Good lord, stop bashing Jimmy....

[Peppers90 NC]

all i can say is that pretty much everyone sucked on our team this year. If Luck wasnt so damn good, I wouldnt put qb as our biggest need.

[PantherProfessor]

If you look at Playbook on NFL Network they analyze why Sam Bradford was successful this year. To keep it short and sweet, their OC put him in positions to win. Ours was too busy with his hand on his head to see the field to make the correct, QB friendly calls..

agreed. good OC's with young QB's tend to start the game off with some quick easy throws to get the guys head in the game and develop a rythm. Davidson / Fox never gave Jimmy a chance to settle down and get comfortable.

Part of that can be blamed on Jimmy as well, he has to hit guys when they are open and get the ball over the line (too many batted or deflected balls). But, it is the coaching staff's role to adjust the scheme to fit what personel they have at thier disposal. If you dont have Tom Brady and Andre Johnson, you cannot make plays those guys make, plain and simple.

Fox and co. were the league's worst at adjustments and playing to thier strengths at times, and let the opposition force thier hand in play-calling; i.e. abadoning the run early, etc...

[Squirrel]

You think this is bad just wait and see how they treat Luck when he doesnt instantly win games.

[PantherFanForLife]

The problem with Jimmy was simply the insane amount of over-hyping that took place here last year. Everyone called me a hater because I tried my best to bring down expectations on him so he WOULDN'T be trashed when he didn't live up to them. I knew some of the same guys that praised him prior to the season starting would be the same ones helping to thrash him later.

I failed on both accounts. Poor Jimmy.

I've said it before and I will say it again. Rookies are rookies. They SUCK. Period. Very few rookie QBs are ever able to achieve what Sam Bradford Or Matt Ryan has. And it doesn't always come down to skill. It mainly comes down to three things: maturity, a little bit of luck, and finally, SITUATION.

With the last one being the most important. I saw Jimmy as immature, and a kid, and he certainly entered in one of the worst situations a rookie QB could enter last year. I believe the situation and the lack of maturity and emotional confidence is what killed him last year. He simply was NOT an NFL-ready QB no matter how many hyped him up to be so. Even if he did play in an NFL-style offense.

And I still don't think he is going to be ready this year as far as emotional maturity and confidence goes. Jimmy Clausen won't be ready until at least 2012. That's when we can truly evaluate him. He just has a lot of growing up to do on all accounts.

He actually kind of needed this, since it will take him out of the spotlight for awhile. That way he can just keep his head low, practice and keep getting ready over the next 2 years. That's really the best route for him, imo.

PS: I just hope if we draft Luck, the fans won't do the same to him and realize he could very well suck just as bad his first year.

[thefuzz]

I was going to make this thread today...thanks.

My opinion is that he was thrust into a position that very very few QB's could have handled well. He didn't throw his teammates under the bus, and he never cussed out a reporter or hit a teammate. The coach was in a lame duck year, and the O that he was running was out of date to say the least.

I am all for drafting Luck if he declares, but if he doesn't I will support Clausen, and the rest of you out there that are going to go on being Panther fans, I suggest you do the same.

[brandon_87]

Sorry, but I disagree. Clausen may not be an official "bust", but what can he do?

He can't read a defense

He can't throw over the line

He can't throw deep

He isn't accurate

He gives up on a play before it has a chance to develop (throw aways on 3rd down) WTF

He is scared to take a hit

The rest of the team obviously doesn't respect him

He can't lead us to points

He takes too many sacks because he can't move around in to pocket better

HE IS HORRIBLE, rookie on a bad team or not. Maybe we were bad because of him? I hope we send his ass packing if we get Luck or not. Jake may have been bad but at least the team never gave up on him.

[Erik Stall]

As Clausen's biggest opponent, I could go on for days about this.

The dude played QB under center his entire collegiate career and still fumbled how many snaps? He looked scared in the pocket, panicking immediately whenever he felt the slightest bit of pressure. He rarely stepped up and always tried to run around the pressure, something he's not physically capable of doing. His arm strength is laughable. How many times did he bounce passes to receivers or throw it at their feet? How many times did he completely miss receivers because he wasn't on the same page as them and he thought they were running a different route? Worst of all, he's had absolutely zero confidence in himself since Day 1. He's not called Captain Checkdown for no reason. No, he didn't throw too many interceptions because when he did manage to hit a guy they were usually fairly accurate. I see his ceiling as a poor man's Chad Pennington, but he has a lot of problems to work out first.

