A New Beginning - Embrace The Noodle

[JSSkinz]

9 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

his point was depending on where the injury happened (better if it was between the ankle and the knee versus close to the ankle) Alex should come back and likely even in time for next season but cautioned that its the type of injury that can effect a player's speed.

I didn't see a really good shot of the injury until someone posted a very clear still shot of it on Twitter, it looks like it broke right at the ankle.

 

 

[clskinsfan]

27 minutes ago, Stadium-Armory said:

To my eye, Alex Smith doesn't have a strong arm either. I don't think we're giving up much in that department.

Smith doesnt have an elite arm. But he has a cannon compared to Colt. It is not even close.

[Skinsinparadise]

Just now, JSSkinz said:

I didn't see a really good shot of the injury until someone posted a very clear still shot of it on Twitter, it looks like it broke right at the ankle.

 

 

 

I didn't study it that closely to pay attention.  The doctor said sometimes there is spill over if its right on top of the ankle where some of the ligaments of the ankle are effected, too.  He laid that out as worst case scenario.  Best case would be that it was enough above the ankle and a cleanish break and if so he could be ready in time for the camp this summer.  Like he said, it can effect a player's ability to move quickly -- I forgot how he explained it but more or less said it can effect a player's speed moving forward.

3 minutes ago, clskinsfan said:

Smith doesnt have an elite arm. But he has a cannon compared to Colt. It is not even close.

 

Agree, neither has a cannon arm, Alex has the stronger one.  The deep ball of both seem to be on opposite extremes of the spectrum.

 

Alex's deep ball reminds me some of Jason Campbell's deep ball, not a lot of air on it and looks a bit flat, so its hard to get underneath it especially if its overthrown.  Colt's deep balls that I recall are slow floaters with too much air and not a lot of mustard on it so while it gives the receiver a chance to get under the ball, it also could go right to the corner chasing the receiver because its often under thrown.

 

 

[JSSkinz]

3 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

I didn't study it that closely to pay attention.  The doctor said sometimes there is spill over if its right on top of the ankle where some of the ligaments of the ankle are effected, too. 

2

So this is what happened to me and they didn't know until they opened me up.  The surgery was 3 1/2 hours which back then was long for a broken leg but my Ortho said the ligaments and tendons were wrapped around the broken bones and it made things much more complex.

[Malapropismic Depository]

Sad thing is no-one at all, outside of fans of the Skins, has any idea how good McCoy is.

So with McCoy at the helm, and especially Sanchez the backup, we will be the butt of all jokes.

 

But McCoy will of course surprise a lot of people "outside Washington"

14 minutes ago, clskinsfan said:

Smith doesnt have an elite arm. But he has a cannon compared to Colt. It is not even close.

 

It didn't seem to matter or make a difference in 2018, though.

[clskinsfan]

6 minutes ago, JSSkinz said:

So this is what happened to me and they didn't know until they opened me up.  The surgery was 3 1/2 hours which back then was long for a broken leg but my Ortho said the ligaments and tendons were wrapped around the broken bones and it made things much more complex.

 

I got lucky with mine. No damage to either joint. Still sucked real bad. But other than some nerve damage my leg is perfectly normal.

[Skinsinparadise]

5 minutes ago, JSSkinz said:

So this is what happened to me and they didn't know until they opened me up.  The surgery was 3 1/2 hours which back then was long for a broken leg but my Ortho said the ligaments and tendons were wrapped around the broken bones and it made things much more complex.

 

My son's was easier than that I presume, because his surgery was short.  Having said that, he's about 8 months into it and he's still not running, he walks fine though but doctors don't want him to run, yet.

 

They are talking about Alex below coming back fast, if so I gather it wasn't that bad of a break?

 

 

 

[clskinsfan]

Just now, Skinsinparadise said:

 

My son's was easier than that I presume, because his surgery was short.  Having said that, he's about 8 months into it and he's still not running, he walks fine though but doctors don't want him to run, yet.

 

They are talking about Alex below coming back fast, if so I gather it wasn't that bad of a break?

 

 

 

 

Yep. I would say the joints are good if that is the expected rehab time. I was running at 9 months after mine. I do know what kind of agony Smith is in today. The 2 days after surgery were the by far the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. They had me hooked up to a self injector of morphine. Basically I would wake up every couple of hours and hit the button then pass back out for a couple of hours :). 

[Morneblade]

18 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

Agree, neither has a cannon arm, Alex has the stronger one.  The deep ball of both seem to be on opposite extremes of the spectrum.

