Drew Willy to start season finale

[Yourface]

 

I see no advantage to starting Willy this week.  I don't buy into the he needs experience argument.  He's had more experience this year than he's ever had before.  One more game of being beaten up won't do anything positive.

 

I want to see Marve this week, not because I think he will be in the running to be a starter next year, but because the experience can help him and it protects our biggest asset... Willy.

Aside from the fact that Willy is in his first year as a starter and needs all the reps he can get, and has just shy of seven months to completely recover from whatever ailments he may currently be dealing with after Saturday....agreed completely...

 

 

I highly doubt that one extra meaningless game at the end of the season is going to do him any good, especially if he's already ailing. On the other hand, I'm sure that Marve, with so little experience, could benefit from getting those same reps. The potential consequences of Willy starting far outweigh the benefits (if there are any) in my opinion.

[Mike]

 

 

 

I'm really really really starting to HATE this coaching staff.

 

Considering how horrendous Willy has been the second half of this season, and how he's gotten progressively worse, I'm 100% convinced that Marve would give us a better chance to win.

 

Do we not want to end the season on a positive note?

 

If anyone thinks that by having Marve start this week, it means anything for next year, they're sorely mistaken. Marve could throw for 400 yards and 5 touchdowns and all it means is that the media will have some ammunition for when they conjure up their articles this offseason about a QB controversy. Willy is still QB1 going into next year, he's earned the reps, he deserves the reps and even if he's dinged up, beaten down and it ends up in a big loss for us, it's still all part of the process we need to be prepared to go through as fans. Because the end result will be a properly developed star QB. Period.

 

You have to be Kidding ?

 

 

No. I'm not kidding. One game doesn't make a starting quarterback and even if Marve did put up those kind of numbers, assuming that meant he is ready to be a full time starter is as close to a surefire way to ruin his development as you'll find.

[Mark H.]

At least...the conversation has gone from 'Willy sucks and needs to sit' to 'Willy should sit because he's hurt and Marve could use some experience.'

 

But to say that Marve gives us a better chance to win because of one half of garbage time...is just not even worth commenting on.

[Mr. Perfect]

 

 

 

I'm really really really starting to HATE this coaching staff.

 

Considering how horrendous Willy has been the second half of this season, and how he's gotten progressively worse, I'm 100% convinced that Marve would give us a better chance to win.

 

Do we not want to end the season on a positive note?

 

If anyone thinks that by having Marve start this week, it means anything for next year, they're sorely mistaken. Marve could throw for 400 yards and 5 touchdowns and all it means is that the media will have some ammunition for when they conjure up their articles this offseason about a QB controversy. Willy is still QB1 going into next year, he's earned the reps, he deserves the reps and even if he's dinged up, beaten down and it ends up in a big loss for us, it's still all part of the process we need to be prepared to go through as fans. Because the end result will be a properly developed star QB. Period.

 

You have to be Kidding ?

 

Ryan Dinwiddie says hi. How did things work out for him and us after that Calgary game? One good game does not make a great quarterback.

[AtlanticRiderFan]

 

I do not agree with this move. With the injury problems Willy has had lately, you rest him for next year. Especially since this is a meaningless game at this point.

 

Now, you risk aggravating the injury further.

yeah you're opinion on which qb should start is oh so valid right? How's your boy Doege doing lately? So much better than Sunseri right?

 

 

So you're going to judge my opinion on who should start for Winnipeg based on something completely off-topic from what we're talking about here?

 

Now you're just finding reasons to bash my opinions and trying to bait me into an arguement. I had a good reason to back up what I said (about Winnipeg, not Saskville).

 

But to answer your question about the Rider QBs, I really cannot answer, because both are too inconsistent.

I know what you mean... can't stand people like you. Try to talk football and all people want to do is twist words and read into things that were never even said to begin with. It's beyond aggravating.

 

Who are you talking to?

[Yourface]

At least...the conversation has gone from 'Willy sucks and needs to sit' to 'Willy should sit because he's hurt and Marve could use some experience.'

 

But to say that Marve gives us a better chance to win because of one half of garbage time...is just not even worth commenting on.

