they said the same thing (lack of touch) about elway when he was younger. carr didn't seem to have problems with touch or having balls batted down at the line of scrimmage during an unbelievably productive senior season at fresno state. why try and fix something that isn't broken... again, can't manage the big things, so you focus on the small things.
you remember incorrectly; the pictures were taken july 24, 2002, before he'd even played his first preseason game.
It's probably the receiver's fault that he had balls batted. Or running backs. Or tight ends, probably. Whatever it was, it clearly has nothing to do with him. He is faultless.
No, it was: before he ever took an NFL snap before he ever took an NFL snap before he ever took an NFL snap before he ever took an NFL snap before he ever took an NFL snap before he ever took an NFL snap
again...if carr turns into elway, i'll apologize to you and to him. this whole, "well moon and elway and young had some bad seasons early" just doesn't resonate with me. in elway's 4th season,he was the starting QB for a super bowl team. he won the AFC with sammy winder (i believe) as his RB. i've said it before, i've never seen a guy put a team on his shoulders more than john elway. remember "The Drive?" remember what year that was?? they didn't have a sensational defense...they didn't have a kickass running game. He didn't have a pro bowl receiver. Elway was beyond dangerous, Ric. Carr isn't that. Please stop. i haven't seen anything like that from carr. not in a meaningless regular season game. yeah, i know...he doesn't always LOSE games for us (though, he sure helped a lot in that cause vs Tenn a week ago). but sometime, i'd like to see him WIN a game for us. especially if you're gonna keep comparing him to John Elway at this stage of his career.
I admit to having some doubts about Carr given his history here in Houston. I admit to disappointment at how he wilted in the Titans game when he had the perfect opportunity to make a huge statement with his play. I admit to having doubts about whether or not the years of pummelling and losing have sapped his confidence in his ability to succeed in this league. But this article really has me worried. The guy has been in the league for 4.5 years now and in addition to everything else that's wrong with Carr, they now have to work on his footwork? What's next? His throwing motion? How he holds the ball? How he lines up behind the center? How he hands the ball off? I don't mean to be critical here but if Kubiak has to completely reconstruct Carr after all this time, then Houston, do we ever have a problem. This is the type of thing I'd expect to see happen with a rookie QB like Vince Young and not a 4 year veteran QB like Carr who's being paid like a franchise player. It raises some major doubts about him being THE right guy. I have to wonder that in the end, when all is said and done, all Kubiak is doing is creating another version of Jake Plummer - a good to very good (at times) QB but one with flaws that keep him from delivering success.
Err, that wasn't a comparison to Elway. It was stating one example of a QB who had some things to overcome early in his career. There are lots of other examples, too.
why out of context. the entire defense of David Carr is that it's not his fault. when he fumbles, it's because someone else let him get tackled. when he takes a sack, it's always the OL's fault. when he throws an interception, it's the coach who was fired last year's fault. msn, that's the very context of all of this. it's partially why me and others get so frustrated with the guy.
Arguments? What arguments? You're laughing that a coaching staff thought Carr had a potential problem and was doing a weird drill to deal with it. Do you know how many other teams do those drills? Are they standard? Did it help Carr with whatever it was meant to help? What exactly are people arguing except trying to blame the previous coaching staff for Carr's mediocrity?
OH MY GOD!!! Why in the HELL did McNair stick with these bozos for 4 years??? I think all of the folks blaming Carr should instead be pointing fingers at McNair for being so fricking clueless...
And far more who started off sucking and continued sucking. Tim Couch. Akili Smith. Joey Harrington. Ryan Leaf. The list goes on and on. What exactly is the relevance (of either list)? Nothing. Carr is not any of those people - he's David Carr, and you have to look at him, and only him.
Because no one has said the batted balls weren't David's fault. Since DC did *not* have that history in Fresno State, and this laughable, ridiculous excercise was pulled out before he ever took an NFL snap, then it is a real reach to think that the ladders were employed "because he has a lot of batted balls" (since there as yet were none to be batted down). Yet, somehow, folks in the last page keep going back to that. And then saying, "yeah, they weren't DC's fault, either! Har, har!" Non sequitur.
The list of suckball quarterbacks you have here could be just as applicable here. The difference, however, is that bona fide NFL coaches and personnel guys gave up on on the ones you list, while one of the most highly regarded NFL minds with regards to QB and offense has given DC a vote of confidence.
MM, no one is universally excusing david carr. he's been awful far more often than he’s been good. the sparks of potential have been too few and far between. he makes too many poor decisions and he seems to lack pocket presence. his turnovers are alarming and he does seem immature. after last year, about the only positive you could hang on carr was that he was quite obviously a tough son of a b****. at the same time, the team had glaring problems building a franchise around him. they hired a defensive-minded head coach; they handed him the job and never even thought about bringing in a competent back-up that could push him; they failed for four consecutive years to adequately address the dearth of talent along the offensive line; he never played with even an average tight end, nor did he and johnson have a competent second WR. while DD was a productive back, james allen, jonathan wells and stacey mack were not. the defense got progressively worse, incapable of forcing turnovers or pressuring the QB. all these are legitimate factors in carr's development. the point of bringing up moon, aikman, young, etc., is to demonstrate that even truly great QBs still need a good-to-great team around them to succeed. many fans believed if the texans could find someone to build just such a team around carr, that maybe, just maybe, his career could be salvaged. that belief was confirmed by gary kubiak, who believes carr is a wealth of untapped potential. he staked his entire reputation, as well as his head coaching career, on it when he had no obligation whatsoever to do so. so any and everything you say about carr, 2002-2005, is probably wholly accurate. but you're carrying those feelings into this year, and this year, like it or not, is carr and this team going back to square one, starting completely over. things had been so deeply fubar'ed by the last regime that kubiak and company had no choice. and the thing is: you're stuck with carr; we all are. so i'm pulling for him because i don't want this team to suck even one second longer than it has to during this rebuild. and so far, carr's been much improved, and he's finally being coached by a competent offensive mind who seems to know how to punch his buttons and maximize what he can do well. now kubiak has to continue that growth and go get a team around him. it will take at least another year, perhaps 2, but patience is a necessity. in the meantime, you can choose to either regurgitate your feelings the past 4 years regardless of the results, or you can start to appreciate the changes kubiak is making in carr's game. i think the glass if half full; i see reason for optimism; i think carr, under kubiak, can and will be a competent, aikman-like QB in the nfl.
Excellent post. But in my observation of this never-ending conversation, herein lies the crux: a vast majority of fans are unwilling to accept this. To most, the Texans are not starting over and this is Carr's fifth year--"period".
i'm treating him like a rookie qb... with a shorter leash. carr's been diplomatic on the issue, but you can read between the lines - he's NEVER been coached like this before. if that makes me an apolgist, so be it. i've been wrong before. but i trust gary kubiak. i think a lot of tunes are going to change over the next five weeks; the opponents get easier and the team now has 8 games under its belt in the new system.
...and most folks refuse to do so and will criticize you for doing so. ...and to most, it does. I'm an "apologist", too (even though I'm not). ...that just provides another excuse for people to point to Carr's continued mediocrity. And hey, they might be right--he might be mediocre. But I agree with the Texans' decision to see whether or not there's something more there.