 

Alex's deep ball reminds me some of Jason Campbell's deep ball, not a lot of air on it and looks a bit flat, so its hard to get underneath it especially if its overthrown.  Colt's deep balls that I recall are slow floaters with too much air and not a lot of mustard on it so while it gives the receiver a chance to get under the ball, it also could go right to the corner chasing the receiver because its often under thrown.

 

 

 

Alex's arm seems to have regressed in my eyes. While I never though it was truly elite, it used to look better even last year. You've seen them both up close this year, and while they throw very different balls, who do you think has a better arm at this point?

 

44 minutes ago, JSSkinz said:

I thought some of the player's reactions to Colt being the new starter were interesting, quietly there seems to be a ton of confidence in him and a few players like Josh Norman seem to be reenergized by Colt taking the reigns.

 

 

 

This does not surprise me at all.

 

39 minutes ago, Bacon said:

 

Like Colt, some of these players have been around for a while and know what they're seeing. Alex had no chemistry with the team and there would have been a locker room crisis in under two months had we not been eking out wins on the back of Adrian Peterson and the defense. 

 

Agreed

[Mrshadow008]

3 hours ago, NoCalMike said:

Of all the guys out there, Bradford's best seems to be better than anyone else.  If he is truly done with football than I guess it isn't an option, however I'd still reach out to him and try to get him to at least come work out.

It’s not that Bradford wants to be done with football as much as he can’t play football anymore. His knee is bone on bone at this point so he can’t practice 

[justice98]

9 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

They are talking about Alex below coming back fast, if so I gather it wasn't that bad of a break?

 

 

 

 

I think everyone assumed it was going to be horrific and career threatening based on how it looked.  

 

But 6-8 means All-In for Week 1, Part Deux.  

29 minutes ago, clskinsfan said:

Smith doesnt have an elite arm. But he has a cannon compared to Colt. It is not even close.

 

Knowing where to go with the ball and staying in rhythm counts for a lot though.  

[clskinsfan]

32 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

Alex's deep ball reminds me some of Jason Campbell's deep ball, not a lot of air on it and looks a bit flat, so its hard to get underneath it especially if its overthrown.  Colt's deep balls that I recall are slow floaters with too much air and not a lot of mustard on it so while it gives the receiver a chance to get under the ball, it also could go right to the corner chasing the receiver because its often under thrown.

 

 

 

Alex still has enough arm to throw an 15-20 yard out from the far hash. That is a pretty good arm. You wont be seeing Colt making that throw any time soon. Colt's arm is good enough to win with though. He excels at mid range touch passing which is why he fits Grudens system so well IMO. If Gruden can just limit his mistakes and sacks we should be OK. The game this week is just massive. We have a chance to end our arch rivals season and take a 2 game lead in the division with 5 to play. Basically if we win Thursday the division is pretty much wrapped up.

[JSSkinz]

I'm sorry but the only thing worse than having Alex Smith as your QB is having Alex Smith as your QB coming off a major leg injury.

 

I hope Colt comes in and crushes it so we have a huge QB controversy, I can't handle another season of Alex Smith.

 

Alex is classy and a great person, this is not personal just business.

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

1 minute ago, JSSkinz said:

I'm sorry but the only thing worse than having Alex Smith as your QB is having Alex Smith as your QB coming off a major leg injury.

 

I hope Colt comes in and crushes it so we have a huge QB controversy, I can't handle another season of Alex Smith.

 

Alex is classy and a great person, this is not personal just business.

I was never under the impression he’d retire or anything like that, but my god - we cannot bank our hopes on Alex Smith returning from this.  He’s already antsy in the pocket, naturally he’s going to be even moreso now.

[Skinsinparadise]

27 minutes ago, Morneblade said:

 

Alex's arm seems to have regressed in my eyes. While I never though it was truly elite, it used to look better even last year. You've seen them both up close this year, and while they throw very different balls, who do you think has a better arm at this point?

 

 

Up close from my observation, Alex has the stronger arm.  Both of them tend to float their passes.  Alex when he steps into his throws especially up the middle/seam can bring it sometimes.    I just don't see that from Colt, ever.  Colt's passes always seem to be floaters when going intermediate to deep.

 

In the practice I watched Colt throwing back to back with the other 2 QBs on our squad in 2017 and it was pronounced how weaker his arm was.  Also, in the scrimmages I watched, Colt like another QB we had on our roster, loved himself Chris Thompson, had good chemistry with him.  

