Point/Counterpoint: No Reason To Throw Ponder Into This Mess

at this point in the season. Frazier and Mcnabb go back to their philly days and out of respect for mcnabb I think he’ll stick with him at least until the midway point of the season.

I think we should give Webb a shot. Allow Ponder continue to study the game and lets put Webb in. Lets say Webb actually makes somthing happen and proves his value as starter/great back up. Then seriously consider other options outside the organization. With this group of coaches players will never live up to their potential anyways. More importantly this season is already lost so make the changes at the very top all the way down to the coaches and start over now.

Also, I agree with Christopher. There is no reason to ruin any chance with Ponder now by “throwing him to the wolves” as people say. Lets just sit back and watch McChub get destroyed every play, thanking God that it isn’t Ponder that is getting flattened.

Face it guys, we knew this wasn’t going to be a winning season. Just try to make it through this season and look toward the draft. April cannot come soon enough.

The head coach is right, it doesn’t matter who the QB is at this point because that isn’t the problem. If a team loses a double digit leads for 3 weeks in a row then the offense isn’t wholly responsible. With that being said, it’s painfully obvious that McNabb is not the answer for us in the long run. He has nothing left at this point except his past success which won’t help us for the future. I think he’s just happy he’s collecting his paycheck. The real issue here is that we’re in the Andrew Luck lottery and we can’t mess that up. There are 5 teams right now who are 0-3 and 3 of them, including us, need him. I’ve eliminated the Rams as they have Bradford and the Chiefs who have Cassell. That leaves the Colts who has nothing after the aging and quite banged up Peyton Manning and the Dolphins who badly wanted to make a QB change this offseason. I’ve gotta think that Bill Polian is really eyeing the Stanford QB in the upcoming draft, why else would he sign a retired Kerry Collins and keep Curtis Painter, a laughable backup. Ditto for the Dolphins who badly wanted Kyle Orton but wouldn’t pull the trigger over a third round pick.
I think the best option for us is to shore up the defense this season, get Luck in April and go on from there.

If I’m Frazier I’m making the switch to Ponder asap. Leslie just signed on as head coach and the 1st year is basically a pass (unless you’re the other head coach named Les) and Ponder isn’t going to get better sitting on the bench. There’s nothing McNabb can do at this point in his career that Ponder and/or Webb can’t and in fact they’re probably both better. I’m completely disappointed in Donovan – I thought he’d be better. He looks slow (in his drops and reads) and frankly out of shape. He now looks as big as Daunte Culpepper – who was also 30 lbs or more too heavy at the end of his career. It’s time to move on.
  As for Andrew Luck – man if you have a shot at him you don’t think twice. You take him!!! If we play Ponder now, we can help highlight him for a trade next year for more draft picks. Let’s not over-think this one.

Yeah, dont’t think so, and I dont’t think for his it a question of just trying harder. But then I also don’t think the terrible second halves have been primarily his fault. He’s been the same guy in both halves, it’s the coaching and the play calling, in my view.

Also, Toby isn’t a “decent backup.” He’s terrible, and I have no idea what Musgrave was thinking on fourth down. You’ve got the toughest runner in the league, who is also one of the fastest. And you’ve got one of the slowest backs in the league, who also goes down on first contact every time. Yeah. Give it to the second guy. Surprise will more than make up for a lack of talent.

Anyway, I hear your David Carr concerns, but he’s now had three weeks on the sidelines, so I think it’s a little hard to say that the short off season hasn’t given Ponder enough time to learn. But eventually they are going to have to make a change, whether that’s Ponder or Webb, just to give us a reason to watch.

Is to give him experience and help him adjust to the “speed of the game”. We won’t get in the playoffs and it’s a down year so that’s the only positive. He gets experience with a faster-paced game.

Negatives? The game is faster than it should be. Our line has too many holes and Ponder will get hit faster and more often than his collegiate experience.

Positives? When we draft a franchise LT with our first pick next year the game wont just slow down to the normal “fast-pace” game for Ponder. It’ll be like it’s constantly on a slow-mo replay for him. He’ll be clicking with Rudolph, Jenkins, Harvin… Namely everyone except he who should not be named- who’s initials are Bernard berrian.

Overall Positive? Next year we’ll be young where it matters, and veteran where it matters.

Source notes: didn’t stafford get rocked before they improved their line this offseason? Oh he got rocked this past week? But he still got the ball out when it counted? Wonder where he picked up them learnings!

If the head coach and his staff don’t feel that Ponder is ready to start then they must have a good reason for thinking that way. If Tony Dungy trusts Leslie Frasier then so do I.