FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Bio1590 said 08/27, 01:28 AM
Damn, I like Leftwich >_<

To be quick, I don't think Leftwich is going to be much of a "surprise". In 2005, before he went down, he had 15 TDs and 5 INTs. Now, that 3:1 Ratio is pretty damn good. I don't think he can pull it off though. His WRs are mostly overrated, and despite the fact every one of them is 6'3"+, there's really no one to stretch the field to take advantage of Leftwich's arm. They need a legitimate deep threat.

My surprise player of 2007 is Alex Smith. The QB from the 49ers, not the TE. After being thrown to the wolves his first year (50.9% rate, 1 TD, 11 INTs, 40.8 Rating), he showed IMMENSE improvement last year. He improved his completion percentage by 7.2%, threw 15 more TDs to only 5 more INTs (or 16/16), and put up a rating of 74.8. He also had 4 games with a rating above 100.

Now he has one of the better RBs in the league in the backfield with him (Gore). He also has TWO absolute burners at WR (Lelie, who in 2004 averaged 20.1 Yards over 54 catches, and Hill, a rookie from Washington State, who ran a 4.32 40), and two possesion receivers (Jackson, from Seattle, a proven vet, and Battle, who played with Smith last year).

Bio1590 said 08/27, 01:20 PM
The thing is though Alex had a decent cast last year (Gore, Robinson, Battle, Bryant). But. . .

While Alex did put up 4 games of over a 100 rating (By comparision, Manning had 7, Brady had 5), he also 6 games of less than a 55 Rating, another 2 at 69.0 and 66.7, and anther 4 between 84.8 and 92.7.

I expect Smith to finally show some consistancy. In his 8 good games he was 143/228 (62.7%) for 1654 Yards, 11 TDs, 2 TDs, as compared to his bad games, where he was 114/214 (53.3%), for 1236 Yards, 5 TDs, 14 INTs. That's a 97.0 Rating compared to a 51.1 Rating.

Like I said, Smith needs to learn consistancy, which I believe he will. On the flipside, I DID say he showed immense improvement, but that could just be a "one year wonder" year (which I don't believe it will). Alex still has too many nay-sayers, believing his hands are too small (which they aren't. He was measured at the combine), not having a strong enough arm (does Rivers have a "strong" arm? Not by a long shot), he was a system QB at Utah (Pffft, just because you're in a system doesn't mean you're actually good. Ex: Timmy Chang, Hawaii).

Leftwich still needs to develop a sense of touch to do well.

Bio1590 said 08/27, 02:15 PM
Garrard is a better fit to that team. He is more mobile, and his arm is a better fit than Leftwich's because not only is he more accurate, he has a better sense of touch; something useful when your WRs are just out-of-position TEs that won't scare anyone deep (and the one person that could, MATT JONES!, is an overrated hack who can't catch).

Smith will surprise more. He has yet to finish a season with a rating above 80 (despite not playing an entire 16 games yet, Leftwich still has "finished" above 80 twice, once damn near 90) . As Leftwich already posted a rating of 89.1 in 2005 I cannot see how anything less than that would be a surprise (I say less because I doubt he can beat it).