 

I'm assuming this comment is directed at me...

 

I never said Willy sucks. I said he's been awful in the second half of the season, which is 100% true. Based on this downward spiral he's been in, I'm fairly confident that Marve gives us a better chance to win at this point.

 

Furthermore, my belief that Marve is a capable quarterback stems from more than just one quarter of football. He evidently has potential, as shown in mini-camp, in preseason, in practice, and again in limited regular season action. He could stand to gain some experience, and as such, I'm somewhat disconcerted in O'Shea's decision to start Willy this week.

[Mark H.]

 

At least...the conversation has gone from 'Willy sucks and needs to sit' to 'Willy should sit because he's hurt and Marve could use some experience.'

 

But to say that Marve gives us a better chance to win because of one half of garbage time...is just not even worth commenting on.

 

I'm assuming this comment is directed at me...

 

I never said Willy sucks. I said he's been awful in the second half of the season, which is 100% true. Based on this downward spiral he's been in, I'm fairly confident that Marve gives us a better chance to win at this point.

 

Furthermore, my belief that Marve is a capable quarterback stems from more than just one quarter of football. He evidently has potential, as shown in mini-camp, in preseason, in practice, and again in limited regular season action. He could stand to gain some experience, and as such, I'm somewhat disconcerted in O'Shea's decision to start Willy this week.

 

 

It was directed at no one in particular.  

 

A young QB with little experience, on whom the opposition now has some film and can game plan against him.  I'm not an expert by any means, but I think Calgary would draw up a plan that forces him to stay in the pocket.  

 

Do really think a team with a good defense and solid coaching would him let ad-lib the way he did?  Don't you remember what happened when Buck was forced to stay in the pocket?  

[Yourface]

 

 

At least...the conversation has gone from 'Willy sucks and needs to sit' to 'Willy should sit because he's hurt and Marve could use some experience.'

 

But to say that Marve gives us a better chance to win because of one half of garbage time...is just not even worth commenting on.

 

I'm assuming this comment is directed at me...

 

I never said Willy sucks. I said he's been awful in the second half of the season, which is 100% true. Based on this downward spiral he's been in, I'm fairly confident that Marve gives us a better chance to win at this point.

 

Furthermore, my belief that Marve is a capable quarterback stems from more than just one quarter of football. He evidently has potential, as shown in mini-camp, in preseason, in practice, and again in limited regular season action. He could stand to gain some experience, and as such, I'm somewhat disconcerted in O'Shea's decision to start Willy this week.

 

 

It was directed at no one in particular.  

 

A young QB with little experience, on whom the opposition now has some film and can game plan against him.  I'm not an expert by any means, but I think Calgary would draw up a plan that forces him to stay in the pocket.  

 

Do really think a team with a good defense and solid coaching would him let ad-lib the way he did?  Don't you remember what happened when Buck was forced to stay in the pocket?  

 

 

We only saw him play a bit more than one quarter so it's hard to say what his limitations are. Surely you can understand my point of view, as I understand yours.

[Mark H.]

Yes, but points of view can be expressed without throwing our developing franchise QB under the bus. Just look at Reilly with the Esks last year compared to this year.

[SmokinBlue]

Edit.

[Mark H.]

Someone said Willy's protection has been similar to Mitchell's this year. Sorry, but I just can't give a comment like that too much respect

[Yourface]

Yes, but points of view can be expressed without throwing our developing franchise QB under the bus. Just look at Reilly with the Esks last year compared to this year.

 

Well I suppose, but Willy still has a lot to prove before being labelled a "franchise QB" in my opinion.

[iso_55]

 

 

At least...the conversation has gone from 'Willy sucks and needs to sit' to 'Willy should sit because he's hurt and Marve could use some experience.'

 

But to say that Marve gives us a better chance to win because of one half of garbage time...is just not even worth commenting on.

 

I'm assuming this comment is directed at me...

 

I never said Willy sucks. I said he's been awful in the second half of the season, which is 100% true. Based on this downward spiral he's been in, I'm fairly confident that Marve gives us a better chance to win at this point.

