What to do about our struggling offense? It's a difficult call whether or not to bench Ponder for Webb. The pros and cons of staying the course vs change (possibly just for changes sake) have been talked about extensively here. It all seems to come down to what you think about Webb.

This is where the personnel director and the head coach need to ask why they have Webb listed as a backup QB on this roster. If Christian Ponder gets an opportunity to struggle through his problems as a starting QB, why hasn't Webb been given that opportunity? Unless they feel he has no chance of ever being a starting caliber QB. In which case why waste the roster spot on a guy you have no intention of playing, especially when that guy is one of the most gifted athletes on your roster? In that case, he should have been moved to receiver as soon as they decided he had no chance of being a relevant QB and kept Rosenfels as the backup.

If the coaching staff does feel he has the potential to be an NFL QB then they need to put him in there and see what he can do with the same mediocre receivers and pass protection Ponder has had, so we can see what he can do with it. Regardless of whether he succeeds or fails at least we'll have a means of comparison by which to judge Ponder's performance--which both we AND the coaching staff can only speculate on now.

If it were up to me, I say start Ponder next week and if he continues to struggle, at the next press conference you declare Webb the starter so he has two weeks to prepare for his start and Ponder has a couple weeks to get his head straight. Give Webb at least two starts (Bears and Rams); if he looks as bad as Ponder (especially against the Rams), it takes the heat off of Ponder to come back. If he looks better than ponder we keep Joe Webb around to compete as starting QB in training camp next year (probably against Ponder since his trade value is probably nothing) since there aren't a lot of college QBs with QBOTF written on them this coming draft. Either way I think Frasier is making the same mistake Chili did with T-Jack. Anointing the starter too soon without making him compete for his job.

I'm not saying Joe Webb is the answer, just that seeing him in action with the same team around him that Ponder has will give us a basis for comparison.