I'm still on the fence about him, which is remarkable improvement from where I was mid season.
On the plus side, I like him. Seems like he is a good guy and we heard about some leadership qualities he exhibited. On the field, he grew a set of balls and hung in there and made some tough throws.
Also, with him going through so many OC's in his career, I feel for his plight of having to do it again, especially after all of the adjustments needed for Chip's system.
He has played better since coming back from injury, logging in an average game passer rating of 89.9 the last four games against defenses that give up passer ratings of 86.4, so a decent 3.5 ticks higher.
On the season, however, he's got a passer rating of 84.6 against defenses that normally give up 90.1, 5.5 ticks lower.
He's a 78 career guy who's improved to a 84 in a QB friendly offense (admitting that the WR suck balls and weren't very friendly). He's 27th ranked starting QB in the league in passer rating.
Sure his rating over the last four games are top 20ish, but what do you weigh more in the equation, a four game streak or an entire season, or an entire career.
If we could get him for cheap by starting QB standards, say $10M or so, then maybe I'd sign him short term. But in the NFL, QB's are in high demand, and a 1st overall pick pedigree proven that he's healthy QB, even with poor performance stats, is going to land in the $40-$60M guarantee range, in the $16M-$20M average per year range. Franchising him could cost $22-$25M guaranteed and hurt the cap. I can't do it. Way too expensive for the quality of play.
Does anyone else take that deal? Say 5 years, 18M avg per year, $50M guaranteed?
BTW, in another post, I have the comparable QB contract info for recent signees.
I just can't.