Locker - Week 1 Thoughts

Locker is 6'2-3/4" Rodgers status height... What are you taking about?

 

Was looking at the QB Ratings, take a look who Jake beat.

16. Jake Locker
17. Cam Newton
18. Ben Roethlisberger
19. Matt Cassel
20. Drew Brees,
21. Matthew Stafford
22. Ryan Fitzpatrick
26. Michael Vick

 

Um Jake Locker is 3" taller than Drew Brees who most would consider an elite QB. Him not being elite has nothing to do with his height, but everything to do with being consistently accurate. This league isn't so much about arm strength as it is throwing with accuracy and anticipation. Just one mans opinion.

 

Man, I love what he said after the game about it being football (when asked about the tackle). He was asked again and said something to the effect of "I'm not just gonna let a guy run into the end zone.". Some folks were talking about him being selected a captain but, after Sunday and hearing his comments, we may be seeing exactly why...

 

Locker looked very good for his 1st career start. Did he make some mistakes? Sure, but we all knew that was going to happen with a young QB. Overall I was impressed though. The running game absolutely killed the offense IMO though. You can't expect Locker to sustain tons of drives when he hands the ball of for -2 yards every drive. That is basically expecting him pick up 12 yards on 2 plays instead of 10 yards on 3 plays. No QB in the NFL will be successful like that, but if you have the players at the skill positions (which I think we do) we should be able to get around the running game issue.

I think we should just go spread offense (especially with KB coming back). Use the short passing game to supplement the run game so that Locker isn't put in 2nd/3d and long situations every single drive. A 3 or 4 yard completion is just as good as a 3-4 yard run. I think that CJ and Reynaud will be more effective in the short passing game right now than they are in the running game (surely they will average more than >1 yard per reception, and heck even a dropped pass is better than some of the runs we saw last week).

I think Locker showed that he can be accurate enough to make it work too. Sure he made some bad throws, but he did complete over 71% of his passes so I think it could work. But running for 0 or less yards every drive is not going to get us anywhere, and it will only make things harder on Locker.

 

I believe that's what's commonly called a "hospital pass". Looked to me like Locker throws high a LOT.