Wharton

With all the other isues, I haven;t seen a thread on how badly he got owned.

3 fumbles off that shit.

 

And why is it that any time Jake gets hit he has to fumble?

 

it does seem like he'd realize he needs to at least be aware wharton is probably going to get beat and step up to throw like other qb's do.

 

Because he holds the ball down instead of holding it up to his shoulder. If someone wants to argue again that we need better QB coaching, this would be a good point to bring up since it's something not even I would say couldn't be corrected.

 

Yep. Whereas the ball-slapping before a throw probably can't be helped.


I hate that, BTW.



Yep, a couple games there where I thought maybe Wharton'll be enough.
He's not. So we'll probably throw Gross back to the left again, and Wharton will go right. Wharton probably fits there allright enough, but Gross needs to show that 2003 playing ability at any point in the last 31 games to have me feeling better about him at LT.

I'd personally as likely swap Wharton and Wahle, but I fear being even weaker running inside at that point, and if Jake struggles with a man in his face, having a somewhat weak and athletic LG means watching teams put their strongest guy on Wharton and watching him helplessly walked back to Jake.

 

I thought Elway used to slap the ball.

I also thought Wharton's been beat by speed rushers, and done OK v. bull rushers.

Wharton whiffed once, and would have been OK if Jake stepped up on the others, maybe.

 

We need Jean-Gilles in the draft. No one would get by him, I promise

 

not debating the ball position, but didnt 2 of those fumbles happen as Jake was in a throwing motion? not that he was moving forward yet, because he wasnt. He was in the act of delivering the ball as the D got there. THEY WERE fumbles (so you dont think i am lobbying for Jake on this), but in those instances, it may have been good coverage, bad route running, or the lack of a bonafide QB coach contributing to them.

 

Elway, Brunell, and others. It's not something that's awful, but it does suggest that the QB isn't holding on with both hands before he cocks back to get ready to release (and moves his front hand forward to set up the motion that brings the shoulders around).


Wharton's been getting beaten by the lighter guys, yes. Ware's small, and so is Alex Brown. Rice isn't. Wharton was a LT in college, but at this level, a lot of scouts suggested that he had everything you needed to play LT, just not in enough amounts to do it well. He's athletic, but he doesn't always have the feet to get around to the DE coming wide. He's got a good frame and wide shoulders/broad wingspan, but not quite enough to make up the difference that his "almost" good enough feet give.

Problem is, Wharton's not going to fare similarly at G if we did move him inside. You don't get the same player, obviously, at DT. The "strong" DEs aren't as often as strong as you'd see in a DT that makes a living off power moves. Couple that with Jake's problems with a man coming in his vision and/or in his footwork area, and I think we'd see Wharton being walked back to Jake a fair amount.

Or maybe I'm judging Wharton's strength too harshly. He's certainly got a lot more functional strength in the upper body, and tons more in the lower, than a similarly lifted Nelson. Plus, Wharton has the room to grow, where Nelson was topped out. Either way, I would worry about him being inside at LG and Wahle outside him, for the inside running aspect. If we're this bad inside with Wahle, Wharton's definitely not going to be moving a lot of DTs out of their holes (IMO)>

You can hide some of that weakness at C, which is why I toyed with the idea of pushing him there. Plus, you can still pull a center, and we occasionally pull Mitchell; Wharton's athleticism would benefit us blocking on the 2nd level as well. It'd probably be a bigger impact as a pulling guard, but then it's a matter of whether he can block inline and pass block at G.

He looked great a number of times blocking down this season, taking on a DL in a gap toward center and driving him inside. So maybe he can, and it's just the athleticism of left tackle taht hurts him.

 

I think they were coming as he was bringing the ball up and getting ready to throw, yes. 2.

Which, yeah, you want to see him step up in the pocket a little there, but you don't call 5 step drops and expect that your players won't block with where the QB's going to be setting up.

But it seemed like Jake held the ball a little too much, also, at times when he was looking deep. That's a bit problematic, because you want to see him pull the trigger (it beats him not thinking and/or just throwing anyway, though). Just throw it. And if he's struggling so much to pull the trigger, there's gotta be a safety valve. There had been a couple times this game, but not enough.