 

They both float their screen passes, hitches, etc but Alex's passes on that front to me are worse because Alex hesitates that extra second before he throws them which give defenders the extra time to level the receiver coupled with the passes getting there slowly.  For example, I put Thompson's injuries on Alex, specifically from the Saints game where he floated a ball right in front of a defenders and Thompson got leveled.  Ditto Peterson getting banged up that same game.  

 

I kept saying on the Alex thread, I'd think he'd play better once Thompson is back because for a check down guy, Thompson is the ultimate check down guy because he has speed and is elusive in space.  That goes double with me with Colt because I think he's better than Alex, or at least the 2017 version of himself, at the short game because Colt is more decisive and gets the ball to the receiver quicker making it easier for the receiver to do YAC.

 

Colt is the ballsier player so the rap we heard in the off season about Alex taking more chances with Doctson I think will be reality with Colt.  You already saw it yesterday.

 

I've never been a big Colt guy but it hasn't escaped my attention there is a narrative out there that he's improved in practice over the years and Jay is sold on him big time.  The new and improved Colt?  i don't know.  Maybe.  But from what I saw in camp (and I said so on a threat at the time) this narrative that Colt worked with a specialist to increase his arm strength and its much stronger now -- i call that out as BS based on what I saw in the summer of 2017.

[JSSkinz]

Just now, BatteredFanSyndrome said:

I was never under the impression he’d retire or anything like that, but my god - we cannot bank our hopes on Alex Smith returning from this.  He’s already antsy in the pocket, naturally he’s going to be even moreso now.

My fear is we force him back in that starting position and there's no way he's going to look better after coming off an injury with a long rehab, so where does that put us next year, pulling our hair out for 3/4 of the season until he figures out how to read blitzes.

 

Please get rid of him.

 

[Morneblade]

6 minutes ago, clskinsfan said:

 

Alex still has enough arm to throw an 15-20 yard out from the far hash. That is a pretty good arm. You wont be seeing Colt making that throw any time soon. Colt's arm is good enough to win with though. He excels at mid range touch passing which is why he fits Grudens system so well IMO. If Gruden can just limit his mistakes and sacks we should be OK. The game this week is just massive. We have a chance to end our arch rivals season and take a 2 game lead in the division with 5 to play. Basically if we win Thursday the division is pretty much wrapped up.

 

I think Alex can only make that throw now if he can really step into it. I agree with the rest of your assessment however.

[Skinsinparadise]

4 minutes ago, BatteredFanSyndrome said:

I was never under the impression he’d retire or anything like that, but my god - we cannot bank our hopes on Alex Smith returning from this.  He’s already antsy in the pocket, naturally he’s going to be even moreso now.

 

with potentially less mobility, too.   We've been hearing forever that one of his problems is the lack of chemistry with receivers so imagine another off season without much time to build that, still?

[Morneblade]

1 minute ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

Up close from my observation, Alex has the stronger arm.  Both of them tend of float their passes.  Alex when he steps into his throws specially up the middle/seam can bring it sometimes.    I just don't see that from Colt, ever.  Colt's passes always seem to be floaters when going intermediate to deep.

 

Gotcha

 

1 minute ago, Skinsinparadise said:

In the practice I watched Colt throwing back to back with the other 2 QBs on our squad in 2017 and it was pronounced how weaker his arm was.  Also, in the scrimmages I watched, Colt like another QB we had on our roster, loved himself Chris Thompson, had good chemistry with him.  

 

They both float their screen passes, hitches, etc but Alex's passes on that front to me are worse because Alex hesitates that extra second before he throws them which give defenders the extra time to level the receiver coupled with the passes getting their slowly.  For example, I put Thompson's injuries on Alex, specifically from the Saints game where he floated right in front of a defenders and Thompson got leveled.  Ditto Peterson getting banged up.  

 

I kept saying on the Alex thread, I'd think he'd play better once Thompson is back because for a check down guy, Thompson is the ultimate check down guy because he has speed and is elusive in space.  That goes double with me with Colt because I think he's better than Alex, or at least the 2017 version of himself, at the short game because Colt is more decisive and gets the ball to the receiver quicker making it easier for the receiver to do YAC.

 

Colt is the ballsier player so the rap we heard in the off season about Alex taking more chances with Doctson I think will be reality with Colt.  You already saw it yesterday.

 

This part is not surprising at all. The issue is going to be the picks that come with it. If he can minimize that, I think we can see an offensive uptick.

 

1 minute ago, Skinsinparadise said:

I've never been a big Colt guy but it hasn't escaped my attention there is a narrative out there that he's improved in practice over the years and Jay is sold on him big time.  The new and improved Colt?  i don't know.  Maybe.  But from what I saw in camp (and I said so on a threat at the time) this narrative that Colt worked with a specialist to increase his arm strength and its much stronger now -- i call that out as BS based on what I saw in the summer of 2017.