 

Furthermore, my belief that Marve is a capable quarterback stems from more than just one quarter of football. He evidently has potential, as shown in mini-camp, in preseason, in practice, and again in limited regular season action. He could stand to gain some experience, and as such, I'm somewhat disconcerted in O'Shea's decision to start Willy this week.

 

None of us said Willy sucks, which goes back to the point I made earlier about people being unable to read and communicate without making things up or assuming things they haven't even read. Very hard to discuss football when that's all people ever want to do here.

 

Your as guilty as the people you accuse. Your "You Guys" comments proves that. You only agree with people who agree with you so again you can point fingers but I'd recommend you look in the mirror first when you do. 

[Tracker]

Willy has made his bones and has to be considered the incumbent next training camp. Marve still has to prove that he can play in this league on a consistent basis, so it would make sense for him to start and play with a quarter reserved for the #4 fellow.

And if anyone here thinks O'Shea will be poring through this site looking for advice, they need to go for a pee-test. Now.

[gbill2004]

Willy has made his bones and has to be considered the incumbent next training camp. Marve still has to prove that he can play in this league on a consistent basis, so it would make sense for him to start and play with a quarter reserved for the #4 fellow.

And if anyone here thinks O'Shea will be poring through this site looking for advice, they need to go for a pee-test. Now.

Huh?? Are you saying O'Shea doesn't consult these boards before making all decisions? My mind has just been blown

[Mr Dee]

 

Some have the belief that Marve will supplant Willy as the starter.

I'm not in that camp, but I do want to see him play.

And Portis…I want to see him for a quarter…he intrigues me.

 

Well I wouldn't expect to learn too much giving both of these guys time - there won't be enough reps to do that.  They will have charted everything Portis has done in practise this year.  They'll already have an idea if he's worth keeping around as a number 3 next year.  Maybe give him the last series.

 

Brohm is going to be a free agent in February.  If I have 15 minutes of football to assess a QB, I'm finding out if Marve can be our number 2 next season, or if we need to pony up and keep Brohm.

 

I suspect they'll want to get him back for camp next year, but if another team shows up with more cash in hand, what should our response be?

 

 

Well, this it right there, isn't it?

Has the QB order already been decided past Willy?

Because they have to know, or find out.

Brohm's free agency will push that question.

I like what I've seen of him and I'm sure other teams will be looking in our back yard to answer some of their own back-up QB questions and I wouldn't want to just give them Brohm to look at…for nothing in return.

[SmokinBlue]

I updated my post above.

[gbill2004]

Some have the belief that Marve will supplant Willy as the starter.

I'm not in that camp, but I do want to see him play.

And Portis…I want to see him for a quarter…he intrigues me.

Well I wouldn't expect to learn too much giving both of these guys time - there won't be enough reps to do that. They will have charted everything Portis has done in practise this year. They'll already have an idea if he's worth keeping around as a number 3 next year. Maybe give him the last series.

Brohm is going to be a free agent in February. If I have 15 minutes of football to assess a QB, I'm finding out if Marve can be our number 2 next season, or if we need to pony up and keep Brohm.

I suspect they'll want to get him back for camp next year, but if another team shows up with more cash in hand, what should our response be?

Well, this it right there, isn't it?

Has the QB order already been decided past Willy?

Because they have to know, or find out.

Brohm's free agency will push that question.

I like what I've seen of him and I'm sure other teams will be looking in our back yard to answer some of their own back-up QB questions and I wouldn't want to just give them Brohm to look at…for nothing in return.

Agreed. Re-signing Brohm should be a priority. Can never have too many good QBs.

[Noeller]

This thread reminds me just how short some people's memories are. It's like nobody remembers the first 6 games of the season...

[Mr. Perfect]

This thread reminds me just how short some people's memories are. It's like nobody remembers the first 6 games of the season...

I've said in a number of conversations with friends that starting 5-1 was the worst thing that could have happened to this team because of the fanbase. People were saying in May they'd be happy with 6 wins which is exactly what we have but because of our start, the overwhelming majority of the fan base got unrealistic expectations about the remainder of the season.

