Peter King Mmqb On Colt Mccoy's Future

[bonedawg]

FTA:

 

Thursday night takeaways:

• James Harrison should not be suspended, but he should be fined. I've watched his scary helmet-to-helmet hit on Colt McCoy 15 times now, and I've listened to his defense. Which is this, basically: Once McCoy tucked the ball under his right arm and began to run, and left the pocket, McCoy appeared to be a runner, and thus could be hit in the helmet by a tackler. (Crazy rule, that runners can be hit helmet-to-helmet in the open field and quarterbacks can't be if they exhibition any intention of passing.)

McCoy, by my count, took five strides with the ball tucked under his arm, and when he and Harrison were about one stride apart, McCoy quickly pulled out the ball and tossed it to a receiver for a completion. I agree with what Harrison said postgame -- when he was coiling to hit McCoy, the quarterback appeared to be a runner.

But the NFL rule does not refer to time when talking about hits on a quarterback. In other words, the rule doesn't say if a quarterback looks to be a runner and at the last second throws a pass, and then is hit in the helmet, it's perfectly legal. The rule simply says you cannot hit a quarterback helmet-to-helmet. And in this case, Harrison clearly had the chance to make his aiming point lower. He could have hit McCoy shoulder pads to ribs, but he chose to aim higher than that. McCoy didn't curl up either.

So while I do not blame Harrison for thinking McCoy was a runner, and I believe it is wholly unfair to indict him for this hit as a cheap shot, I do blame him for where he aimed and where he hit him. There was no need to aim for the helmet. None. The play should result in a good-sized fine -- but it does not rise to the Suh-stomping level of a suspension, even with Harrison's history of NFL fines and discipline.

• The Browns should build around Colt McCoy, not draft a quarterback in 2012 to replace him. I'd seen snippets of McCoy flailing around this year, but hadn't watched every throw of a game. And so I watched Thursday night to get some sense of the near- and long-term prospects of the former University of Texas quarterback. And I came away thinking the Browns should stick with him and use a rich 2012 draft to finally build the kind of offense around McCoy that any quarterback would need to succeed.

Mike Holmgren is a disciple of Bill Walsh. I remember when Walsh was shown a few plays of Charles Haley rushing the passer at James Madison; he told his scouts he really wanted him. "If we see him make a few plays like this, we can coach him to do it all the time,'' Walsh said, and he was proved a prophet -- Haley became a top NFL pass-rusher for San Francisco and Dallas.

Well, on Thursday night, I saw McCoy, with limited help from grade-D skill players, make enough plays to convince me he's not the problem. Now, I realize he made two or three idiotic throws in the second half -- and you're not going to win doing that consistently. But one of the bad throws came after he was concussed and should never have been put back in the game. And those throws have to be addressed.

But he did enough good things that I came away thinking: Use the three picks in the top 40 next April (Cleveland has its own first- and-second-round picks, plus Atlanta's first-rounder from the Julio Jones deal last April) to help McCoy, not replace him. Three plays showed a mature quarterback making good decisions:

1. On the first series of the game, using play-action, McCoy set up, looked over his options and found tight end Evan Moore down the left side on a crossing route with a step on linebacker Lawrence Timmons. The high-arcing pass settled into Moore's arms. Gain of 33.

2. Also on the first series, Josh Cribbs found a gap downfield in the left seam and McCoy made a great touch pass over cornerback Ike Taylor. Gain of 25.

3. In the third quarter, on third-and-eight, down 7-3, McCoy faced a five-man rush and moved up in the pocket. Feeling pressure, he threw the ball about five feet to the right of tight end Alex Smith, because that was the only window open to make the throw -- Troy Polamalu, Ryan Clark and William Gay converged on Smith and seemed ready to pancake him. But the throw was zipped in perfectly, Smith made a diving catch, and the Browns had a first down. Good judgment, great throw.

Of course, we wouldn't be talking about any of this if McCoy didn't make some brain-fart throws. But I believe he can be coached out of those -- it's what Bill Walsh would believe, watching him -- and I believe some of that stems from the fact that the Browns are a poor offensive team as a whole.

McCoy has holes. He also has a coach, Pat Shurmur, who can correct those, and is in an offense he's so well-suited to run. He's well-liked and respected in the locker room. If I'm Browns GM Tom Heckert, I'm looking for an offseason upgrade at wide receiver (the Browns need two), guard, running back and tight end ... before I even think about replacing the quarterback.

 

 

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/12/12/Week14/index.html#ixzz1gMXeSnbN

[Pumpkin Eater]

Dirty hit by the scum bag roid monkey Harrison. Ban him from the game!

[VaporTrail]

If HArrison ( a lot better than Tatum) did what you guys wanted, he would have delivered a far harder blow to Colts head, and probably would have paralyzed him. My hitting body to body, the impact was spread out over a larger leading to less impact per square inch.

 

Had Harrison lowered his shoulder? The ENTIRE impact would have been delivered to Colt's head.

 

No he wouldn't have, I don't know where the hell you get this idea from. McCoy was standing straight up. If Harrison lowers his shoulder, his shoulder hits him in the chest.

 

As for Stingley being paralyzed, that's because his body was tilted over and his head was in a lower position. That's why the other guy lowering his shoulder paralyzed him.

[Tim Couch Pulls Out]

You're a fucking idiot.

[Gips]

Building around colt mccoy would/will prove to be a huge mistake imho..

I think we will/need to go after a QB next year, colt is a tuff and incredibly durable kid however he seems to be more suitable as a backup to me, not the starter of an "offensive minded" team moving forward of course the facts are this team is far from offensive minded on the offensive side of the ball, we have a coach that is an over conservative dimwit that as his own playcaller does not know how or when to turn it on or off and that goes squarely on holmgrens shoulders..

 

However holmgren could care less because lerner doesnt care about anything thats going on with this team as long as the cash keeps rolling in or as long as his hired minions keep saying it is..

 

I think most of us know bob lamonte is the guy calling the shots in cleveland..

[VaporTrail]

Nope.

 

Yep.