Let's get the camps straight

There is no assumption...

While Fisher was coy with the specific of WHY KC was brought in here, KC was not. He didn't say he was signed to be the starting QB, but he also didn't say they told him he was a backup...a clear distinction that the QB job was an open competition. In fact, KC says he was brought in here for his experience and that he's gonna learn the offense as fast as he can and let the chips fall where they may.

As for the money issue, sure VY makes a ton of money, but they could very well sit him or play him despite his high salary. As for the Collins/Volek thing, KC making 2mil and Volek making 1mil means the starter and 3rd string guy make a combined 3mil. Combine that with VY's salary and that is a good chunk of cash at QB, but many teams pay much more than that (even for just ONE player). Just take a look at the Chargers last year and they paid a lot more for just 2 guys.

Obviously, I don't think the coaching staff anticipated Volek wanting to jump ship on day 1 of a competition that shouldn't have been a competition (in reality) for at least a few weeks. I think they expected Volek would be the starter for the first few weeks while KC learned the offense. Once he did, it would be a real competition IF the offense (or more likely Volek) struggled. This is what I think the Titans expected...getting the best QB to start by week 3 or 4 AND having a quality backup should the starter go down...and I don't mean VY. Although the quality backup would be the #3, he'd become the #1 if the #1 went down.

For instance, if Volek started the first 2 weeks and then got killed in the Chargers game and got hurt for 4 weeks, they wouldn't want to start VY for the next several games. Then Collins could become the #1 with VY staying #2.

This is what they probably thought would happen. Instead, Volek jumps ship and we have an underprepared KC starting and no experience behind him. THANKS BILLY! HAVE FUN RIDING THE BENCH!!!

Gut

 

So you'd take away reps from our starting quarterback and give to our #3 quarterback DURING the season? That would be fastets way to lose games, seriously. How do you expect any of the two quarterbacks to be ready if they have to share the load equally? Remember that Young won't be getting less reps. That's a horrible idea, imo. You find your starter before the season starts and unless he tanks or gets injured he gets the majority of the reps.

 

Well, Volek is still a Free Agent next year right, so he's not buried yet. He's still an interesting bite for a team who is desperate. For example, the Redskins. A few teams will be searching next year and Volek is an interesting shot in the dark for a team that has no rookies to turn to.

 

Volek, he was here for 6 years, and was never given a chance to start, well be the starter for the season. They start this loser Kerry Collins over him, and I thought that was messed up. The whole time Volek is our guy, the week before the season we get Collins. He has every right to be pissed at this organization.

 

Hmmm...

Considering Volek has played in this offense for a year already and has had a full training camp and half the preseason of practice, I don't think it hurts him as much to cut his reps in half in our situation.

Point is, according to you, we should cut VY's reps so our starter will play better. You can't cut it both ways.

And what happens if Volek got hurt in week 1...you'd be left with the unpalatable choice of forcing VY to start before he's ready because no one else knows the offense. Not smart considering BV is brittle and our OL is very leaky!

Plus, if you sign a guy who you think could be better than BV, it makes sense to get him up to speed and see if he CAN be better than BV giving us a better weapon at QB.

In the meantime, BV would continue to play and if he played very well, I'd increase his reps and give Collins fewer. If he was only marginal or poor, I'd keep their reps even til KC knew the offense. By the time KC knew the offense, we would have seen enough of Volek to know whether or not to keep him as the starter or give Collins a chance.

This is assuming VY was not ready by that time.

Your way probably leads to a little better execution on the field but not a big change. On the con side, if Volek were injured, we'd be screwed completely!

My way would have led to not as good execution, but potentially a BETTER QB in a couple of weeks or at least a solid backup stabilizing the position til VY is ready.

Gut

 

Gut, Collins shouldn't have been signed that late period. We would have been better off with Volek and Mauck. If you bring in Collins at the start of the offseason or preseason, that's all good, but you need to have your starting QB in place when the season starts. You can't prepare 2 quarterbacks as starters during gameweek, they will both suck no matter who you send in.

