An unbiased look at Clausen

[CBDellinger]

while this is no excuse, i read they could not hear anything in the helmets and had to relay plays in by hand from Moore. probably the loudest place he's ever played in, so its to be expected it takes some getting used to. lets see if he improves again this week. he's still better than Moore

they had headset issues last week at the start of the game.... that's whay they were using the signals. Then at the end of the game it was so loud he couldnt hear them... so again, signals.

In time he'll be calling his own plays at the end of the game when we are in a 2 minute drill offense instead of having the OC sending them in to him.

[Jangler]

[Mr. Scot]

they had headset issues last week at the start of the game.... that's whay they were using the signals. Then at the end of the game it was so loud he couldnt hear them... so again, signals.

In time he'll be calling his own plays at the end of the game when we are in a 2 minute drill offense instead of having the OC sending them in to him.

Our coaching staff doesn't plan ahead for these things as well as some others do.

[rayzor]

Our coaching staff doesn't plan ahead for these things as well as some others do.

this is true. they are also slow to trust anyone to make desisions for themselves...which wouldn't be all that bad if you weren't so slow to make decisions and had a good track record of making decisions (neither of which are the case).

right now i'm thinking that davidson is more of a detriment than anything to clausen's development. we should have gone after charlie weiss as OC when we had a chance.

at the very least, davidson is out of his element...or fox is. neither like taking risks and ends up holding the team back as a result.

[Jpjr]

NFL ready depends on your standard. For me it means he is ready to start, play at a high level and win games for his team. It means he doesn't make rookie mistakes, he does lead his team and understand the nuances of the game. As such most every rookie is not NFL ready. Some never are. Guys like Jamarcus Russell were in the league for years but were never NFL ready.

He is playing in the league yes, but he is not a starting caliber quarterback by any means. That is what I interpret they were saying by NFl ready. You obviously have a much lower standard which doesn't make you wrong, it is just a different standard being used.

Matt Moore looked as bad or worse than Clausen through preseason and into the regular season this year, but my guess is that you did not assume he wasn't NFL ready. Clausen hasn't looked great, definitely very rookie-esque, but he knows the playbook and can manage the offense. Russell went three years without learning the playbook and could not execute a basic game plan. Clausen's accuracy will improve with confidence... he's a very accurate quarterback but seems to be tasked with executing low percentage pass plays or missing targets as he adjusts to the pressure. Alleviating this is the responsibility of the coaches. If you look at what St. Louis did with Bradford, he threw over 50 times his first NFL start despite having a very good running back. Almost all short to medium pass routes. Very high percentage. They took a season view that they weren't going to win a ton of games and are more concerned with developing their young players. If the Panthers took that view better things would happen at this point.

[panthers55]

Is it win games for his team, or not make rookie mistakes that defines player as "not nfl ready"? Those two need not go hand in hand. For Clausen, they have so far, though he also corrects many of his mistakes. What about our other players who are making mistakes and aren't rookies? Are they not NFL ready?

Perhaps there is a trend here. Clausen is not the broken cog in a perfect machine. His play has been typical of the vast majority of Panthers this season: mediocre save for a few plays (we can argue about them all we want, but let's agree he's had some plays that stand out, good and bad). Mediocrity rarely wins games in the NFL.

imo, we're barking up the wrong tree at this point, and we all know it. We can discuss Clausen for an eternity, but as long as he is working with this staff, we will have no real idea of what he is capable of. Even if he starts lighting it up, what will that mean? Moore did the last few games of last year and look how that turned out. Let's give the guy some time, then decide if he sucks. Some of us think he has played okay. Some think he has played well. Others think he has played terrible. Either way, at least he's playing.

As you say being NFl ready may vary depending on your defintion. All players makes mistakes and have issues. The real distinguisher for me is whether it was a mistake the player made but knows better, or is a mistake he makes because he doesn't know what else to do.

Like Godfrey his rookie year. In my definition he was definitely not NFl ready. He made obvious mistakes was out of position and didn't know where he should be most of the time. This year he still makes mistakes but he is defintely NFl ready and is a starting quality guy now.

As for Clausen is isn't like we have much choice do we. Will make for an interesting discussion as the year progresses.

[PantherFanForLife]

You are right, while most people on this board will disagree with that, there are a few, and I am one of them, that agrees.

He wasn't ready, still isn't and probably won't be this sunday either(I would not be surprized if he has a bad game). However considering the circumstances around him, considering the circumstances this team's coach created, I'm sure he is doing his best to try to get there as quickly as possible and since there's no better alternative, for the time being he's doing his part.

