[QUOTE=Enginerd]
Grossman has been playing incredibly inconsistently, but that’s different from playing consistently badly. The only way for a QB to get more consistent is with experience. Grossman’s play at the beginning of the year indicated that he has some potential, but it has to be developed.
The question for the Bears is whether they think Rex is the man. If they think he is, they should play him, especially now that they’ve already clinched their division. Get him as much experience as you can, because that’s the only way he’ll get better. The more he plays in the regular season, the better he’ll do in the playoffs.
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They roasted Grossman on NFL Live the other day. Totally killed him, and they even used game film as evidence.
As somebody else pointed out, the early successes (and great passer ratings) were mostly against crappy teams. Worse than that, though, was they dissected some film from those earlier games. They showed examples of Rex heaving it up into triple coverage in the end zone, resulting in Moose coming up with a spectacular catch.
According to what they showed and explained, Rex is exactly the same guy now as he was in the early part of the season. He’s making the same bonehead decisions and bad throws he’s always made. The difference is that he got remarkably lucky in the early games when his receivers bailed him out. That is an iffy proposition at best against bad teams; against good teams it’s certain disaster.
The poor showings he’s had against bad teams (Arizona, Miami) is a simple regression to the mean where his iffy bad decisions and throws came up snake eyes enough to offset the lucky breaks early on. Basically, Fido is a bust.
I find him interesting in the context of another ongoing debate I’ve engaged in, and that’s the “sit on the bench” formula for success. I expected Rivers to be good in San Diego because it is obvious to me that sitting on the bench a couple years is a surefire way to get the most out of a young QB. I call it the Chad Pennington effect. The Chad, Marc Bulger, Carson Palmer, Tony Romo, Philip Rivers; the list is quite long with success stories.
Conversely, I’ve asked before for a single example of a QB that sat on the bench for a couple years, came in and struggled like a rookie, and then later went on to be successful. Nobody has ever been able to come up with one. Will Grossman be the first? I doubt it. At this point in his career, he is what he is. And it ain’t pretty.