Mighty Joe Young
Living in Troll's Heads Rent-Free for Decades
- Joined:
- Feb 8, 2021
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My favorite teams
Let me get this out of the way first:
He does well with what you give him but if you don't have enough around him he will look bad, is what the rap going right now is. He will deliver the ball to where it is supposed to go but if a play breaks down, that's where he gets into trouble as he struggles with creating. Also, give him a decent line and he does well, but if you're line is shit, having all the offensive weapons in the world will not bail you out with him as quarterback. That is what happened in Dallas last year - Dallas has more weapons but they had no offensive line.
Here is where I see the potential. Not astronomical potential so get your pre thought arguments out of your head....Just talking potential to field a competent team on offense.
I know we give the offensive line a lot of shit, but it really solidified in the last four games of last season on the interior. Whitehair looked like his pro Bowl form at left guard, Mustapher solidified the line by being someone who could correctly identify the line calls to make and communicate it to the rest of the line which is a tool no one else on the line had, and although he was hurt last year James Daniels plays a really good Right Guard. Ifedi looked okay at right tackle (no better or worse than Bobby Massie). The one place that needs a clear upgrade is left tackle, but even Leno is just slightly average in a worst case scenario.
If the Bears upgrade the left tackle position in the draft and it works out, Dalton will have a decent line to play behind which eliminates one of the concerns.
The other concern, about his inability to create, actually can be mitigated by the Chicago Bears very offense that Mitch couldn't run.
I know the Bears offense, which hasn't worked so far, gets a lot of crap, but people need to understand what it is intended to do and why it was failing.
When run correctly, the Bears offense schemes its receivers open and always leaves a spot where a receiver or te or rb can spring free. In order to do this though, you need a quarterback who can read what's going on, get through his progressions quickly, and diagnose who will end up being open on that play. It is very much a read and react. "If I see A, I throw to B. If a and b are covered, C will be open."
In other words, as long as you can read the field quickly, you don't need to create as you will know exactly where to go with the ball.
The reason it didn't work was twofold:
1) our offensive line was bad and that was in part because Cody whitehair kept getting the line calls wrong, which led to blockers blocking the wrong guy.
2) Mitch read the field way too damn slow. The issue with trubisky was that he could not make it through all of his progressions even when protection held up. He would then Force things which ended up screwing things up. This besides the constant overthrows. It is also why he was more successful when they cut the field in half for him - half the reeds gave him enough time mentally to figure out what to do. His brain just couldn't keep up with the full scheme.
So where does that leave us with Dalton?
everything I've read and heard is that he is extremely bright and does read the field quickly. He's not Mitch.
As long as he plays within the offense, I have a feeling he's going to look pretty good. Not amazing, but efficient.
The best comp I have to this, is I want you to consider Alex Smith and his reputation when he went from the 49ers to the Chiefs.
He was considered a noodle armed bust when he was shipped off.
His career had a resurgence with the Chiefs in a similar system.
Now Smith had more scramble ability than Dalton ever did, but that scrambling ability wasn't the reason he was so successful with the Chiefs. It's because mentally he is a similar type of quarterback who struggles to create but when put in an offense that tells you where the ball is supposed to go every single time and you simply have to pick from which of those spots you're throwing the ball to, it allowed him to excel.
If you can read the field quickly, the Bears offense becomes very quarterback friendly. If you are slow and dumb as a box of rocks, the scheme fails and everything falls apart.
Even saying all that, I'm not 100% convinced that Dalton will be the starting quarterback on day one. I wouldn't be surprised if the Bears at least tried to get somebody else even after the draft or even after June 1st.
But if it does end up being Dalton, just remember it may not be the end of the world, especially if the Bears managed to upgrade that left tackle position...
- I am not saying Andy Dalton will be great.
- I am not saying Andy Dalton is a franchise quarterback.
- I don't have any overwhelming love for Andy Dalton nor any predisposition to defending him.
- My unpopular opinion could be completely wrong, and if it is, my ire will not be at Andy Dalton, but at the Bears for signing him
He does well with what you give him but if you don't have enough around him he will look bad, is what the rap going right now is. He will deliver the ball to where it is supposed to go but if a play breaks down, that's where he gets into trouble as he struggles with creating. Also, give him a decent line and he does well, but if you're line is shit, having all the offensive weapons in the world will not bail you out with him as quarterback. That is what happened in Dallas last year - Dallas has more weapons but they had no offensive line.
Here is where I see the potential. Not astronomical potential so get your pre thought arguments out of your head....Just talking potential to field a competent team on offense.
I know we give the offensive line a lot of shit, but it really solidified in the last four games of last season on the interior. Whitehair looked like his pro Bowl form at left guard, Mustapher solidified the line by being someone who could correctly identify the line calls to make and communicate it to the rest of the line which is a tool no one else on the line had, and although he was hurt last year James Daniels plays a really good Right Guard. Ifedi looked okay at right tackle (no better or worse than Bobby Massie). The one place that needs a clear upgrade is left tackle, but even Leno is just slightly average in a worst case scenario.
If the Bears upgrade the left tackle position in the draft and it works out, Dalton will have a decent line to play behind which eliminates one of the concerns.
The other concern, about his inability to create, actually can be mitigated by the Chicago Bears very offense that Mitch couldn't run.
I know the Bears offense, which hasn't worked so far, gets a lot of crap, but people need to understand what it is intended to do and why it was failing.
When run correctly, the Bears offense schemes its receivers open and always leaves a spot where a receiver or te or rb can spring free. In order to do this though, you need a quarterback who can read what's going on, get through his progressions quickly, and diagnose who will end up being open on that play. It is very much a read and react. "If I see A, I throw to B. If a and b are covered, C will be open."
In other words, as long as you can read the field quickly, you don't need to create as you will know exactly where to go with the ball.
The reason it didn't work was twofold:
1) our offensive line was bad and that was in part because Cody whitehair kept getting the line calls wrong, which led to blockers blocking the wrong guy.
2) Mitch read the field way too damn slow. The issue with trubisky was that he could not make it through all of his progressions even when protection held up. He would then Force things which ended up screwing things up. This besides the constant overthrows. It is also why he was more successful when they cut the field in half for him - half the reeds gave him enough time mentally to figure out what to do. His brain just couldn't keep up with the full scheme.
So where does that leave us with Dalton?
everything I've read and heard is that he is extremely bright and does read the field quickly. He's not Mitch.
As long as he plays within the offense, I have a feeling he's going to look pretty good. Not amazing, but efficient.
The best comp I have to this, is I want you to consider Alex Smith and his reputation when he went from the 49ers to the Chiefs.
He was considered a noodle armed bust when he was shipped off.
His career had a resurgence with the Chiefs in a similar system.
Now Smith had more scramble ability than Dalton ever did, but that scrambling ability wasn't the reason he was so successful with the Chiefs. It's because mentally he is a similar type of quarterback who struggles to create but when put in an offense that tells you where the ball is supposed to go every single time and you simply have to pick from which of those spots you're throwing the ball to, it allowed him to excel.
If you can read the field quickly, the Bears offense becomes very quarterback friendly. If you are slow and dumb as a box of rocks, the scheme fails and everything falls apart.
Even saying all that, I'm not 100% convinced that Dalton will be the starting quarterback on day one. I wouldn't be surprised if the Bears at least tried to get somebody else even after the draft or even after June 1st.
But if it does end up being Dalton, just remember it may not be the end of the world, especially if the Bears managed to upgrade that left tackle position...
