That's exactly right. I'm watching his game now, and I'm very impressed. He got jobbed out there a little bit today. Generally a lot of his incomplete passes, he put right in a spot for the receiver to catch the ball, but sometimes they just didn't come up with it. Right away on 3rd & 10 he's throwing the deep 15 yard out to Andre Johnson with good outside placement and a nice tight spiral. This is a 35 yard throw. Ball is a little high but catchable especially for someone like Andrew and he just doesn't come down with it. He had a pass batted at the line of scrimmage. He throws a nice 30 yard ball on an out with some juice on it, right where the WR was going to get it or nobody was, but the coverage was real tight and the receiver couldn't come up with it. He rolls out to his right and belts out a really impressive 37 yard ball on the run that goes right into Andre Johnson's hands and he drops it. Has another ball batted down, this one a WR screen pass, not much he could do there. On a 1st & 10 with 14:20 remaining in the 4th quarter, after his big scare with the Mike Peterson would-be INT, he throws a nice dart up the field to Jacoby Jones, a little low and to the side but catchable and dropped. The ball placement may have been a function of Jacoby not running his route right, now as I look at it, still catchable though. On one of the weirdest plays I've ever seen he had his arm hit as he threw but the ball clearly was thrown forward by him about 7 yards, but the officials never blew it dead and James Sanders ran it back for a touchdown while literally every other player from both team started trotting off the field while the special teams units trotted on. Both teams got called for illegal substitutions for trotting players on during a live play, which turned into offsetting spot fouls, which nullified the touchdown but still upheld the fumble and recovery by Atlanta. The replay officials upheld the ruling of a fumble. They had Mike Pereira on to give his comments and he was basically in no uncertain terms saying I have no idea what they saw because to me Yates clearly had control of the ball and began moving it forward before it got jarred loose and that's an incomplete pass. Took a couple of sacks. With 1:53 let in the half he takes a sack because he just didn't feel the linebacker coming in off a delayed blitz. Tough play, really well designed and executed delay blitz, got all the OLs to commit to the 5 other guys that were rushing on the play and it was tough for a T.J. Yates with his eyes down the field to recognize that the Mike was coming in off the green dog blitz. At about 13:41 to go in the 3rd he executes a play-action and gets his head and eyes around up the field but the problem is Eric Winston has been beaten quite ridiculously by John Abraham who smacks Yates pretty much the moment he gets his head around. I don't blame Yates for that at all and actually look at it as a positive that he held onto the ball, because that was a HARD hit and it was too early to be legitimately expected. I thought Moose brought up a good point that if you're the running back executing that play fake you have to know not to meet the QB at the mesh point and to make sure Abraham doesn't get to Yates that quickly. Ricky often cheated on his play fakes so that he could get right into his blocking assignments. This wasn't a sack but on the game-winning touchdown drive he's rolling to his right and the option he probably wanted got mauled in the backfield, the other two deeper options were WELL covered, and he did the right thing pulled the ball in and ran as hard as he could 2 yards on 2nd & 5 setting up a doable 3rd & 3. I really counted 6 misses. On 1st & 10 with 10:37 to go in the 1st, he's throwing the skinny post and he just gets too much air under it, goes over Andre's head. Right at the 2 minute mark before the half he's dropping back and has pressure right in his grill right away, throws off balance to the back in the flat and just shoots it over his head. I'm not sure if he was trying to throw it away or not but I don't think he was I think he just sailed it in a panic. They get the ball back and he's throwing a pass on 1st & 10 with 44 seconds left, and really Sean Weatherspoon cheats on his zone assignment and begins looking toward where Yates wanted to go over the short middle, breaks up the pass. Yates should have seen him, but at the same time the reason Weatherspoon didn't come up with that ball was because of the quickness of Yates' release and how quick he gets the ball out. Any slower than Yates' abnormally quick trigger, and that's probably picked off. On a 3rd & 7 he's trying to hit his inside receiver on a little jerk route and I don't think he liked the coverage, you could see him hesitate as he went to throw it, and so he turfed it at the receiver's feet. You'd like him to maybe extend the play a little and/or find a different option. On the play Andre Johnson got hurt, this is a play-action roll to the left which is why I keep harping on how Barkley can throw while rolling left and right. When you can roll either way it gives defenses something else to think about. He gathers himself and releases a deep ball but it's kind of a full 60 yard moonshot and it looks like multiple defenders in the area chasing it down with Andre nowhere in sight because he pulled up lame during the throw. What's interesting about this throw is how deep it is and how none of the defenders could get to it. I'm going to go