He made a lot of progress this past preseason. I know he played against 3rd and 4th stringers but the arm talent seems to be there and he has decent footwork in the pocket. He was drafted as a project and with time and reps could be at least a decent back up in the league if not more.
He's a backup. People always think the guy on the bench is good. Clipper fans think Cole Aldrich is good and should be playing.
Nobody is saying that he'd come in and dominate. However, what good does it do the team to keep him on the sidelines? Why even waste a draft pick on him in the first place?
But do we know Savage is better than Yates/Weeden? Yeah he has more upside, but he could have stunk it up more, especially coming off an injury.
Ok, so then you're essentially saying there is no sense in ever playing him…which then begs the question…why waste a 4th round pick on a QB you never plan on playing? If you don't think he has more ability than Weeden, then he should never have been on the roster in the first place.
That's how it's supposed to work. People complain that QBs aren't allowed to develop anymore. That they're forced into action way too soon when they should be holding a clipboard for a couple of years. This is especially true for someone like Savage who has the skills but played relatively little in college because he transferred twice. So when the Texans actually do what everyone advocates, drafting a project and developing them, people complain that we shouldn't be doing the thing that everyone said we should do two years ago when we drafted him. Everybody always wants us to draft a project QB and develop them, but nobody wants to wait for that to actually happen. The same thing is going to happen with Hackenberg and Cardale Jones. Like Savage, those are two guys that really need to sit for a couple of years. But fans will grow impatient and they'll probably play too early and the results won't be good. The plan wasn't to never play him. The plan was for him to sit for a couple of years and develop and then he'd get his chance after that. And they've been following that plan. The Packers drafted Aaron Rodgers in the first round and he really didn't play for 3 years. They had a plan and they followed it. Not that Savage is going to be Rodgers, but sometimes given Savage's limited college experience, it's probably better for him that the Texans follow that model.
I'm all for that, and that's all great - glad they were sticking to that plan - but that's not what is going on here. By IRing him, he can't practice (unless I'm wrong) with the team, which means no development. Also, things happen in the NFL, such as injuries, where development guys have to play. It's actually probably a decent way to grow more. Somebody like Savage, who is a development guy, should be the guy that is there to step in when you lose your top 2 guys - not 2 different street guys. It happened last year the way it should have... I'm not saying I don't get it. I do. I understand there's only so many roster spots. But, at the same time, look at how many guys we've brought in after the season started. Look at the decent players who are healthy scratches each week. I'm just saying, in all of that, there's not one spot for Savage, so you IR him? Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but as a fan, this is what we operate on.
Lol…sorry, but when you go through as many QBs as the Texans have gone through, it makes no sense to keep sitting him. Do you think Aaron Rodgers would have kept sitting on the sidelines if the Packers kept shuffling through 5 other QBs? Absolutely not. In fact, Id like to hear about another project QB that was continually kept on the sidelines despite the fact that his team was mowing through a number of other quarterbacks. Yes, the "plan" would be to sit Savage and let him learn on the sidelines…however, that "plan" only works when you're not down to Brandon Weeden after going through 6 QBs in two years. Also, did you know that it is actually okay to develop a QB by giving him some playing time during his second year? After all, he did get on the field during his rookie season, so there is no excuse to not give that to him during his second season.
The person the most pissed is probably Savage himself. He would have had a real opportunity this season. DD
I matched your hyperbole with my own. If OBie's biggest blunder as Texans HC is how he handled his third string QB in his second year, OBie is destined to be a HoF HC. This is more hyperbole for the reading impaired.
True that. Savage is/was always a long shot project. He played very little college ball and while he has the physical size and arm to run the offense BoB favors, he's yet to conclusively show that he's capable of being a backup QB much less a legit NFL starting QB. As such, I really had no expectations for him at all. Because of that I can't say that he's been "mishandled" or that his potential has been squandered because he was such a gamble to begin with.