 

I don't think his arm is any stronger either. But he's a scrappy guy, and I think the team will rally around him in a big way.

9 minutes ago, JSSkinz said:

My fear is we force him back in that starting position and there's no way he's going to look better after coming off an injury with a long rehab, so where does that put us next year, pulling our hair out for 3/4 of the season until he figures out how to read blitzes.

 

Please get rid of him.

 

 

With his cap hit, we really can't do that. We're stuck with him for 2 more years.

[NoCalMike]

I think there is a good chance Colt is going to look better than Alex in the short term (increased turnover probability aside).  He knows the offense, he has been in it since 2015. He is probably comfortable with all the terminology, the reads, the timing, where everyone is supposed to be.  These are aspects that Alex Smith couldn't have become 100% on in a single offseason, especially with half the guys injured leading up to the season.   Even from the what we saw on Sunday, Colt looked like he had more command of the offense.  That doesn't make him a better QB, it more shows that learning a new offense fully & comfortably, with new players around you, is not as easy as a lot of us were assuming.

[clskinsfan]

8 minutes ago, NoCalMike said:

I think there is a good chance Colt is going to look better than Alex in the short term (increased turnover probability aside).  He knows the offense, he has been in it since 2015. He is probably comfortable with all the terminology, the reads, the timing, where everyone is supposed to be.  These are aspects that Alex Smith couldn't have become 100% on in a single offseason, especially with half the guys injured leading up to the season.   Even from the what we saw on Sunday, Colt looked like he had more command of the offense.  That doesn't make him a better QB, it more shows that learning a new offense fully & comfortably, with new players around you, is not as easy as a lot of us were assuming.

 

Agreed. IF Alex comes back from the injury he will have a full year under his belt with the mental part of the system. That is a good thing. It will be interesting to see how this injury affects his scrambling ability next year. If he loses that he loses a big part of his game.

[Malapropismic Depository]

I was watching on twitter about a week ago, and Scott McClou was asking twitter why Jimmy G  was sitting in the suite during a game, and not the sidelines.

Junior Gallette responded basically saying it's a new rule that players on IR cannot be on the sideline.

I find that to be odd, and not a good rule, if true.

Does anyone know if it's true, or any more details ?

Because I would hope that Alex could be on the sidelines to offer "technical support", and moral support also, to Colt during games.

Although it might be uncomfortable for Smith to stand with all his weight on one leg for a few hours, if he can't put any weight on the injured leg.

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

I was never in favor of benching Alex for McCoy, but I was certainly curious if he could give us the same if not better.  Now we get to find out for real.  That said, I’ve been skeptical of the defenses ability to continue making the opponent turn it over at the clip they have been.  It’s entirely possible that Colt gives the offense a lift while other units return to the mean.  If the other units continue to play at the level they have been, I do believe Colt can lead the team to a division title.  My only real concern is that he’ll attempt to write checks that his arm can’t cash.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

7 minutes ago, BatteredFanSyndrome said:

I was never in favor of benching Alex for McCoy, but I was certainly curious if he could give us the same if not better.  Now we get to find out for real. 

 

This is very close to where I was at. As much as this sucks for Smith and isn't "better" for the team as a whole, I think it will settle a lot of debates (I'm guessing those are both internal to the team and certainly among the fans) heading into 2019. Either it'll be clear that a journeyman/backup can do better than our $71M QB or it'll show everyone that we were falling for the "backup savior QB" syndrome. 

 

But, the "good" thing about this is that an injury was the only way a move was going to be made. While we were winning more than we were losing in season 1 with Smith, there's no chance they were going to make a QB change. And I agree with that, btw. 

[Morneblade]

6 minutes ago, BatteredFanSyndrome said:

I was never in favor of benching Alex for McCoy, but I was certainly curious if he could give us the same if not better.  Now we get to find out for real.  That said, I’ve been skeptical of the defenses ability to continue making the opponent turn it over at the clip they have been.  It’s entirely possible that Colt gives the offense a lift while other units return to the mean.  If the other units continue to play at the level they have been, I do believe Colt can lead the team to a division title.  My only real concern is that he’ll attempt to write checks that his arm can’t cash.

 

I think it's safe to say that a guy like Colt, with a gunslinger attitude, but a noodle arm, WILL do that. The key is, will he minimize it enough to not beat us? I think that it could go either way, but I think Colt will protect the ball enough (not completely) to not beat us. I do expect that the offense will move the ball more and score points.