Len Pastarelli is in love with Jason Campbell… and actually accuses us of not appreciating him…
Clearly, he doesn’t understand.
Old Lenny is enamoured with Jason’s statistics… which, on their face, are impressive. However, only an amature, who looks only at the statistics, would fall for that. Hey, Lenny… have you actually watched him play?
Len feels that, in the right system, Jason would flourish… hmmmm… as if he is the victim of circumstances, repeatedly trapping him into schemes that don’t match his skills…
Sooooo… kindly explain why he can almost never connect on deep passes when the opportunity arises. Isn’t that, supposedly, one of his strengths?
Victim of circumstances my butt. Joe Gibbs offense was tailor made for a tall, mobile QB with a cannon arm. Look at the quarterbacks who succeeded… most had less “talent” than JC appears to have… yet, Mark Rypien, Doug Williams, and to some extent, Jay Schroeder and Stan Humphries could manage games and WIN in the Gibbs system. Rypien and Williams both won Super Bowls… and, on paper, both were less talented.
There’s more here… and the tired “wrong system” excuse is just that… tired.
Clearly, Len has never watched anything other than a Jason Campbell highlight film… that must have included all 3 of the passes he has completed over 30 yards in his career… probably from multiple angles.
Campbell throws the most uncatchable ball in the NFL. Too hot. Too flat. too far. Too short. Way in front. Way behind. No touch. How many times have we seen a wide open S Moss struggling to catch up to that deep pass, that either leads him out of bounds, or is 4 yards too deep… or he has to turn around for, giving the defender the time to catch up and either defend the pass, or make the tackle? He can’t read a defense. He doesn’t see coverages. He isn’t allowed to audible, because when he does, he invariably makes a call into the teeth of the defense.
We lose by an average of less than 3 points… which means that there have been many opportunities for “game winning drives.” Yet, how often has he orchestrated one?
As usual, Lenny is clueless. A quarterback is more than the sum of his statistics.
Admittedly, Campbell does not have the strongest supporting cast. His offensive line is, well, offensive. Many have provided that as the primary excuse for his inability to live up to expectations… so, why was he so frequently missing wide open receivers last week, when he was rarely harrassed, and had plenty of time?
I will not argue that the Zorn version of the WCO does not play to Campbell’s strengths. The problem is, Gibbs offense offered plenty of vertical opportunities for Campbell to shine… and he didn’t. Zorn’s offense also offers plenty of vertical opportunities… most have been missed. It’s just time to stop pretending that Jason is a franchise quarterback. He simply isn’t, and he won’t be.
For most of his carreer, I was one of those providing cover for Jason. I can’t do it anymore. Len Pastarelli is wrong. He needs to look beyond the stats. He needs to look at game trends. Jason’s trend is… medium. He is clearly a great young man, with excellent character, and a strong work ethic. Unfortunately, as has been noted many times… he just doesn’t have “IT”.
I would LOVE to be wrong on this. Jason Campbell deserves to be a winner. I would thoroughly enjoy eating my words, and celebrating Jason’s multiple championship efforts and victories. Unfortunately, Medium does not win games. “IT” does.