ahead and guess that when T.J. pulled around to throw it he saw defenders and he purposely overthrew it so that either Andre Johnson was going to speed to the thing and make a ridiculous play, or nobody was going to get to it. So it was actually a safe throw than it looks at first. During the ball flight Andre crumples to the ground and Sanders keeps chasing it and realistically with the ball placement if Andre had kept running then it would have been an even situation between Sanders and Andre on who would have gotten it. Dominique Franks and Dunta Robinson weren't quite in position to get to the ball. The biggest mistake by far came on 2nd & 12 with about 14:30 remaining in the 4th quarter. He throws a pick to Mike Peterson who brings it back to the house, but the play is called back on a defensive hold on the other side of the field. The good news for Yates is that the hold was on the guy he wanted. He read the middle then progressed over to his left receiver Walter working against Dunta Robinson. Robinson was in the middle of mugging the guy about 8-9 yards past the line of scrimmage so that's when Yates flips his had back to his right to try and hit his leak option, covered by Mike Peterson. He just misses, throws the ball too far inside, needed to lead him outside more. Peterson intercepts it but the play is nullified. But what was great was, on that very same drive, Yates didn't let the play rattle him and that ended up being the drive where they scored the game-winning touchdown in the 4th quarter. He had some nice throws and plays during the game. He had a 20 yard pass to Andre Johnson on the dig which was a great throw even though I think at first glance some people would think it was high and Andre did a good job going up for it, but what you'd have to see on the replay is that there was a linebacker directly in the passing lane and Yates had to clear that linebacker in order to get it to Andre, so it was a good touch throw that came out a little high out of necessity but still very catchable and hence it was caught. Then there's that roll-out in the 1st quarter I mentioned that goes right into Andre's bread basket and dropped. He executed a nice screen with great timing (was a good screen executor at UNC) on 3rd & 12 and it converts and gains 28 yards. Very next play is the deep 50 yard pass to Andre that is on all the highlight reels. He gets his foot stepped on by the Center but recovers, executes the play-action, rolls to his right, gets his shoulders square and releases a ball that goes about 47 yards through the air...I do remember referring to him as the most accurate deep ball thrower in that 2011 Draft...perfect placement for Andre to go get it. He caps off the drive with the 3 yard touchdown to Dreessen. You know what I love about that? I kept talking about his quick release and his execution, how quick he sees things and throws decisively. This is a ball he released as he was backing up because he had what he wanted and wanted to get that ball out as quick as possible. Good for a touchdown. He had another super impressive play where he felt the pressure, worked the pocket and releases a ball while scrambling good for a nice little 9 yard gain, very impressive. And on the next down he's got a guy right in his face off the roll and he gives that same little move Matt Barkley did against Notre Dame on the roll, faking a guy out of his shorts...but fake or not he still had more people chasing him and nobody open so he throws it away, lives to fight another day. First pass of the second half, play-action mechanically sound (actually perfect) and he throws a nice dart up the middle to Andre Johnson for 22 yards. At about 1:27 left in the 3rd quarter on 2nd & 15 he throws a nice well placed out route to Jacoby Jones that would have gained 9 yards but right at the catch point the DB interfered and was flagged for it. On 3rd & 9 in the red zone on the game-winning touchdown drive he had a really nice scramble where I would swear he gained all 9 of the necessary yards but the refs said he was down just shy of the sticks, which set up an easy 4th & inches conversion with Foster who ended up with the touchdown. What kind of sucked about the play calling is they were obviously trying to call things a little conservatively at times and so what would happen is they'd run on 1st and 2nd down, not gain much, and then Yates doesn't get the chance to throw until it's 3rd & 10, 3rd & 9, 3rd & 12. A few times he had 3rd & 4 or 3rd & 5 and he converted those. I thought it was a good overall day. Better even than I expected. He was really challenging the defense up the field in this game. I didn't see his work in the 2nd half against the Jaguars but I saw the numbers and thought maybe Yates was falling into the trap he would sometimes get into in college of throwing too many short dinks and dunks. But in this game he really did try some nice big throws and he connected on some big ones, generally threw with pace and a lot of accuracy. Part of the reason I like Matt Barkley so much is he reminds me a lot of Yates but without as high a bad decision percentage, and I think a little more accuracy.
Stronger Arm. Read defenses better. Throw better under pressure. Throw a better deep ball. Oh and yea, a great commander and leader. But yea other then those, they can be considered similar
Pfft, he's not as good an athlete. Pat will make every throw. Yates played this year, and I don't think really helped his stock much.
