Saturday, August 12, 2006

Are you ready San Diego?

It’s NFL football season again. It’s Bolts time, and I’m going to go out on a limb.

It is my opinion that Drew Brees is an excellent quarterback and, more, that he is an outstanding young man. His work ethic and his dedication to the game of football and to his team are above reproach. He is smart, personable and a fine leader. I’m sorry to see him leave San Diego and I believe that New Orleans has gotten itself a fine quarterback.

That being said, I also believe that A. J. Smith is really, really smart and that he just does not make dumb mistakes. I suspect that he knows exactly what he has and what he is doing with the Chargers.

Brees simply never had a reliable long ball threat. He improved it, and that is greatly to his credit as it took great dedication and hard work to do so. But too many long passes were completed because the receiver was so wide open that he was able to adjust to a poorly thrown pass. Without arm strength Brees was not able to reliably throw on the run, nor when under pressure and unable to plant his body. Not enough to make him, by any means, a bad quarterback; just enough to make him a little too easy to defense.

Philip Rivers has a rifle for an arm and a Cray computer for a brain. He can throw long, he can throw on the run, he can throw with his arm while falling backwards, and he can reliably hit his target while doing all of that. I am predicting that Rivers is going to surprise a lot of people. This guy is simply no rookie. I think A.J. Smith knows that.

We won’t really know until September, but tonight we get our first peek. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited.

Are you ready for some football?

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