OUR W/L record isn’t the biggest thing we have to worry about it 2017. We are after all, rebuilding. Making sure the foundation is solid is the most important thing we can do right now.
In THE 12 #6, I talked about how we should rely less on “WR Screens” and “Drag” routes. This year we need to see a lot more “Go” and “Deep Post” routes. This would mean a lot more downfield passing, and that needs to be the plan in 2017. (Especially in light of the two WR’s we just signed.) We played it safe last year, and you see what it got us. It’s time to remove the self-imposed handcuffs.
Last season we drafted QB Carson Wentz #2 overall, then traded away our Starter and put the rookie under Center for 16 games. He had no limit on his leash, or reason to look over his shoulder, and he did some neat things out there “for a rookie”. However, as a pro QB overall…he sort of shit the bed.
Seriously. If people would stop grading Wentz on that “for a rookie”curve, they would be less than thrilled with his season. You know who else was a 16-game, starting rookie QB last year? Dak Prescott. Unlike Wentz, Prescott’s year was judged not by his career length, but by his actual NFL success.
Yes, Prescott was carried by a strong running game, but he was also allowed to take more chances within his very simple system.
That wasn’t really the case with Wentz. With our more complex system, our play-calling kept Wentz from exploring its depths. It kept him from making rookie mistakes that he could have learned from, under the guise of teaching him not to take chances with the ball.
In the the end what did that get us? It got us the basement of our division. It also kept the training wheels on the guy who was drafted to be the leader of a this franchise.
If we don’t treat Wentz like a big-time QB, by letting him try to be a big-time QB, he will never actually become a big-time QB. If he truly does have All-Pro talent in him, he won’t reach it if he isn’t allowed to reach for it. He has to be allowed to, and even encouraged to, take risks. Otherwise he will remain what he was last season. A QB who interviews better than he plays.
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