What a game he had today. He outperformed Andy Dalton and I think he's the second best looking rookie QB in the league today, behind only Cam Newton. With 2:33 remaining, down by 6 with no timeouts on his own 20 yard line, Yates executes a 14 play, 80 yard TD drive to win the game...IN Cincinnati. While watching in the bar I kept thinking if this game gets to within one-score in a final drive situation then T.J. Yates is going to show exactly what I saw so many times his senior season at UNC...the fact that he was probably the best executor of 2 minute, final clutch drives in the entire Draft. Sure enough, he showed exactly that.
At some point we really are going to have to discuss the possibility of trading for Matt Schaub in the off season. Each win with Yates under Center brings the Texans one step closer to dumping Schaub. It's not necessarily just a knee-jerk reaction, or ridiculously premature declaration of Mission Accomplished on a guy I liked. That's part of it, but what I really am uncomfortable with on Matt Schaub if I am the Texans (or the Dolphins), is the fact that he can't stay healthy. The Texans were trying to make the playoffs in 2008, but Schaub kept getting hurt and they kept losing games without him there. Now, they're in the middle of another playoff run, and again Schaub gets hurt and is out for the season. Let's pretend the Texans keep right on rolling through to the playoffs, and even make a little noise in the playoffs...at what point do you really look at the situation and say I can't trust that I can enter a season with Matt Schaub as my starter, everyone working on getting chemistry with Matt Schaub, and have him not get hurt? At some point you've got to decide that you might be better off having Yates be the top guy in camp, the leader, the one everyone is trying to get chemistry with...because I can trust that he's going to be there for us in December. Again, still early to be talking about this...but sooner or later, it's going to be a discussion.
Loved seeing Yates on that final drive. As a starter he has now beat the Falcons and the Bengals, not bad. With games at home against Carolina and Tennessee, and a road game against Indy, good chance he wins out.
If Yates keeps up his play, Houston is getting themselves a high draft pick if they want it. Either by trading Yates or Schaub.
More likely Schaub than Yates IMO. Schaub can't stay healthy, and I think Yates' unheralded beginnings remind Gary Kubiak of himself.
That's what I was thinking as well. Schaub is 30, and can never stay healthy. If Yates keeps it up, you have to think about getting something for Schaub while you still can.
Seems like jumping the gun to put that much on Yates at this early stage, but he held off a very good Jaguars defense in his first action of the year, beat a playoff-contending Falcons last week, and now beat a playoff-contending Bengals this week. And if you saw that situation he was placed in today with 2:33 left and no timeouts needing to go 80 yards for the touchdown or lose the game...I mean for a rookie it was super impressive. Andre Johnson didn't even play today.
I agree it's too early, hence why I said if he keeps it up. So far, it's hard not to be impressed, especially after yesterday, pulling off a game winning drive without Andre Johnson.
I'm not a fan of Shaub. I think he's good, but not great and there are a few prospects in this draft which I believe have a chance to be great. As for Yates, that was a great catch by CK. He found him before anybody else here did. I scouted him a bit after CK posted those videos of him and agreed that he was a very good prospect. I thought he had the potential to be one of those late round QBs who becomes a very good starter and I haven't seen any reason to change that assessment.
I want some pats on the back to damn it! I thought the same way about Yates prior to CK posting about it. I actually received flak for saying I thought Yates was a 2nd round talent!!! Lol, JK. I like schuab, outside of injuries not sure how one can't.
Bill Polian says they were getting ready to take Yates in the same round that Houston took him but the Texans got him before they could. Asks, "Should we have taken him a round earlier? Yes, without a question." http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...s-caldwells-job-is-safe-almost-drafted-yates/ I find that interesting just because of all the info I dug up on Yates being a lifelong Colts fan, big time Peyton Manning fan, having been to Manning Camp something like 3 or 4 times...and how I matched that up to how Yates plays on the field and how much he seems to imitate Manning in his embrace of the details.
Not to get nitpicky, but I wrote the following post on December 7th and according to Advanced Search the first time you ever said Yates' name was in your reply a few posts later where you say you also like Yates a lot. http://www.thephins.com/forums/show...nd-them-boys&p=1355733&viewfull=1#post1355733
Was it that they would have drafted Yates had they not drafted Dalton? Or were they ready to draft Yates even after drafting Dalton?
Just this: "Had we not taken Andy Dalton in the 2nd round, the next guy we had our eye on was TJ Yates. We really liked him coming out."
I meant I liked him before your post, not that I posted about him. Yates wasn't something that you convinced me of. Anyways, I was just joking. The only thing that matters is we failed to get him. Shame.
Almost makes me wonder how different this year would have been had the Colts taken Yates. Would they be more willing to pass on Luck or not even in the position to take him?
Ah I get ya. Yeah you did make it clear in your reply that you'd had your eye on him a while. And you even brought out the words "2nd round". Kudos.
