Give Matt Cassel a Break!

…100%. I think all this talk of benching Cassel and he is a “mistake” are WAAAAY overboard. The guy is basically in his second year and still learning a lot about the NFL, and is on his 3rd o-coordinator in 3 years since he was with the Pats in 2008.

Cut the guy some slack people! I can guarantee that we don’t know jack about what he is being told to do and how much he is improvising out there. Haley has made it very clear that he wants NO turnovers. That’s what this team can ill-afford and I think Cassel is doing a great job with what he has to work with.

Granted, he’s looked sloppy at times, but at times he’s also looked golden. Let’s give the guy a break and get behind him folks. All this negativity is only bringing the dude’s karma down!!

I am beginning to think that what you see is what you get. I don’t think there is going to be any significant change either way.

if Bowe had caught that ball, and Cassel would have completed that fourth down everyone would be singing praises. I think he will improve and hopefully become what we hope he has always been.

If you watched the colts game on Sunday, you should of noticed the progress of Matt Cassel. He threw two passes to Dwayne Bowe and it hit him right in the hands and he dropped it. He threw a pass late in the game to Bowe that was absolutely perfect. He throws crazy passes sometimes BUT this is only his second year as an NFL starter.
        He has not been great but looked alright. I say that Brodie Croyle at this point should get another chance and he should play for part of a game at least. Croyle has never won a game but hey why not give it a shot. Maybe he might do better with the new coaches.

Someone has got to make a play other than Moeaki, and then the others will follow.

Can you even begin to imagine coming from New England, with perhaps one of the best OL’s in the league, to the limp protection KC was offering for most of last year?

If I remember right, Cassel had something like 45 sacks in NE in 2008. Note: I’m sure that wasn’t all the line because Cassel is known for holding onto the ball and taking a lot of sacks. In this regard, Cassel has developed nicely. Instead of taking a sack, he throws in the direction of a receiver who isn’t necessarily open to a place that if it were possible his receivers might catch the ball.

Now that’s not saying his passes are always crisp…in the 49ers game they were. But inconsistency is probably what we’re talking about here. Matt Leinert was a much better QB coming out of USC, but hasn’t made it in the NFL…yet. Cassel is in his 3rd year starting as an NFL QB. If he were the same QB he was in 2008 I would be all for benching him. But he isn’t. He has improved in a number of ways. Zero INT’s and one self-made sack and a better QB rating than Manning in the most recent game says that he’s developing nicely.

Here’s the huge unanswered question: Did Cassel do what the Coaches asked him to do??? Haley says, “Yes!” We’ll probably never know the details of the full answer to the follow-up question “How?”

If you want to argue he didn’t throw enough, then you have to blame Weiss. Don’t blame the passer.

Was he accurate enough? You can only try to make that argument going through the tape pass play by pass play. So far I haven’t seen a post analyzing the passing game noting the mistakes he made and showing where he made good decisions and plays. Until someone does, and until someone proves that he deserves the kind of ridicule he’s getting, then I’m going to have to agree with Haley who said that mistakes were made teamwide. This was a team loss and nothing more.

Cassel is still number 1 for me as of now. But if Croyle does better with the new coaches, then hey give it a shot.

  He will lower his shoulder and run someone over to get a first down instead of sliding or running out of bounds. I’m just not sure if that means he’s tough or stupid…

The fact that Cassel said he played efficiently tells me he has no clue what he is doing. I am still irritated by that comment.

Cassel hasn’t shown really anything this year. The next few games are against terrible pass defenses so I think they will show a lot. He has to show some improvement or a glimmer of hope though. Hopefully he can step it up but if he doesn’t then changing to Croyle may be the only option.

It should be obvious to anyone that Cassel is not the long term answer at QB for this team. Neither are Bowe and Chambers. But, since a trade for competent replacements at this point in the season is about as likely as the pope coming out in favor of birth control, I’ll wait through these mediocrities for the next 12 games…BUT I WON’T LIKE IT.

The arm or the leg?

Are you smokin crack or something? Cassel had more sacks in NE than he did last year in KC. He was largely to blame for a lot of the sacks both there and here. He even admitted it at the beginning of the year. BTW – both Cassel and the OL have made a great improvement in this area.
 
People will quit calling for his head when he starts:
1. Showing some emotion and leadership.
2. Showing some qualities of a good QB.
a. get rid of happy feet
b. look past the primary receiver when he is covered.
c. read the defense and audible (can you say sack problem)
d. hit receivers in stride (at least occasionally)
e. create – make people take notice and say holy crap that was a great play!
f. Win a game – (He hasn’t given any away, but “he” hasn’t won any either)

I could live with an interception or two every week if he would throw for 350 yards with 3 TDs. Playing it safe with these dink and dunk passes and 150 yards a week ain’t going to cut it. A good completion percentage and no interceptions don’t mean squat if you don’t put points on the board.

In 4 games he has 4 TDs. One from a trick play. One from “the catch of the year”. One were Tony was so wide open a blind man could have hit him in the end zone.

Bowe caught one and has cost him one (probably Matt’s best pass of the year and Bowe dropped it).

I don’t blame Cassel for the loss last week. Likewise I don’t credit him with any of the 3 wins. We have won and lost despite Cassel not because of him. For $15M a year, I think he should be winning some games for us. Cassel is one of the top paid QB’s in the NFL. He is currently ranked 25th. We are not getting good value for our money.

to find a nice warm spot on the bench and just stay there.

I would agree with you that it has been tough for him, and I actually like the guys work ethic, leadership, and willingness to work hard. But in all reality I feel that he is just a glorified backup QB. Since he stepped off the football field in high school he has been a backup with good reason. I need to throw out his 2008 stats in New England. Any halfway decent QB could have had fairly good stats taking over arguably the best team in football at the time. Lets do a little comparison shall we…

  Kansas City QB’s since 2007

Year Name Comp% TD/INT Ratio QB Rating
2007 Damon Huard 62.0 11/13 76.8

2007 Brodie Croyle 56.7 6/6 69.9

2008 Tyler Thigpen 54.8 18/12 76.0

2009 Matt Cassel 55.0 16/16 69.9

2010* Matt Cassel 54.7 4/3 74.0

 If Huard,Croyle, and Thigpen were not the long term answers, based on performance, Cassel is NOT THE ANSWER…

His contract is incentive laced not guaranteed.If you want to judge Cassle,he is a 2nd year 2nd round pick and should be judged as that.So he is not that bad.All that said he need to improve and I am sure he kows it.The whole passing game does.Aside from Tony M they have all had butter fingers!The most important thing is his intangables.He seems like a good leader.He just need to make faster and better reads.