Perhaps I didn't word that as well as I could have. Brad Johnson actually looked OK during preseason his last year with the Cowboys, but by the time we needed him during the season he clearly no longer had the skills to be an NFL QB. Orton has not looked good at times this preseason. Maybe it means something, maybe it doesn't, but we either have someone getting ready in the pipe or we end up bringing in the Ryan Leafs and Drew Hensons of this world to play QB like we did in the past trying to find a starter, because we didn't plan ahead. Also, I think it is important to note that Orton decided to take a job as a backup when he should have been in his prime as a starter. That alone tells me he doesn't think he has the skills to be a starter in the NFL.

In "preseason" Brad Johnson looked OK his last year with the Cowboys which tells you how misleading preseason can be. You take the good and the bad performances with a grain of salt in preseason. Johnson was playing against other backups in practice games. Orton looked pretty darn good during his first 2 preseason games and Tanney didn't. Orton was 2-3 vs Miami while Tanney was 5-11. Stephens looked better than Tanney vs Miami he was 4-7. Orton was 6-6 vs Oakland throwing the most beautiful TD pass of the preseason to Beasley. Orton had a passer rating of 142.4 vs Oakland. Tanney was 1-6 vs Oakland and had a passer rating of 39.6. Stephens was 7-12 for 78 yards vs Oakland. After the first 2 preseason games I came away with the impression Stephens was better than Tanney. Now after ONE game where Orton looked bad and Tanney finally looked good you have those who want to go with Tanney as the backup. No FAN base in the NFL lives in the moment like Cowboy FANS. With Romo's new contract he's going to be the starting QB for several more years so the Cowboys aren't thinking about his replacement right now.

All they're concerned with is having a capable backup in the event he goes down. Orton took the backup job because no team wanted him as their starter he's a bus driver. He had just got dumped by KC a team that needed a QB and was dumped in favor of Tebow prior to that in Denver so the writing was on the wall that he wasn't wanted as a starter in the league. Orton does have some skills and showed that vs a 13-0 Packers team in 2011. He completed over 74% of his passes for 299 yards that day. He outplayed Aaron Rodgers in that game so he has what you need in a backup experience and the ability to win games in the NFL. Having to come in and play for an injured Romo won't be too big for him he has a lot of starting experience under his belt. Orton has his shortcomings as do all backup QB's but he's regarded as the best backup in the league which gives the Cowboys some security in the event Romo goes down.

 

[Idgit]

Brad Johnson's arm looked like a wet noodle his whole final preseason. I recall media members talking about it and it being fairly obvious from watching the guy play.

I agree, generally, that it's dangerous to assume anything from preseason football play, but the one thing you can usually get a good grasp on is the physical abilities of the various players your evaluating.

 

[Fredd]

The Cowboys just don't carry 3 QB's...so if Tanney lights it up tonight and works his way onto the 53, then who gets bounced? I just can't see him making the team without something drastic happening (like Orton goes down or Tanney goes bonkers in the next two pre-season game and EVERYONE notices, ie: fear of losing him)

 

[Deep_South]

Brad Johnson's arm looked like a wet noodle his whole final preseason. I recall media members talking about it and it being fairly obvious from watching the guy play.

I agree, generally, that it's dangerous to assume anything from preseason football play, but the one thing you can usually get a good grasp on is the physical abilities of the various players your evaluating.

Preseason QB stats for 2008:

PlayerAttCompYdsComp %Yds/AttTDTD%INTINT%LongSckSack/LostRating
Richard Bartel 71 43 404 60.6 5.7 0 0.0 1 1.4 39 4 23 70.4
Brad Johnson 40 26 310 65.0 7.8 1 2.5 1 2.5 37 3 12 86.5
Tony Romo 31 24 232 77.4 7.5 1 3.2 1 3.2 32 0 0 95.1

 

[reddyuta]

The Cowboys just don't carry 3 QB's...so if Tanney lights it up tonight and works his way onto the 53, then who gets bounced? I just can't see him making the team without something drastic happening (like Orton goes down or Tanney goes bonkers in the next two pre-season game and EVERYONE notices, ie: fear of losing him)

they just dont carry 3 QBs?? really? you must have forgotten our terrific aggie QB we wasted another 4th rd pick.

 

[Hardline]

Tanney will be auditioning for his next employer tonight.

 

[5Stars]

Tanney will be auditioning for his next employer tonight.

Probably so, but it would be nice if the Cowboys will be his next employer, but unless they find a way to put him on the 53, I just don't know.

You can't release Orton because experience trumps inexperience all day long, and Orton is not that old.

 

[Eskimo]

Tons of teams manage to go through the season with 3 QBs with the third guy being a devleopmental guy. It is a good way to develop cheap backups as welll as future trade pieces. I still think we really screwed up by not putting Matt Moore on the roster in 2007 and he could have been a good backup for us until this past season when he finally would have hit UFA and perhaps entertained an offer to backup or start elsewhere. Instead we had retreads like Brad Johnson and Jon Kitna in there.

Here we have the same situation again. The only difference is Tanney has a much better set of tools than Moore did - bigger, stronger arm, more accurate, better pocket presence. The big fault with Tanney is that he is green in the sense that he played Div 3 football instead of Div 1 like Moore did.

In all honesty, if Tanney continues to play as well in the next two games as he did against Arizona I would be inclined to cut Orton and have Tanney as the backup. With an improved OL, better running and short passing game and better defense we will not be so QB dependent and can get by without Romo for a couple of games just as well with Tanney. If it is a prolonged absence I would prefer to give Tanney the snaps so we can try to develop him rather than trot out Orton who looked terrible 2 of the 3 times I have seen him this year.

 

[SuspectCorner]

If the Cowboys are down to Orton for any appreciable amount of time - the entire 2013 campaign is likely already over. The ceiling on Kyle Orton has already been established. He is a capable backup QB - upper half of that lot, too. But as a starter - hardly any great shakes.

To me, Tanney already appears to have a higher potential ceiling. His physical characteristics, pocket presence and playing style remind me of a certain successful QB from the 80's (I won't say exactly who - just that his jersey number was '16'). The guy is anything but 'lost' out there. Let the organization invest in him and see if he continues to progress. 'Cuz I don't see any progress coming from Orton. He is what he is. A good and serviceable backup... and nothing more. Experience is his only trump card as I see it.

If Dallas is going to continue to develop for the future at QB - why play conservative and put those development chips in the basket of a player that has little-to-no upside? Tanney has the potential that Orton does not. For me - potential should be the primary characteristic of your back-up QB. If your not aggressive in farming the QB position, then you're not building for success - just hedging against total collapse. As if semi-collapse isn't bad enough - and par for the course these last many years.

 

[CowboyStar88]

The pnly reason Romo is a Cowboy not is because Carter ruined his career. The Cowboys were going to cut him until that happened with Carter

I still wonder what would've been had Carter not ruined his career. I remember that offseason and interviews that he had a great offseason and had looked good I'm camp. Wasted talent he could've really been something. I think that coach Bruce whatever his name was didn't like Carter and he was pretty open about it really set him back and didnt really help and coach him up. I always felt that Bruce Coslet really set him
Back. There was no doubt Carter had talent and once he had real coaches around him you saw the difference. That was a sad day.