[SmokinBlue]

None of us said Willy sucks, which goes back to the point I made earlier about people being unable to read and communicate without making things up or assuming things they haven't even read. Very hard to discuss football when that's all people ever want to do here.

 

Reilly with the Esks last year was pretty amazing last year, much like this year.

 

Not just his stats but he continually made something out of nothign all year long and was a treat to watch. Sure they didn't want very much, but they lost 7 games by only 5 points or less and many of those games could of and some of  them, should of(if not very getting screwed over by refs) went there way.

 

That being said, Reilly is a great example, because the biggest positive he has as a quarterback, much like Willy, is the fact that he is incredibly tough. Both of them can take a tremendous beating and it's exactly more of a surprise when they take a beating and do get injured. Most other QBs or football players for that matter, if they take a beating like Reilly took in 2013/2014 and Willy took this year, you expect them to get injured, these guys though it seems to take a real freak accident to injure either of them.

 

The above is precisely why even though i ranked Willy so low on the QB rankings in the other thread I still think he is one of the biggest assets to have as a QB in the CFL. Both his college and his pro career, he has had remarkably very few injuries, which means he can have a very long career IF he can continue to improve. One of the keys to building a long term top echelon team, is having a long term top echelon QB, which I fully believe Willy is capable of being. The only problem is we did NOT foster a very good envronment for Willy to learn and improve as the year progressed, and we did NOT help him in achieving that goal this year. Rather than learn more and more as the year went on, he regressed with each and every game, and this started very early in the year, not half way through.

 

Willy had started the year off very impressively, using many quick hitters to help keep the offense in sync and set a tempo moving the offense doing the field. Eventually the offense started to struggle with this and got into a little bit of a funk and then found success throwing deep balls. Willy used this success to open up the field a bit more but rather than going back to the quick hitters, he stuck with the deep balls. At once stage he was even preaching them in interviews after games, even after a loss against Saskatchewan where overcomitting to the deep balls was pretty much the primary reason we lost, instead of saying we were a bit over ambitious and greedy on some plays, he basically said I don't regret going for it on 2nd and short, we were so close to connecting on a few of those and if they had connected it would have been a different game. Basically then he continues on and starts preeching that he just needs to get better at hitting the deep balls and the success will continue. This is the point that I really began to worry and this is the point that our offensive coordinator should of been crapping his pants too. Instead he must of been partially responsible for what Willy was preeching because each and every week under his tutelage Willy progressively got worse and worse and worse and worse at the quick hitters to the point where he would rarely even attempt to do them anymore. When he did attempt them, the play designed usually loooked like the receiver would of been able to make a huge gain, BUT the throw was usually that half second to full second late and allowed the defense to recover and limit the gain.

 

This is also where bringing in Romby Bryant started a huge decline in our offense, with him vs JFG, they thought they had a veteran speed demon and would be able to attack defenses in the back frequently. Instead the opposite happened, Bryant running wrong routes or Willy misjudging Bryants angle with him being a new/unfamiliar receiver. This meant trouble because Bryant wasn't just brought in to be a statue, he was brought in to be one of our big play receivers, and both O'Shea and Bellefool were doing to try their best to make sure Bryant worked out. Our offense actually got worse and worse the more Bryant played and the less JFG played. In the end the only thing this helped was ensure Willy would start staring down Bryant trying to get a grasp of what he's going to do, usually guessing wrong and losing more and more confidence in himself and the offense. As the confidence went down the quicker hitters again just get worse and worse the pocket awareness goes out the window and the QB starts moving randomly around in the pocket rather than gliding up or down the pocket to find better thowing angles. Also, I believe the 5-1 start was probably the worst thing that could of happened to us this year, along with the comebacks(some of which were more fluke than anything) that contributed to Willy getting an overblown degree of self confidence and not being able to think as clearly as when the season first started. Which along with Bellefool's messed up offensive mind, led to Willy throw more and more and more deepballs rather than concentrating on driving the ball down the field keepiing a rhythm and keeping the offense going. That might have been a reasonable or plausible strategy if we had any remote resemblence of a half decent run game to give our QB more time to throw. But, as well know Grigsby wasn't scaring anybody into putting any sort of extra coverage on him.