Benching Moore in favor of Clausen was never a move to save the season. It was a move to save face, put butts in the seats and have more scapegoats for the FO in case they needed them. And they do.

The only thing I wanted to see from Jimmy though, having had this opportunity is that he understands two things: 1) he caught a major break and should be greatful not cocky 2) this same major break could end up being an unfortunate blemish on his start as an NFL QB disguised as a blessing(not the opposite) and the last thing that he wants to have people say about him on the other side of things if it turns out he's first year is a typical rookie year is that he has an attitude problem.

No doubt he would have been better off learning on the bench for a year, even if it meant we were going to have sub-par QB perfromance from Matt this season.

Fortunatelly though there is also a minority that sees what's really going on, and while the media will be busy scrutinizing Clausen and finding out something most skeptical, intelligent fans already knew, the coaches and FO avoid that honor by hinding behind him. Not for much longer though.

[CRA]

You are right, while most people on this board will disagree with that, there are a few, and I am one of them, that agrees.

He wasn't ready, still isn't and probably won't be this sunday either(I would not be surprized if he has a bad game). However considering the circumstances around him, considering the circumstances this team's coach created, I'm sure he is doing his best to try to get there as quickly as possible and since there's no better alternative, for the time being he's doing his part.

Benching Moore in favor of Clausen was never a move to save the season. It was a move to save face, put butts in the seats and have more scapegoats for the FO in case they needed them. And they do.

The only thing I wanted to see from Jimmy though, having had this opportunity is that he understands two things: 1) he caught a major break and should be greatful not cocky 2) this same major break could end up being an unfortunate blemish on his start as an NFL QB disguised as a blessing(not the opposite) and the last thing that he wants to have people say about him on the other side of things if it turns out he's first year is a typical rookie year is that he has an attitude problem.

No doubt he would have been better off learning on the bench for a year, even if it meant we were going to have sub-par QB perfromance from Matt this season.

Fortunatelly though there is also a minority that sees what's really going on, and while the media will be busy scrutinizing Clausen and finding out something most skeptical, intelligent fans already knew, the coaches and FO avoid that honor by hinding behind him. Not for much longer though.

considering we are putting a rookie QB out there w/ 3 rookie WRs.......Clausen is likely to have his worst showing of the season this week. Unless the D or ST really saves the day.....this one could get real ugly.

[PantherFanForLife]

considering we are putting a rookie QB out there w/ 3 rookie WRs.......Clausen is likely to have his worst showing of the season this week. Unless the D or ST really saves the day.....this one could get real ugly.

Well according to some here those guys aren't rookies cause they have either sat on a bench or played in 8 games, 4 regular and 4 pre-season. That's half a regular season. They're vets now!

[MadHatter]

^^ agree

the clock management issues has to be fixed fast though. I don't care if you're not getting the plays you still have to know how much time is on that clock.

He cleaned up the botched snaps from center last week, lets see if he cleans up the clock management this week.

Agreed.

Our coaching staff MUST understand that we have a rookie QB. His clock management skills and internal clock are not where they need to be. Their play calling and cadences MUST be aligned to put him in the best situation to succeed.

[CRA]

Agreed.

Our coaching staff MUST understand that we have a rookie QB. His clock management skills and internal clock are not where they need to be. Their play calling and cadences MUST be aligned to put him in the best situation to succeed.

didn't Jake get upset last season visably w/ the coaches not getting plays in during a game?

[rayzor]

didn't Jake get upset last season visably w/ the coaches not getting plays in during a game?

at least once. it isn't a lone occurrence by any means.

[panthers55]

Agreed.

Our coaching staff MUST understand that we have a rookie QB. His clock management skills and internal clock are not where they need to be. Their play calling and cadences MUST be aligned to put him in the best situation to succeed.

The biggest thing is that if it takes them too long to get to the line of scrimmage it gives Clausen no time to look over the defense and make any adjustments at all. Even if he wanted to call an audible he wouldn't have the time to do it. The best quarterbacks bring the team to the line with at least 10 seconds so they have time to do something about it. If he isn't getting the play right away, he has no chance to do much with it. You can figure it is hard for him to read defenses anyway let alone not giving him the time he needs to at least try to do it.

[mav1234]

p55, what you just said is entirely why I think at least part of why Clausen doesn't seem NFL ready falls on the coaches, and what I was getting at before.

edit: who is saying the rookie WRs aren't rookie WRs? Confused by above post. When Goodson's in the game, it's kinda frightening how little experience the offense has, haha.