Campbell's Shortcoming

I think a lot of this is a function of holding the ball too long. And that comes from being slow on his reads at times, and not just "Brunnelling" it out of bounds or underneath. That will improve. He's also got to secure the ball better as a matter of course, which he can be coached to do.

It'll come, IMO. But he's got to make an improvement there, as no doubt he knows. Time will tell.

I recall back in I think 1989 Mark Rypien had the same problem and 2 years later he went on to win a SB!!! This can be fixed.

Im actually a little frustrated with Campbell, but I noticed during the game (and was wondering if anyone else caught this), I think it was during the second or third drive of the game, we were in the redzone and JC was back in the pocket...winding up, and a DE was putting his hand up to swat the ball from him, just like has happened so many times this season...but he pulled it down and ran for a few yards to set up third and six (I believe) rather then giving up a fumble. I was impressed by that, but then later in the game obviously he made a couple other mistakes, so we'll see, he's still developing, but so far he has left a lot to be desired.

BTW

I think most of the issue with fumbles is with the line. I know they are doing better then we would have expected considering how beat up they've been, but they are still pretty lousy, Portis cant run, Jason gets sacked quite a bit, and we havent completed any deep bpmbs for TDs all season nor have we taken many shots, and I think that the line is directly responsible. With better blocking we get a run game going, and JC has time in the pocket to throw down field. If we dont significantly upgrade the O-line next year I may not even watch them play.

OK of course I will, but I bet we'll see more of this same crap.

Campbell crumbles under pressure.

Jason Campbell's had a lot of good games for us, and makes a lot of great throws. But I think this highlights the fact that we're still talking about a young QB who needs time to develop.

I took NFL QB stats, and added together INTs and Fumbles Lost. Campbell leads the NFL in fumbles lost at the QB position. This combined total, essentially amounting to turnovers, was then calculated on a per-game basis.

Here's where Campbell ranks:

Name ,Team, TO PG
Trent Dilfer ,SFO, 2.17
Brian Griese ,CHI, 1.83
Eli Manning ,NYG, 1.75
Damon Huard ,KAN, 1.6
Jason Campbell ,WAS, 1.58
Drew Brees ,NOR, 1.5
Jon Kitna ,DET, 1.5
Philip Rivers ,SDG, 1.5
Vince Young ,TEN, 1.45
Rex Grossman ,CHI, 1.43
Kurt Warner ,ARI, 1.4
Tony Romo ,DAL, 1.33
Carson Palmer ,CIN, 1.33
Marc Bulger ,STL, 1.33
Derek Anderson ,CLE, 1.25
Jay Cutler ,DEN, 1.25
Peyton Manning ,IND, 1.17
Ben Roethlisberger ,PIT, 1.17
Daunte Culpepper ,OAK, 1.14
Kellen Clemens ,NYJ, 1.14
Matt Schaub ,HOU, 1.09
Brett Favre ,GNB, 1.08
Matt Hasselbeck ,SEA, 1.08
Donovan McNabb ,PHI, 1
Chad Pennington ,NYJ, 1
J.P. Losman ,BUF, 1
Kyle Boller ,BAL, 0.9
Tom Brady ,NWE, 0.67
Joey Harrington ,ATL, 0.67
Jeff Garcia ,TAM, 0.45
David Garrard ,JAC, 0.33

Fumbles lost, at least with QBs, is an indicator of line play as much as the QB play. But one of my frustrations with Campbell is that he should be feeling the rush and doing a better job of securing the ball when someone's bearing down on him. That's definitely the part of his game that needs the most improvement.

I think he'll improve over time and be a good one for sure, but this is just kind of a reality check to anyone who thinks JC is our savior today or even next season.

I don't alot of attention to this. He needs to do better holding on to the ball. But some of the fumbles are not his fault. He also leads all QB's in rushing. Bottom line is he needs to get better just like everyone else on the team. I think he will.

I just keep thinking about the inordinate amount of pressure on this kid. He has no true #1 receiver to look to. A patchwork offensive line. The running game has been less than stellar. We've had back to back games where his interceptions were a huge factor. The weight of knowing that the fanbase has placed all their hopes on him as our long awaited and heralded franchise QB. To top it off, he has to try and deal with the death of a teammate and lead this team to a respectable finish.

This kid needs to have a big finish in a game soon. He could use a serious boost of confidence right now.

I just keep thinking about the inordinate amount of pressure on this kid. He has no true #1 receiver to look to. A patchwork offensive line. The running game has been less than stellar. We've had back to back games where his interceptions were a huge factor. The weight of knowing that the fanbase has placed all their hopes on him as our long awaited and heralded franchise QB. To top it off, he has to try and deal with the death of a teammate and lead this team to a respectable finish.

This kid needs to have a big finish in a game soon. He could use a serious boost of confidence right now.

Good points. Campbell seems to start hot, and then fizzle as the game wears on.

Campbell crumbles under pressure.

If you mean to say that Jason has a tendency to fumble when hit, you are correct. If you are saying that Jason can't handle psychological pressure you could not be more wrong.

Good points. Campbell seems to start hot, and then fizzle as the game wears on.

I wonder how much of that is Jason and how much of that is the lack of good halftime adjustments? It's no secret Gibbs V2.0 has struggled worse than any other team in the league during that span, and Campbell has only started 18 of those games.

The turnovers per game stat wouldn't even be close to that number if he didn't fumble when hit. It's not like he throws awful, Grossman-esque picks on a regular basis. He just simply has to work on feeling pressure and tucking the ball away. A few of the fumbles he held it the ball too long, and a few were just busted O-line assignments. He hasn't fumbled yet when he's chosen to scramble and knows a hit is coming. If he was even just a little better at feeling pressure that stat wouldn't be so skewed. And the O-line could play a little better too. It'll be interesting to see if the fumbles continue at the same pace now that we're getting Randy back...