 

This over blown degree of self confidence could have and would have been held in check better, if he didn't such an extremely long leash. This leash would have been understandable if he had been an all star calibre QB for a couple years or if he wasn't having more difficulty with each progressing game. Sure he has good chance of becoming our long term starting QB, but not if we don't coach him properly or help him realize when he's banging his head against a brick wall and making things worse instead of better. Again, the problem with that 5-1 start along with his very good stats, were it put him into a trap of giving him such a long leash where at began to not matter how badly he played if he did anything remotely positive in any game, he would not have to worry about any QB taking some of his playing time. The point of having some or any of his playign time taking away isn't to put pressure on him or to make him worry about his job, it's to help acclimate him to the offense at a slower more realistic pace and give him the opportunity to see what the offense can or should look like from a different perspective.

 

We know the offensive line is NOT top tier or top echoelon, or even average for the matter, however they were good enough to allow Willy to put up hug enumbers early in the year when he was throwing quick hitters and not over thinking what he was doing, and with him doing this even with a crappy o-line and horrible running back, both our passing attack and running game was functioning. The more Willy was encouraged to try unreliable and risky throws, the more his play suffered, the more he began to overthink things, the more he began to panick in the pocket and the more of a beaten he took. End result was more and more interceptions, punts and frustration on our offense as a whole. This is in LARGE part on the offensive coordinator and the QB coach by not keeping hin in check, and not calling a better game, Bellefool was calling a game assuming Romby Bryant is Duron Carter or DeSean Jackson back there, which is sheer idiocy.

 

With all that said even with the bad habits he picked up from our terrible offensive coordinator, who also happened to do an amazing job of making Anthony Calvillo look like crap, Willy still overalll this year has performed admirably well. He has still kept his percentage up for most of the year and kept a relatively close TD to interception ratio and likely would of had pretty freaking amazing stats as a first year first string starting QB. I"m hoping it's not too late and he's not goign to commit to learning too much of what he's learned in the last two thirds of this year and turn these things into bad habits, if he does or if Bellefool remains our OC next year, he may end up cutting Willy's career a lot shorter than it would have been or should be. Currently Willy has hit a curve and has fallen off of it, I got no problem with letting him play, as I said already, he's pretty durable QB and even with the beating he may take, he'll likely survive. However despite what people are saying, he won't learn anythign positive from it under the tutelage of Bellefool, he may have success because of the situation and Calgary not giving a crap, but nothing much will be gained of it. Currently he looks to have fallen so far off the curve that he's both emotionally, physically and mentally drained, his release is about a quarter the speed it was when he started the year and there is a very high probability that he will take a beating that he could avoid if he was in a state that allowed him to better think and react on his feet and a very high probability that the game will be extremely boring. Marve on the other hand will make crap up as he goes along, won't give a crap what garbage Bellefool has taught him and will give us a very entertaining game. Given that the game is essentially meaningless and none of our QBs willl learn a thing from playing in it, I want Marve to play because I want to at least be entertained with some entertaining football on the last Bomber game of the year.

[Mr. Perfect]

 

Reilly with the Esks last year was pretty amazing last year, much like this year.

 

Not true in the least. Last year his completion percentage was under 60 percent, and he nearly threw 20 picks (18 to be exact). Yes he did finish second in yards passing with just over 4,200 yards, but when you consider that Drew Willy is just shy of 3,800 yards, coupled with the fact that he's missed a full game, plus halves against Edmonton and B.C., and that we still have a game to play, Willy would have thrown for more yards than Reilly last year.

 

Bottom line: Willy is exactly where he should be as a first year starter.

[gbill2004]

None of us said Willy sucks, which goes back to the point I made earlier about people being unable to read and communicate without making things up or assuming things they haven't even read. Very hard to discuss football when that's all people ever want to do here.

Reilly with the Esks last year was pretty amazing last year, much like this year.

