This seems to boil down to two things being true at the same time:
1) With a young QB who didn't have a lot of reps in college, it seems obvious that they should've started at this point and not arrived at this realization in week 13 of the season. KOC needs to adjust his thinking from "OMG, I have Justin Jefferson at WR!" to "JFC, I have JJ McCarthy at QB!" Should've happened in April, but what's done is done.
2) Based on their recent comments and some of the buzz from people who cover the team, it feels like they thought he could handle more based on where he was at when he got hurt in '24 and his seeming aptitude in the classroom, and that they're truly shocked by how he's looked in most of these games.
In August the Pats were considered to be horrible, even the Vrabel family didn't think they'd be the no. 1 seed entering December and 5th in points allowed. Yet in the joint practices, JMC looked great! There were 0.0 concerns about his poise or his mechanics.
The problem really seems to be JJMC in games. It's incredibly hard to play QB in the NFL, and requires a borderline insane willingness to direct focus away from what is hardwired into brains after 300,000 years of evolution. We've seen how JJMC handles it so far, until his body keeps showing it cannot endure playing in the NFL.
I'm not sure what KOC is supposed to do differently. There isn't any offence that works when the QB plays this poorly.
I think a lot of it comes down to confidence (actually, I am glad he got a week off (though not thrilled it was because of concussion)) because I think he needed a mental break.
Clearly his last 2 outings he lacked confidence and that lead him to always being a hitch late in throwing. Also, the more he broods, the worse his mechanic became.
So maybe if he can get into a rhythm then you can dial it up a bit more. He seems rather high strung and yeah, he needs to regain confidence.
I don’t know, a lot of his mechanics seems like QB 101 stuff to me; getting his feet set, hitting the top of the drop and getting the ball out, layering vs drilling the throw.
We shouldn’t still be examining a 1st round QB’s foot mechanics in the middle of the season.
Anecdotally he’s consistently late with his throws which results in a ball that’s either high or behind the intended receiver.
Yes, of course his mechanics need help. but often he has started well in a game and then seen his mechanics go down hill.
So I think it is a giant clusterf*ck of him trying to improve mechanics (not there obviously) and then brooding on things during the game. My small hope is that with the week off he could mentally catch his breath and then allow some of these lessons to sink in a bit more. For all of his issues, JJ realizes there are big issues (some guys don`t realize how bad they are... JJ gets that he is letting the team down...
I hope 9 can tone it down in game. Maybe he is too amped as well... Take if from "9 "to being only "8 1/2"........
This seems to boil down to two things being true at the same time:
1) With a young QB who didn't have a lot of reps in college, it seems obvious that they should've started at this point and not arrived at this realization in week 13 of the season. KOC needs to adjust his thinking from "OMG, I have Justin Jefferson at WR!" to "JFC, I have JJ McCarthy at QB!" Should've happened in April, but what's done is done.
2) Based on their recent comments and some of the buzz from people who cover the team, it feels like they thought he could handle more based on where he was at when he got hurt in '24 and his seeming aptitude in the classroom, and that they're truly shocked by how he's looked in most of these games.
In August the Pats were considered to be horrible, even the Vrabel family didn't think they'd be the no. 1 seed entering December and 5th in points allowed. Yet in the joint practices, JMC looked great! There were 0.0 concerns about his poise or his mechanics.
The problem really seems to be JJMC in games. It's incredibly hard to play QB in the NFL, and requires a borderline insane willingness to direct focus away from what is hardwired into brains after 300,000 years of evolution. We've seen how JJMC handles it so far, until his body keeps showing it cannot endure playing in the NFL.
I'm not sure what KOC is supposed to do differently. There isn't any offence that works when the QB plays this poorly.
Unbelievable that they wouldn’t have simplified back in training camp. JJM had zero track record in the bigs and limited passing reps in college.
I think a lot of it comes down to confidence (actually, I am glad he got a week off (though not thrilled it was because of concussion)) because I think he needed a mental break.
Clearly his last 2 outings he lacked confidence and that lead him to always being a hitch late in throwing. Also, the more he broods, the worse his mechanic became.
So maybe if he can get into a rhythm then you can dial it up a bit more. He seems rather high strung and yeah, he needs to regain confidence.
I don’t know, a lot of his mechanics seems like QB 101 stuff to me; getting his feet set, hitting the top of the drop and getting the ball out, layering vs drilling the throw.
We shouldn’t still be examining a 1st round QB’s foot mechanics in the middle of the season.
Anecdotally he’s consistently late with his throws which results in a ball that’s either high or behind the intended receiver.
Yes, of course his mechanics need help. but often he has started well in a game and then seen his mechanics go down hill.
So I think it is a giant clusterf*ck of him trying to improve mechanics (not there obviously) and then brooding on things during the game. My small hope is that with the week off he could mentally catch his breath and then allow some of these lessons to sink in a bit more. For all of his issues, JJ realizes there are big issues (some guys don`t realize how bad they are... JJ gets that he is letting the team down...
I hope 9 can tone it down in game. Maybe he is too amped as well... Take if from "9 "to being only "8 1/2"........
I think he’s started well with the scripted plays then fallen off a cliff.
I hope he’s “the guy” but I haven’t seen anything to indicate he is from him so far. I’d be okay with 8 and a sixteenth
Fantastic article Mathew 👏 As a long time Vikings fan that started back in the 1970s I'm completely lost faith in Kwesi and Kevin O'connell.
Maybe KOC can use the Bill Musgrave size play sheet.