Reading this made me happy! There is hope and light at the end of the tunnel! Yates is the real deal and will surprise a lot of people! What a blessing in disguise!
The Texans are lucky to have two Tom Brady's as their 2nd and 3rd stringer in Leinart and now Yates. Very lucky.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/36vRZG9ntgc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Uploaded by ckparrothead on Feb 7, 2011 One of the most underrated quarterbacks in the 2011 NFL Draft class is T.J. Yates of North Carolina. He played in a difficult-to-master pro style system under John Shoop and is a four-year starter. Not unlike Jason Campbell at Auburn, it took until his senior season for everything to click for Yates. Prior to 2010, T.J. had been prone to making too many bad decisions. In 2010, after his third straight year attending Manning Camp, Yates really settled in and embraced the nuances of the position, allowing the offense to work for him and picking his moments to make big plays. If you were to watch his senior season alone, you come away thinking he's nothing less than a mid to early round quarterback prospect. He shows lively feet in his setup, perfect backfield mechanics, near-perfect throwing mechanics, the intangibles to run an offense and keep everything running smoothly, the ability to use his voice and cadence to draw a defense off sides, the arm to make every throw in the playbook, and accuracy at all distances. He has mastered the play-action passing game, and specializes in displaying perfect accuracy and touch on his deep verticals. It is no coincidence that at Manning Camp when the attending players had to teach portions of the game to little kids, he was put in charge of the deep ball. He owns it, he perfects it, he cares about it. He is also the best time management and do-or-die 2-minute drill quarterback in the Draft. He is a player that compares favorably to Chad Pennington, Trent Green and/or Peyton Manning, because of his dedication to the nuance of the position, and ability to process information quickly while maintaining full command of every aspect of an offense. His weaknesses as a Draft prospect include a tendency to check the ball down and favor throws at short distances. In today's NFL, the best quarterbacks master the use of the short middle in the passing game, but Yates bordered on over-use, and did not often put his arm on display by throwing the 20 to 35 yard rocket ball. Most of what he did at North Carolina in 2010 involved throwing the ball 10 to 20 yards through the air, or 45+ yards through the air on the deep play-action. The intermediate and perimeter-based rocket throws were missing from his arsenal. In this NFLPA Game showing, he favored the deeper throws in June Jones' Run & Shoot offense, and showed good accuracy. He does not possess jaw-dropping size (just under 6'4" and 221 lbs) or physical tools, therefore I would not expect the game to come quickly for him. He should not start as a rookie. The game tends to come more quickly to players whose size and physical skills make them bigger than the game. However, if he can begin to handle the speed of the game, his dedication to the nuance of the position and running an offense, along with his ability to process a lot of information quickly, could make him a surprise elite player at the next level, not unlike a Trent Green (who was drafted 222nd overall in 1993).
Sorry...I'm just scouring the internet trying to find anything positive about Yates I can. The views in these posts do not reflect my own, as I have not seen Yates in action personally (other than today). Although, I did like his first drive. He seemed excited, but calm enough...all things considered.
I'm actually more optimistic about Yates's future than I was about Leinart. I think Yates will look to throw the ball down the field more, but will likely make far more mistakes. Hopefully Kubiak can put a game plan around Yates to limit the mistakes.
When they look back on the 2011 season, they won't be saying, "Well the Raiders finished 6-10 but they were sure better than the 10-6 Texans who won the AFC South and hosted their first playoff game." They'll be saying, "The Houston Texans won double digits for the first time and hosted the franchise's first playoff game...the first playoff game in Houston in nearly 20 years." That's it. They won't even mention the other teams that didn't make the playoffs...except maybe the Colts if they go 0-16. In other words, all that matters is the result.
Yeah the absolutely blew their future for a guy that can't seem to figure out that interceptions are bad and touchdowns are good. But he has done a good job setting up Janikowski since he has got there so that is a good thing. The Oakland Raiders....We give out $7 million a year to our punter and to our kicker. - Commitment to excellence -
Also I think it's great the Raiders only had to give up a 1st and 2nd rounder for Palmer since he only ties up about $17.5 million per year over the last 3 years of his contract. He's a bargain at twice the price.
Yates was a great draft pick because he was already familiar with our system. Kubiak obviously saw something in him to talk Wade into letting him have a draft pick to get him. But let's get real. He is a 5th round rookie. Just because he is better than the QB's that the Colts and the Jags have doesn't mean we will win games.
Instead of playing the scout team D, kubiak should just throw our front seven at yates. See what the kid is made of. If he can survive watt, barwin,smith, cody and cushing he can survive anything. We have to keep believing otherwise why even bother watching the games ? When the raiders lost campbell, before trading for carson, I remember this one raiders fan screaming for troy smith! Troy Smith?
I liked Yates in the preseason, he was more impressive than Leinart. He is fiery and you can tell he has a competitive spirit. I dont think he's excited and not intimidated by this unlikely opportunity. It will be up to Kubes to help keep that excitement under control to cut down on the risks and mistakes. He'll need to mature faster than expected but I think he has the right personality to take on this challege.
I wanna be optimistic about Yates but he is a raw rookie having to grow up real fast in the nfl. My heart wants me to say that Yates will lead us to playoff victories but my logical side knows its a looooooooooooong shot. Please do good Yates...
guy you know absolutely nothing about tj yates. so foh. tat fluke loss to the raiders because your punk ass owner croaked will be long forgotten... and lol at carson plamer.. how many ints is he throwing for you guys..
None of the things you are saying are bad things. Janikowski kicked 6 FGs and Lechler had an 80 yard punt. Special Teams make a difference.
I had no expectations going into this game. Watching Leinart dump off the ball so much that Foster was starting to have to break tackles behind the LOS as soon as he caught it made me want to cry. When Yates came in and gave us a valiant 2-minute drill effort that frankly I haven't even seen this year from Schaub, I had renewed hope. Then the second half happened; must have been one spectacular demotivational speech on the part of Kubiak, but in retrospect maybe that's what this game was meant to be, as vanilla a showcase of a new QB as possible. Now, with a new QB on our hands, I will enter the next game just as I did this one: with no expectations. Let's give the kid (geez I'm getting old, 27 in December!) a shot before we judge him one way or the other ok? If nothing else, it makes for more captivating television than watching us steamroll everyone 35-7. And it's much better than having little chance at winning, as it had been every year before this one.