Not just his stats but he continually made something out of nothign all year long and was a treat to watch. Sure they didn't want very much, but they lost 7 games by only 5 points or less and many of those games could of and some of them, should of(if not very getting screwed over by refs) went there way.

That being said, Reilly is a great example, because the biggest positive he has as a quarterback, much like Willy, is the fact that he is incredibly tough. Both of them can take a tremendous beating and it's exactly more of a surprise when they take a beating and do get injured. Most other QBs or football players for that matter, if they take a beating like Reilly took in 2013/2014 and Willy took this year, you expect them to get injured, these guys though it seems to take a real freak accident to injure either of them.

The above is precisely why even though i ranked Willy so low on the QB rankings in the other thread I still think he is one of the biggest assets to have as a QB in the CFL. Both his college and his pro career, he has had remarkably very few injuries, which means he can have a very long career IF he can continue to improve. One of the keys to building a long term top echelon team, is having a long term top echelon QB, which I fully believe Willy is capable of being. The only problem is we did NOT foster a very good envronment for Willy to learn and improve as the year progressed, and we did NOT help him in achieving that goal this year. Rather than learn more and more as the year went on, he regressed with each and every game, and this started very early in the year, not half way through.

Willy had started the year off very impressively, using many quick hitters to help keep the offense in sync and set a tempo moving the offense doing the field. Eventually the offense started to struggle with this and got into a little bit of a funk and then found success throwing deep balls. Willy used this success to open up the field a bit more but rather than going back to the quick hitters, he stuck with the deep balls. At once stage he was even preaching them in interviews after games, even after a loss against Saskatchewan where overcomitting to the deep balls was pretty much the primary reason we lost, instead of saying we were a bit over ambitious and greedy on some plays, he basically said I don't regret going for it on 2nd and short, we were so close to connecting on a few of those and if they had connected it would have been a different game. Basically then he continues on and starts preeching that he just needs to get better at hitting the deep balls and the success will continue. This is the point that I really began to worry and this is the point that our offensive coordinator should of been crapping his pants too. Instead he must of been partially responsible for what Willy was preeching because each and every week under his tutelage Willy progressively got worse and worse and worse and worse at the quick hitters to the point where he would rarely even attempt to do them anymore. When he did attempt them, the play designed usually loooked like the receiver would of been able to make a huge gain, BUT the throw was usually that half second to full second late and allowed the defense to recover and limit the gain.

This is also where bringing in Romby Bryant started a huge decline in our offense, with him vs JFG, they thought they had a veteran speed demon and would be able to attack defenses in the back frequently. Instead the opposite happened, Bryant running wrong routes or Willy misjudging Bryants angle with him being a new/unfamiliar receiver. This meant trouble because Bryant wasn't just brought in to be a statue, he was brought in to be one of our big play receivers, and both O'Shea and Bellefool were doing to try their best to make sure Bryant worked out. Our offense actually got worse and worse the more Bryant played and the less JFG played. In the end the only thing this helped was ensure Willy would start staring down Bryant trying to get a grasp of what he's going to do, usually guessing wrong and losing more and more confidence in himself and the offense. As the confidence went down the quicker hitters again just get worse and worse the pocket awareness goes out the window and the QB starts moving randomly around in the pocket rather than gliding up or down the pocket to find better thowing angles. Also, I believe the 5-1 start was probably the worst thing that could of happened to us this year, along with the comebacks(some of which were more fluke than anything) that contributed to Willy getting an overblown degree of self confidence and not being able to think as clearly as when the season first started. Which along with Bellefool's messed up offensive mind, led to Willy throw more and more and more deepballs rather than concentrating on driving the ball down the field keepiing a rhythm and keeping the offense going. That might have been a reasonable or plausible strategy if we had any remote resemblence of a half decent run game to give our QB more time to throw. But, as well know Grigsby wasn't scaring anybody into putting any sort of extra coverage on him.