Once you're in the season the time for getting to know the offence is over and you need to gameplan for the specific opponent you're facing.

And I agree your way would probably lead to the better quarterback starting in week 5 or so, but we would be 0-5 by that time and with very little chance of actually winning any games, because confidence is shot to hell.

 

Well...

I blame Reese for this particular screw up (along with the McNair debacle). Collins should have been brought in as soon as they decided that McNair was not welcome anymore...BEFORE it hit the presses and they SHOULD have tried to trade McNair before locking him out and making this franchise look idiotic!

But Reese brings in Collins 10 days before the season starts...now what?

Despite Fisher saying Volek is the starter, Volek jumps ship. And we are left with what's left.

Perhaps we are hindering ourselves the first few games of the season, but the big question is how far along is VY?

If VY is a month or so away at the start of the season, I would have agreed with you that short of bringing in Collins at the beginning, just stick with Volek and Mauck until VY can start in week 5 or 6. But we don't know how far away Young is nor if he'll even be ready to start this year.

I don't think the coaching staff anticipated Volek jumping ship at the first sign of competition or even being demoted back to a backup role. I would have preferred Fisher be a bit more straightforward so everyone knew where they stood.

It could have gone like this. While Billy is our starting QB, Collins will give us great depth til he learns the offense and then perhaps challenge Billy for the starting job. We will have the best QB we've got starting for this team...whether it be Billy, Kerry, or Vince. But while Vince continues to develop and Kerry learns the offense, Volek has the keys to the car. I'm anxious to see what he can do with it now that his moment has finally arrived.

On the flip side, we had a good chance to win the Jets and Dolphins games despite Collins inexperience in this offense.

Anyway...I hope we get better rather than get worse.

Gut

 

Gut, the reason Volek wanted out even if there was going to be competition during the season as well, is because it is by no means a fair competition.

You start Volek, but only give him 50% of the snaps for a normal starting QB, then he will struggle at some point and be replaced by Collins, even though Collins is the reason for the struggles because he's talking half of snaps Volek needs to get ready for the game.

And because head coaches don't like to look stupid, they're not going to put the quarterback they yanked in the first place back in.

 

Dude...

Any competition is as fair as the people running it make it.

You can say you THINK it won't be fair, but that's your opinion and backed by no evidence. But, that is certainly a possibility that the competition wouldn't be fair. On the other hand, we know that Collins wasn't ready to start the season opener nor week 2 so it's a safe bet that Volek (if he'd kept his mouth shut) would have had 2 games to prove himself. And isn't that reason enough for Volek to play his absolute best? If Volek came out and had a QB rating of 90 and led us to win against the Jets, and a decent performance against SD, Fisher would NOT bench him for his excellent play. That's ridiculous. If you believe that would have happened, please provide an example anywhere in the NFL where this has happened?

The only possible comparison is when HC's used to follow the old 'rule' of you don't lose your job because of injury. Sometimes the backup came in and played well for a game or 2 but then the starter got healthy and the backup went back to riding the bench. But in today's game, even THAT has changed. Just look at Tom Brady taking over for an injured Bledsoe. Even though Brady was not a world beater back then, they stuck with him even after Bledsoe got healthy. So if Volek played well, he wouldn't have lost his job even if that WAS the intent.

Even though it's more benefitial to get 90% of the reps as a starter, there is no guarantee that your performance would suffer with half that number of reps. Afterall, didn't McNair win an MVP with many fewer reps than Volek would have gotten?

And be realistic...is the competition gonna be 'fair' anywhere else? You can't tell me it will because neither of us can make that assertion with any confidence.

So Volek leaves to go to another team where he's ASSURED of being a backup and probably will NEVER be allowed a shot at starting short of injury. There will NOT be a QB competition of any sort in SD...so this was NOT a smart move for Volek if he wants to actually play. Plus, publicly it makes him look like a whiner...which will lover his free market value after the season.

Gut

 

fisher