I don't know what "other guy" you're talking about but yeah, I'm excited with Clemens too... been high on him since the first day I saw him at TC in August of '06. I read an intersting story article on Clemens in the Star-Ledger a while back. It seems out in Oregon, one of Clemens' neighbors used to ride down the road past the Clemens farm occasionally and see clouds of dust rising from the plowed fields on the farm. It was in the fall, and twisters at that time of year were rare, so curiously, he pulled over to see what was causing the cloud of dust. There was Kellen, getting ready for football season, with a John Deere-sized tractor tire chained to his backside by a homemade harness he had made from an old horse harness. He was running around the dirt field towing that heavy tractor tire. You gotta love stories like that about him....
Yeah, Clemens is more interesting to me as a young QB than anybody since Ken O'Brien. He's tough and gritty but needs work on his decision-making and accuracy. I think it's a coin-flip at this point whether he makes it but the upside is probably a high-caliber big game QB.
After the Fins game I was watching the SNY post-game stuff with Ray Lucas and Adam Schein. Lucas was pounding the table on Clemens, even saying "the Jets might be set for the next 10 years" with this guy. He's displaying toughness (that blindside shot he took was horrific) and a lot of awareness and leadership. He almost reminds me of a Brett Favre kinda guy... durable, unafraid, good leader, great arm, etc. I'll tell you, give this guy even a slightly better O-line and another half-second in the pocket and look out. Of course, a really speedy, Jerry Rice-type wideout wouldn't hurt either. I love the way he stretched the field on the Dolphins... Justin McCareins no less! At least we don't have to watch opposing teams stack the box like we had with Pennington.
I don't get where all this confidence in Clemens is coming from. He has me more worried than excited at this point. His pocket presence and accuracy leave a lot to be desired thus far. I really want to like this guy, but he hasn't got me very excited yet. Luckily he's only going into his 6th career start so there's plenty of time/room for improvement.
I think you just answered your own question! I think him getting all this experience in the last half of this year is going to serve us very well going into '08.
I'm optimistic about Clemens. I think he's had as good a pocket presence as can be expected for a newbie who has already taken a lot of hits and sacks. His accuracy is an issue, as it was last summer, and his tendency to hold on to the ball too long is also something he has to work on. I tend to think that some of that is due to the game not slowing down for him yet- he thinks he has more time back there than he really has. The playcalling has been suspect, and the running game very inconsistent, so those factors havent helped him any. It's not like he stepped into an ideal situation. I am looking forward to seeing him have a good game this week against a suspect browns defense.
Don't forget how young he is. He was 22 when drafted him. He turned 23 that summer ('06). He's 24 1/2 now and will be 25 this coming June. He's got a lot on his plate and demonstates a hell of a lot of maturity at this point, IMO. I don't know, people keep bringing up accuracy, I keep hearing it as a knock, but I really don't know where most of that's coming from. There were some passes on Sunday that were deep and right on the money. How about that game in which Coles and McCareins dropped multiple passes? They looked pretty catchable to me. The one INT on Sunday was the result of being rushed and throwing off his back foot, I think.... can't quite remember. He does hold it a fraction of a second too long sometimes, but we've all seen him get rid of the ball when he knows it too (how about that left-handed pass?), unlike watching Pennington, who used to hold it too long, then do something really rookie with it instead of get rid of it, which almost always led to a turnover or worse, like a fumble and score. He's more mobile than we've seen in a long time... not afraid to get out of the pocket and go for it. He looks like a guy who can think outside the box too, which I think is an absolute must for any potential great QB. He stares down a receiver to some degree, but most new QBs do that and I do see some improvement there, however small. He's not afraid to spread the ball around, which is definate threat and he handled the gadgets pretty well for the limited number of starts he's had. But the one refreshing, glaring thing that I DON'T see in him that used to drive me absolutely nuts with Pennington is, I see no Chinese Firedrills when things start deteriorating, no panic, no Deer-In-The-Headlights syndrome. At 24 years of age this kid has terrific poise, IMO and that will only inprove. So yeah, I guess you could say I'm pretty high on this kid for the future of our franchise.
You bring up a good point about the drops that I unintentionally omitted. Clemens success would have been much greater this season if his WRs had held on to the ball, beginning with the McC drop in Baltimore. But i have seen him misfire on a number of throws, and i recall standing out at tc one day watching him and Chad practice the EZ fade pass. he never came close to CP's accuracy on that throw, and hasnt made it work during the regular season games either. But he has kept his ints down, which is good, and the play against Miami where he was stripped and it was returned for a TD was all on Baker not picking up the blitz, even though KC moved him to the right spot where the blitzer would be coming from.
Okay, thanks. Thanks for reminding me on the Baker thing. As far as the misfiring, he's going to make mistakes. For the most part, the one important thing to me is, if there's no play there, he gets rid of the ball, which is more than I can say for Pennington, who'd eat it and take the sack.
He made the fade work against Baltimore on the TD to Baker. It was a harder pass than Chad throws, but right on target - nobody but Baker had a shot at it.