This over blown degree of self confidence could have and would have been held in check better, if he didn't such an extremely long leash. This leash would have been understandable if he had been an all star calibre QB for a couple years or if he wasn't having more difficulty with each progressing game. Sure he has good chance of becoming our long term starting QB, but not if we don't coach him properly or help him realize when he's banging his head against a brick wall and making things worse instead of better. Again, the problem with that 5-1 start along with his very good stats, were it put him into a trap of giving him such a long leash where at began to not matter how badly he played if he did anything remotely positive in any game, he would not have to worry about any QB taking some of his playing time. The point of having some or any of his playign time taking away isn't to put pressure on him or to make him worry about his job, it's to help acclimate him to the offense at a slower more realistic pace and give him the opportunity to see what the offense can or should look like from a different perspective.

We know the offensive line is NOT top tier or top echoelon, or even average for the matter, however they were good enough to allow Willy to put up hug enumbers early in the year when he was throwing quick hitters and not over thinking what he was doing, and with him doing this even with a crappy o-line and horrible running back, both our passing attack and running game was functioning. The more Willy was encouraged to try unreliable and risky throws, the more his play suffered, the more he began to overthink things, the more he began to panick in the pocket and the more of a beaten he took. End result was more and more interceptions, punts and frustration on our offense as a whole. This is in LARGE part on the offensive coordinator and the QB coach by not keeping hin in check, and not calling a better game, Bellefool was calling a game assuming Romby Bryant is Duron Carter or DeSean Jackson back there, which is sheer idiocy.

With all that said even with the bad habits he picked up from our terrible offensive coordinator, who also happened to do an amazing job of making Anthony Calvillo look like crap, Willy still overalll this year has performed admirably well. He has still kept his percentage up for most of the year and kept a relatively close TD to interception ratio and likely would of had pretty freaking amazing stats as a first year first string starting QB. I"m hoping it's not too late and he's not goign to commit to learning too much of what he's learned in the last two thirds of this year and turn these things into bad habits, if he does or if Bellefool remains our OC next year, he may end up cutting Willy's career a lot shorter than it would have been or should be. Currently Willy has hit a curve and has fallen off of it, I got no problem with letting him play, as I said already, he's pretty durable QB and even with the beating he may take, he'll likely survive. However despite what people are saying, he won't learn anythign positive from it under the tutelage of Bellefool, he may have success because of the situation and Calgary not giving a crap, but nothing much will be gained of it. Currently he looks to have fallen so far off the curve that he's both emotionally, physically and mentally drained, his release is about a quarter the speed it was when he started the year and there is a very high probability that he will take a beating that he could avoid if he was in a state that allowed him to better think and react on his feet and a very high probability that the game will be extremely boring. Marve on the other hand will make crap up as he goes along, won't give a crap what garbage Bellefool has taught him and will give us a very entertaining game. Given that the game is essentially meaningless and none of our QBs willl learn a thing from playing in it, I want Marve to play because I want to at least be entertained with some entertaining football on the last Bomber game of the year.

Nice analysis. Essentially the early success of the deep ball ended up hurting Willy as the season went on.

[SmokinBlue]

 

 

Reilly with the Esks last year was pretty amazing last year, much like this year.

 

Not true in the least. Last year his completion percentage was under 60 percent, and he nearly threw 20 picks (18 to be exact). Yes he did finish second in yards passing with just over 4,200 yards, but when you consider that Drew Willy is just shy of 3,800 yards, coupled with the fact that he's missed a full game, plus halves against Edmonton and B.C., and that we still have a game to play, Willy would have thrown for more yards than Reilly last year.

 

Bottom line: Willy is exactly where he should be as a first year starter.

 

You're totally ignoring his 709 yards rushing, when the QB is a great rusher it's not nearly as essential that he has a percentage up the upper 60s. Also he did have a stretch in the middle of the year where his stats were pretty awesome.