He never had the tools to be a first round pick. The only reason he was even considered a first round pick is because his agent's buddy Mel Kiper had his agenda. Many teams passed on him, many several times and many who needed QBs just as bad as Carolina. It's as if they all scouted him and didn't like what they saw while Carolina bought into the hype and thought they were getting great value.

I have no comments about him as a person because I do not know him like that.

But just because I think he's terrible doesn't mean I won't support the guy. If he's the Panther's QB next year I'll cheer for him to win every game and to be a Pro Bowler. It's not as if I have some sort of vendetta against the kid. I just don't think he's very good and I see almost no reason for optimism going forward.

[bleys]

If you look at the Rams-Seattle game that very short passing game hurt Bradford as well. Seattle keep all the safeties cloer to the line of scrimmage expecting the short pass. It also hurt the ground game.

There is nothing wrong with short passes but in order to open up our running game we need to stretch the field and keep 9 guys out of the box.

Most teams with very short passes as a mainstay do not have great running games. So to say we should have gone to that for Clausen is not necessarily true.

corrrect, but he also had good games for this reason.. the fine line between why Bradford looked good at times and what our pathetic coaching staff never accomplished..

they both are rookies.. I just find it hard to believe the hardest position of all sports is the one we already have pegged that this guy sucks... especially with the situation that occurred this year..

now I don't really expect Clausen to step up next year or the year after as a really solid QB.. but I still don't see how people can be so sure based off this year, OF ALL YEARS..

[brandon_87]

AND he can't even handle a snap so we move his ass back in shotgun and he still can't handle the ball, who the hell cannot complete a simple snap? Just horrible

[...]

News flash. He was a college senior/NFL Rookie playing on one of the worst offenses in the league which featured 1 veteran WR and 0 run game. With all of that, he still made very few turnovers.

He does not have the arm to be an elite QB, but i have little doubt he is good enough manage games and win in the right offense.

He has had his fair share of humble pie, which i feel was good for him. But to treat him like a bust is very short sighted.

Love,

Zod

One of the worst offenses in the league.. which is largely thanks to him.

The whole "0 run game" thing was true at the beginning of the season, but they got it going after awhile. And he still sucked.

Of course he didn't get many turnovers, constantly checking down prevents that. Also prevents first downs and touchdowns.

[panthers55]

corrrect, but he also had good games for this reason.. the fine line between why Bradford looked good at times and what our pathetic coaching staff never accomplished..

they both are rookies.. I just find it hard to believe the hardest position of all sports is the one we already have pegged that this guy sucks... especially with the situation that occurred this year..

now I don't really expect Clausen to step up next year or the year after as a really solid QB.. but I still don't see how people can be so sure based off this year, OF ALL YEARS..

I think the universal agreement is that he sucked this year. The debate is whether he will improve or not. I am in the corner that supports giving him time while looking to upgrade the position in the offseason rather than putting all our eggs in his basket.

[TheRealDeal]

News flash. He was a college senior/NFL Rookie playing on one of the worst offenses in the league which featured 1 veteran WR and 0 run game. With all of that, he still made very few turnovers.

He had a good/great run game for roughly half his starts, maybe more.

It was his fault he didn't get that one veteran WR involved in the game.

It was shown the rookie WRs could play when given the chance.

Clausen chose to throw to RBs more often.

He was not just on the worst offense in the NFL but was a major contributor to why the offense was the worst.

[Urrymonster]

Ok just a couple of facts

1. He had 8 fumbles on the season including snaps, that isn't bad, especially considering who often he was sacked (33 times)

2. He finished the season with 28% of his passes over 10 yards and 10% over 20 yards, which was a definite progression from his mid season numbers

[MHS831]

You guys are treating him like a 5 year vet on an established team.

News flash. He was a college senior/NFL Rookie playing on one of the worst offenses in the league which featured 1 veteran WR and 0 run game. With all of that, he still made very few turnovers.

He does not have the arm to be an elite QB, but i have little doubt he is good enough manage games and win in the right offense.

He has had his fair share of humble pie, which i feel was good for him. But to treat him like a bust is very short sighted.

Love,

Zod

I suppose they would rather see him throwing into coverage like Jake. I recall 2009 when he had something like 18 ints in the first five games and then they started protecting him by running 90% of the time and throwing safe, meaningless passes. Good point.