Does Jake have tunnel vision?

[scpanther22]

So far in the 2009 season Jake hasn't thrown a pass. He has a new quarterback coach and is very motivated to come out this year and make amends for last season.

That is a good formula for success. Look how increased motication helped Williams this year. Wouldn't be surprised if Jake had a very good year in 2009. It is a contract year for him if he isn't extended which he will likely be. As for last year and other prior ones. That is ancient history and may or may not have bearing on what happens next year.

jake is a 34 year old vetaran....i dont think a new QB coach will make that much diff in his playing style..he still will lock on to smith

if anything the new QB coach will help matt moore

[panthers55]

We hold you to this statement about the past being nothing.

In football it is true. On the other hand you could have said that the best predictor of the future is the past and argued the other side. It is good to be able argue both sides of the argument. Too many folks here are locked into one view on everything with little flexibility or ability to see things from another perspective and fail to recognize that arguments can be made on both sides. Folks seem too tied up in winning the argument rather than exploring the issue.

jake is a 34 year old vetaran....i dont think a new QB coach will make that much diff in his playing style..he still will lock on to smith

if anything the new QB coach will help matt moore

Don't know why Jake can't learn from some else. If he is doing something wrong or making poor reads, then a new perspective will be very helpful. Thirty four or not Jake has only been playing as a starter for five years if you take out 2007 as an injury year. And he has the same coordinator for all that time. Don't see why he couldn't change. He has evenly publicly supported the new coach and is looking forward to having a great year

[Baschski]

For the love of god, if we ever had a quarterback who didn't do everything he possibly could to get the ball to the most dangerous player in the NFL, I would be stunned.

[Mr. Scot]

jake is a 34 year old vetaran....i dont think a new QB coach will make that much diff in his playing style..he still will lock on to smith

if anything the new QB coach will help matt moore

Guessing you didn't read the article on Scherer's meeting with Jake.

Delhomme is one of those guys that is eminently coachable because he doesn't let his ego get in the way. I think there's a pretty good chance that Scherer has as much effect on him as anyone, and I'd be willing to bet that's what OC Jeff Davidson is counting on.

Two ideas are forming more and more in my mind the more I read about McCoy's departure and Scherer's hire.

One, I don't know that Mike McCoy did that much "coaching" of Delhomme as he did acting as a buddy/eye in the sky/sounding board. Whether he did much coaching with the younger guys at all, who knows?

Two, I'm increasingly under the impression that Jeff Davidson and Mike McCoy weren't on each other's "buddy list". They had competed for the same job, and apparently McCoy thought he had it. He had to be pacified by giving him the title "passing game coordinator" after Davidson's hire. I'd say there's a good chance McCoy and Davidson disagreed over the proper way to handle Delhomme.

As added evidence, go back and read just how glowingly Matt Moore talked about the advice he got from Vinny Testaverde. If you read between the lines, there's a bit of a "water in the desert" feel to his comments.

Throw in also that for his part, Jake was said to be happy about "getting back to" the fundamentals of quarterbacking. You don't "get back to" something you're already doing.

[bleys]

For the love of god, if we ever had a quarterback who didn't do everything he possibly could to get the ball to the most dangerous player in the NFL, I would be stunned.

Hence the argument if Smitty was on a team with a "great" quarterback, the line of thinking by people here is he would have outrageous numbers...

but for that to happen, that same "great" quarterback would have to lock onto him, am I right?

An interesting concept, lol

[Fireball77]

Throw in also that for his part, Jake was said to be happy about "getting back to" the fundamentals of quarterbacking. You don't "get back to" something you're already doing.

I read several years back that Jake went to the staff and told THEM what he wanted to work on mechanically like play fakes etc. It may have been after the 2003 season or 2004. That sure made me start thinking...why isn't the STAFF going to HIM and saying these types of things?

Watching McCoy in Denver will be interesting that's for sure. He's going to be working for a guy who was a QB coach and is going to be calling the plays even though McCoy is technically the O/C. It's possibly not a big step up from his role in Carolina really other than maybe the amount of input he has into the game plan. Cultler needs a bit of work and if he improves I would tend to think it is more due to Mickey D than McCoy.

[MurkN]

You know I figured out why Jake got picked off so many times. Most quarterbacks pat the ball right before they throw it. Hell, even I do it in the backyard. Well whenever Jake pump fakes, he doesn't pat the ball. In fact, he always pats the ball before he throws and anyone smart enough to see this will just realize that once he pats the ball whatever direction he is looking in is where he is going.

But what do I know.

[Mr. Scot]

Kinda hoping one of the first things Scherer works on is that oddball "double clutch" he developed this year.

[Cyberjag]

I think Jake does have a "tell" in his delivery this year, but I don't think it was picked up on until Arizona caught it in the playoffs. To their credit, the Cards' coaching staff has done a great job at finding tendencies this year.

Here's something interesting that says as much about Davidson as it does Delhomme. We have one of the most dynamic receivers in the NFL, and he's involved in only 14.1% of our total offensive plays. Williams, on the other hand, was involved in 33.8% of our offensive plays this year. In Arizona, Fitzgerald was involved 15.9% of the time. In Indy, Wayne went for 13.6%. Question is, do we have a winning formula there or should we give the ball to Smith more?