REILLY, M 2013-08-02 EDM HAM 32 21 65.6 311 40 1 3.1 0 0.0 107.7 REILLY, M 2013-08-18 EDM TOR 46 35 76.1 511 51 3 6.5 0 0.0 133.5 REILLY, M 2013-08-24 EDM SSK 29 19 65.5 303 41 3 10.3 2 6.9 106.0 REILLY, M 2013-09-02 EDM CGY 35 16 45.7 246 43 4 11.4 2 5.7 83.8 REILLY, M 2013-09-06 EDM CGY 26 16 61.5 194 27 0 0.0 0 0.0 84.5 REILLY, M 2013-09-14 EDM WPG 25 16 64.0 196 32 3 12.0 0 0.0 128.1 REILLY, M 2013-09-20 EDM WPG 46 31 67.4 418 51 1 2.2 0 0.0 103.4 REILLY, M 2013-09-28 EDM TOR 10 6 60.0 80 20 1 10.0 1 10.0 77.1

 

Again though, I was going by his stats, was just going by how many times he made say wow when I was watching him play.

[SPuDS]

I'm really really really starting to HATE this coaching staff.

Considering how horrendous Willy has been the second half of this season, and how he's gotten progressively worse, I'm 100% convinced that Marve would give us a better chance to win.

Do we not want to end the season on a positive note?

Serious question: Is this your first year following the Bombers? Because the things you are suggesting are the exact things that have doomed the Bombers to failure at the QB and Coaching spots for years.

Honestly, this city might be suffering from it's worst and most irrational case of "backup QB envy" we've ever seen. We finally have a star in the making and we have multiple people clamoring to sit him for the the greenest backup we've trotted out there yet. It's like Bomber fans are addicted to throwing unproven quarterbacks into the fire and hoping for a miracle. Except this time we already have a good one! We don't have to ruin anymore young QBs people!!!! Just once we can let a young guy develop and JUST MAYBE he'll actually be ready when it's time to give him meaningful playing time. You know, like what Saskatchewan did with Drew Willy for us.

Unless the plan is to keep on trying new quarterbacks until we find one who is perfect every single game. In that case, sit Willy and let's try out Marve.

You're absolutely dead on. It can't have been that long that people have forgotten how this works. The backup QB envy around here, quite frankly, is disgusting and as a fan, I'm pretty embarrassed by our fanbase when they talk about this. Robert Marve, as much as I like him and think he's got the right tools in his toolbox, came into a game in garbage time and completed half his passes but ran around enough to make people stumble over themselves to hop on his bandwagon. It wasn't even that he played well, he just played DIFFERENT and people equated different to better because what Willy was doing wasn't working.

It's like people have forgotten that young quarterbacks, especially those saddled with a poor supporting cast, are going to go through ups and downs. Especially when that supporting cast is allowing said young quarterback to get demolished on a weekly basis. The comparison to Joey Elliott? Embarrassing. Joey Elliott, as much as I liked him, put two quality games on his resume. Drew Willy, on the other hand, was probably the favorite to win the MOP award through the first third of the season. Two very different situations.

The reality is this - Drew Willy is QB1 now and he will be QB1 next year. The point of this Saturday's game is to gain as much value from it as we can and the reps and experience for Willy are of more value to us than the reps and experience for Marve right now. If Willy was a 5 year veteran, everyone here would be right in their demands to see Marve start. But for all intents and purposes, Willy is a rookie. At least a rookie starter. He needs the reps, just like he needs to be able to be given the leash that Mike O'Shea has afforded him. Do I wish Willy had been pulled mid-game sometimes? Yeah. I get that concept, because sometimes taking a seat to collect yourself is what is needed. But with the starting job comes the first team reps in practice. The reps with your receivers, guys like Justin Wilson who need that chemistry to develop with their QB1 for next year. Going into next year on a positive note is important, but it's important to make sure it's positive all around, not just in the win column (which is basically one of the last things that matters at this point)

If anyone thinks that by having Marve start this week, it means anything for next year, they're sorely mistaken. Marve could throw for 400 yards and 5 touchdowns and all it means is that the media will have some ammunition for when they conjure up their articles this offseason about a QB controversy. Willy is still QB1 going into next year, he's earned the reps, he deserves the reps and even if he's dinged up, beaten down and it ends up in a big loss for us, it's still all part of the process we need to be prepared to go through as fans. Because the end result will be a properly developed star QB. Period.

Excellent synopsis Mike, bang on... Best explaination of this situation that ive read...