Probably not unique, and might smell to some as homerism/defending Eli, but some on BBI would know I've been critical of the big guy when he messes up.
Reasoning - his mechanics look all off. Throws don't come out right. He used to have a few of these balls a game, as just a normal by-product of the way Eli plays. But now we're looking at a lot more of them, it seems like just about every throw Eli makes is over or under thrown, or behind receivers on short passes. Does a 13 year vet suddenly have mechanical issues? When that 13 year vet also has Archie and Peyton Manning in his family, I'd say no - if this was just tinkering by the staff I think Eli would've figured it out by now.
His pocket presence is definitely impacted; while I couldn't blame him, given the lack of protection, over the years he's done pretty well hanging in there and moving around when the pocket around him collapses (he's certainly had enough practice). Now we're seeing him throw the ball away a lot more frequently than he used to. Is he scared? I'd doubt it, given how long he's hung in with as bad or worse protection.
My guess - Eli, trying to protect his iron man streak and us from Nassib, is playing with a bruised shoulder or ribs, and his throws are all off. In an attempt to keep the injury from worsening, he's dumping the ball more quickly than normal. And after he took a couple of hits last night, the throws looked noticeably worse.
To me, Eli's always been a mercurial passer, making some throws where you'd say 'oh, c'mon man!' and wish he could take them back, while also hitting these extremely small windows that had you thinking 'how the hell did he fit it in there?'. Now, with his accuracy impacted, it seems like he can't make the tight throws, and the cover 2 coverage makes it impossible for him to get anywhere.
Does it sound unreasonable? Not trying to make excuses for Eli, it could just be bad protection and reverting to poor form, but it really doesn't look like the usual Eli out there, and if there's one thing he's been, it's consistent with his inconsistency.
This is as poor a stretch of football I've seen from Eli in a long, long time and it's very discouraging.
That's the thing, though - this bad OL isn't something that just popped up. He's been good the past couple of years, with worse protection and fewer targets.
If he can't get healthy, our season is shot to pieces.
So glad we have Ryan Nassib...
Through 5 games this year, he's regressed badly. Certainly reasonable to ask this question.
People are getting on Tye for missing the seam pass last night, but Eli's throw was high. And missing a wide open OBJ on the deep corner was bad too - Eli's made that throw 80% of the time or so the last 2 years
The alternative side if he isn't hurt isn't good!!!
Not saying we can't still win with Eli, just saying age might be a factor.
Not saying we can't still win with Eli, just saying age might be a factor.
This is entirely possible too, but he looked much sharper in the preseason. It could be a combo of both injury and age.
That means bad footwork (always the first thing to look at with him) and throws that are off schedule, which are always going to look worse.
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dude is about to be 36 years old. There once was a time that that would have meant we'd say he was "over the hill", but we seem to have forgotten that sometimes a QB's skills can begin to diminish past 35.
Not saying we can't still win with Eli, just saying age might be a factor.
This is entirely possible too, but he looked much sharper in the preseason. It could be a combo of both injury and age.
And the first two games of the regular season.
He is flinching, he has happy feet, he throwing some awful passes.
There are far too many signs that point towards injury rather than just "he's getting old"
I'm not going to dismiss a possible injury, but not disclosing injuries violates NFL rules. Frankly, aside from the one bad pop against Washington, he has not been hit "hard." Hit yes, some, but no real blasts.
Seems like he is hiding an injury.
Holy shit.
Blindside pressure is brutal. He hears footsteps whether its there or not and he gets panicky after a couple seconds.
This is as poor a stretch of football I've seen from Eli in a long, long time and it's very discouraging.
My brother said the same thing about the hit in the Redskins game. Does anyone have a clip of it? I havent seen it on replay (was in stadium but dont recall it). He definitely looks concussed lately.
oldutican : 1:09 pm : link : reply
to a player of Eli's status. Plus, aren't their penalties for doing that?
Injury lists are designations intended to say which players are not likely to play or are dealing with injuries that may keep a player out.
If Eli is confident he'll play and he's not being actively treated for an injury, the team is not under obligation to disclose it. Now if he's receiving treatment for something considered an injury or if he's gone for x-rays or an MRI, the team is supposed to declare that.
The Game Status Report provides clubs and fans with an accurate description of a player’s availability for the club’s next game. Teams must notify the league, their opponent, local and national media, and the league’s broadcast partners of the status of their injured players by 4 p.m. ET the day before their next scheduled game.
Could easily be correct. He doesn't trust his OL not to let that happen again.
I've noticed, since about 2012, that his his throws are either slightly behind or behind in some cases. Now that's obviously not all throws, but many more than you'd expect. Even last night on the slants to OBJ, he was reaching back a bit.
Now, that combined with the shaky OL play, and I think you have the answer. Mechanics not right, and balls are now off the target more.
I do believe Eli will get back to playing good football....he's just in a slump right now. It happens.
Maybe if we played Chicago or Cleveland, we would think differently.
I think we need to realize, teams with good DL's are going to still give us fits.
It doesn't matter what your receivers look like. You need to be able to control the LOS, and we simply are proving on Sunday's we can't do it right now.