[2jakefansinva]

I'd like to see the RB %'s higher. Get them open in space.

[Urrymonster]

Good research.

BUT - I would recommend checking this out with teams that have a similar offensive philosophy, both Arizona and Indianapolis spread the opposition out in mutliple receiver sets allowing them to create mis-matches and prevent double and triple coverage. They SHOULD be able to throw to their #1 & #2 more frequently. In addition their runnings backs offer nothing in the passing game and therefore they will have more receptions for the receivers.

In my humble opinion this backs up that we are too one dimensional as we have a pretty rigid 2 receiver formation that we stick too and if we are using the half backs and tight ends as much as a team that uses multiple receiver sets then that says to me that we focus on our Wrs too much.

I looked into this and compared Pittsburgh and Tennesse with us and the stats were pretty remarkable. Remarkable on how much this other power running teams spread the ball around.

So. Good research, but try to choose teams that have a similar style in play, otherwise it is like comparing apples to oranges.

[Snake]

As anyone who reads these boards regularly knows, the popular perception is that Jake has tunnel vision where Smitty is concerned, and the reason we don't have a good number two receiver is as much due to lack of opportunity as anything else. Smitty makes Jake, and no other receiver can ever develop until we get a new quarterback who won't just toss it up in the air and wait for Smith to bail him out.

So my question was, do the facts reflect this? Is Jake a one-trick pony, do the message boards actually have a point? Well, what do you think?

Here are the stats for the past season from Stats Inc. Note that because of incomplete receiving statistics for non-recievers, I backed into the numbers for tight ends and backs using completion percentages.

Jake threw to his receivers 287 times, and completed 168 passes for a 15.9 yard per catch average and 58.5% completion percentage.

Jake threw to his tight ends 63 times, and completed 39 passes for a 10.4 yard per catch average and 61.9% completion percentage.

Jake threw to his backs 64 times, and completed 39 passes for a 5.3 yard per catch average and 60.9% completion percentage.

Here are the receptions:

Smith 78 catches, 1421 yards

Muhammad, 65 catches, 923 yards

Hackett, 13 catches, 181 yards

Jarrett, 10 catches, 119 yards

Jones, 2 catches, 32 yards

King, 21 catches, 195 yards

Rosario, 18 catches, 209 yards

Williams, 22 catches, 121 yards

Stewart, 8 catches, 47 yards

Hoover, 6 catches, 39 yards

Goings, 3 catches, 1 yard

Among the reveivers, Jake threw to Smitty 129 times, Moose 108 times, Hackett 28 times, Jarrett 19 times, and Jones 3 times. Moose had the most drops at 8, Smitty was second with 6. Smitty had the highest yards per catch at 18.2 and the highest yards per attempt at 11. Kind of what you would expect from a number one receiver.

Here's the breakdown of how often Jake, Moose, and others got the opportunity to make a play:

Smitty: 31.2%

Moose: 26.1%

Other Receivers: 12.1%

Tight Ends: 15.3%

Backs: 15.3%

And here it is when you just focus on receivers:

Smitty (number one receiver): 44.9%

Moose (number two receiver): 37.6%

Others combined: 17.4%

Given that Smitty and Moose are your number one and number two, respectively, I think those are the numbers you would kind of expect on any team. But just to make sure, I took a look around the league. I tried to do New Orleans but they had way too many injuries and missed games to really tell how the distribution to the top receivers went. In Arizona, Fitzgerald gets 36.8% of the opportunities and Boldin gets 30.1%. I looked at Indianapolis too, and while it's more difficult because they really use Clark more as a receiver than a tight end, you can still get an idea just looking at receivers exclusively. When you do that Wayne gets 40.1% of the opportunities, Harrison gets 33%, and the rest of the receivers combine for 26.9%. In San Diego, Rivers threw to Gates more than anyone, but among his receivers Jackson got 45.9%, Chambers 29.1%, and the rest combined for 25%.

So after looking at all of that, I kind of think the whole tunnel vision idea is a crock, and it belongs in the trashbin along with the whole "Jake has no arm strength" and "Jake just has good numbers because of Smitty" myths. Of course, people who hate Jake don't care for the truth, and they'll be talking about tunnel vision inside of a week if they think they can get away with it and it helps their argument. But at least this information is out there now.

Wow and to think I thought this was a :smash: Jake thread. You also have to put in account that we dont run many 3 or 4 wide sets anymore and Jake only has 2 maybe 3 targets in a whole game sometimes. I really dont like this because it dose not spread out the D but thats how they run it.

[Snake]

You know I figured out why Jake got picked off so many times. Most quarterbacks pat the ball right before they throw it. Hell, even I do it in the backyard. Well whenever Jake pump fakes, he doesn't pat the ball. In fact, he always pats the ball before he throws and anyone smart enough to see this will just realize that once he pats the ball whatever direction he is looking in is where he is going.

But what do I know.

Thats poor QB coaching right there. I hope a fresh coach will work with him on the little things like this. He also fumbles alot cause he keeps the ball so low.

[ManofSteel2483]

Well at the same time, if you look at the playoff game against arizona, at least 3 of those interceptions were cause of him throwing to smith. I've always said that even if we don't throw to smith, smith alone can make somebody else open. We don't have to throw to him every single time. Love the guy but he's not the only receiver on the field. Give Jarret some more plays to prove himself...