Get Alex Smith

[djswit]

I did not expect that I would ever have the thought let alone type the words. Smith may be the best guy who will be available after the year. The draft is pretty weak this April at QB. We need a guy who can play now. He is clearly out in SF. Look for a guy in the draft and ride Smith for two years or less.

Matt Moore is another serviceable option.

Not ideal. Needed.

Drop the bank to get Bowe.

Back to cooking

[NDVikeFan]

I don't care who we have at QB with these receivers but no qb could make this passing game work. The WR's are god awful. Jenkins, Arshomedeau (sic) and Simpson should all be shown the door after this year. terrible!

[Demi]

He's being called out regularly by announcers for missing wide open receivers. He's over throwing guys still. Completely inconsistent over 15 yards. It doesn't matter who the receivers are Ponder isn't going to win anything meaningful being the noodle armed midget headcase he is.

[smoothoperator]

midget headcase...stay classy

[Demi]

Funny no mention of his girlfriend this week.

[PurpleKoolaid]

How did I know this thread would come up.

Because our QB is HORRIBLE and Alex Smith was benched?

[PurpleKoolaid]

Yeah Smith isnt the answer but hes better then Ponder. Anyone but Sancez or Vick. I got a bad feeling we are going to wind up with one of them if we make a change.

[Crax]

The funny part is, Ponder is the poor man's Alex Smith.

I'd rather pass on Smith, but if the choice is Ponder or Smith, Smith is the better QB.

[PurpleKoolaid]

Alex Smith is a game manger. He's not the answer. He's an upgrade on Ponder but where does he get us? Do we have the Niners D or OL? No, not even close, so he'd probably be worse here.

If Ponder aint the answer (and it's trending that way) you either draft someone else or trade for someone's backup hoping he becomes your Matt Schaub.

Smith's fine as a stop gap but do we wanna go down that road for the millionth time? I don't.

Our 3 options are:

-Give Ponder another year. (I say that as in week 1 starter, whether he finishes the year is another story.)
-Stop Gap. (my thoughts on this above.)
-Use a high pick on someone else. (This draft class is unimpressive at QB. We'd have to take a shot and hope like we did with Ponder)

We're in a no win situation really.

Joe Webb or MBT or Sage Rosenfels are not the answer.


Regardless, I think we should spend a mid to late round pick on someone to develop.

We havent seen MBT enough to know anything about him. I have seen enough of both Ponder and Webb to know they are nothing but backups. We spend a billion dollars on a QB like other teams have. Heck last year Hibbingvike and myself were the only ones talking about Rg# and look what the Skins have, even with overpaying for a WR. Imagine that. I wonder if they think they overpaid now.

[PurpleKoolaid]

The funny part is, Ponder is the poor man's Alex Smith.

I'd rather pass on Smith, but if the choice is Ponder or Smith, Smith is the better QB.

Yep. I think Smith has more accurate arm though. I still dont want him. I want a pocket passer. Like most of the playoff teams have. If he can run for first downs, like Rogers, fine.

[Eli]

Hell, I'd take Matt Moore right about now. The Vikings need an alternative to Ponder, and neither Webb nor MBT are starting caliber QBs, nor could either of them be expected to come in and turn a game around when Ponder is floundering.

[akvikingsfan]

I know everyone is down on Ponder and I should jump on the bash Ponder bandwagon, but I'm not to that point yet. It is a well known fact it takes NFL QBs 3-4 years to develop. Ponder is in his 2nd year, 1st as a full time stater and only 1 off season. At this point all I look for is improvement from the previous year. Looking at just one game to evaluate him is unfair. If we look at his numbers compared to last year (mind you he played 11 games last year and 11 this year) we see the following

Code: Select all

                     2011                2012
Yards                1853                2186          (improvement)
Completion %         54.3                63.5          (improvement)
TDs                  13                    13          (same)
INTs                 13                     9          (improvement)
Fumbles               6                     4          (improvement)
Sacks                30                    27          (improvement)

So you can see just as easily as I have that he has improved since last year in almost every major stat category other than TDs (which has been the same). As a second year QB I'll take this improvement and give him another year to prove that he can continue to improve. Of course he's not Tom Brady, Payton Manning, or Drew Brees. But can you expect him to be? Look at how long it took those players to develop to the level they're at. As long as Ponder is showing improvement let him play.

[Purple bruise]

I know everyone is down on Ponder and I should jump on the bash Ponder bandwagon, but I'm not to that point yet. It is a well known fact it takes NFL QBs 3-4 years to develop. Ponder is in his 2nd year, 1st as a full time stater and only 1 off season. At this point all I look for is improvement from the previous year. Looking at just one game to evaluate him is unfair. If we look at his numbers compared to last year (mind you he played 11 games last year and 11 this year) we see the following

Code: Select all

                     2011                2012
Yards                1853                2186          (improvement)
Completion %         54.3                63.5          (improvement)
TDs                  13                    13          (same)
INTs                 13                     9          (improvement)
Fumbles               6                     4          (improvement)
Sacks                30                    27          (improvement)

So you can see just as easily as I have that he has improved since last year in almost every major stat category other than TDs (which has been the same). As a second year QB I'll take this improvement and give him another year to prove that he can continue to improve. Of course he's not Tom Brady, Payton Manning, or Drew Brees. But can you expect him to be? Look at how long it took those players to develop to the level they're at. As long as Ponder is showing improvement let him play.

I totally agree and again would add, what qb would do good with the o-line, offensive coordinator and pitiful wideouts this team has. (Yeah I know Drew Brees would have this team 10-1)?

[Purple bruise]

If you watched the first play of the Bears game you saw the d lineman blow past Fusco and nearly destroyed Ponder. Watch the rest of the game and tell me when did the line give him time to set up in the pocket or even step up into the pocket. I do not remember even once.
As slow as Alex Smith is he would be carried off the field on a stretcher playing with this line and slow wide-outs.

[cstelter]

I know everyone is down on Ponder and I should jump on the bash Ponder bandwagon, but I'm not to that point yet. It is a well known fact it takes NFL QBs 3-4 years to develop. Ponder is in his 2nd year, 1st as a full time stater and only 1 off season. At this point all I look for is improvement from the previous year. Looking at just one game to evaluate him is unfair. If we look at his numbers compared to last year (mind you he played 11 games last year and 11 this year) we see the following

Code: Select all

                     2011                2012
Yards                1853                2186          (improvement)
Completion %         54.3                63.5          (improvement)
TDs                  13                    13          (same)
INTs                 13                     9          (improvement)
Fumbles               6                     4          (improvement)
Sacks                30                    27          (improvement)

So you can see just as easily as I have that he has improved since last year in almost every major stat category other than TDs (which has been the same).

How about Yards/Attempt, or Fumbles lost, or passes beyond 20 or 40 yards, or TD%? He has gone backwards in all of those. 6.4 YPA to 6.1YPA. 4 Fum/Lost vs 2 Fum/Lost. 23 20+ passes down to 20 20+passes. 4 40+ passes down to 2. 4.46 TD/attempt down to 3.62%.

Troubling is is number of 20+ passes per attempt-- 7.9% down to 5.6%. 5.6% is dead last in the league for QB's with more than 100 attempts. Even if he had stayed flat, there would still be 25 QB's in the league with better 20+ yard per attempt ratios.

Even more troubling is the Yards per attempt average of 6.1 this year. Only 2 QB's with more than 100 attempts are below him (Gabbert and Skelton).

His critics have a point.