It's right though, his stock would have declined even further and then what would you say then?
Your premise is completely wrong. If you don't see that, how can someone explain it to you?
Your insinuating he has no room to improve.
Thats ****ing stupid.
Then again, I should know better by now.
Do you not see how they are picking his game apart?
"He doesn't drive the ball"
"Lots of underthrown balls"
"Erratic when pressured"
"Lack of arm strength"
"No feel of pressure"
"Not athletic enough"
This is what they are saying and would keep even next year. Statiscally he had a great year this year but everyone is saying he didn't play good. Stop trying to insult someone for having a different opinion than you, now move the fvck on
Do you not realize 4 of those things you listed are directly about him maneuvering the pocket under pressure.
"he doesn't drive the ball" - This wouldn't change too much, but his throw isn't going to get weaker. It actually reasonable that he would get stronger after another yr, which could translate to some more velocity on his throws. Even so, coming back wouldn't hurt this, it could only improve.
"lots of underthrown balls" - This is semi-related to the first point. But he does have good touch on his deep throws. One of his problems is he throws off his back foot, due to the poor habits he got in due to all the pressure he was getting, which leads to underthrown balls because he doesn't have enough arm strength to zip balls in while falling backwards. So even this can be improved by just improving his footwork and how he handles pressure.
"erratic when pressured" - well this is basically his biggest downfall. This is what he needs to improve. His footwork under pressure is terrible, and needs to be improved. But again, give him another yr here and i think he's more likely to improve than not improve at all.
"lack of arm strength" - Sure. But he has a good enough arm to be an NFL qb. He's not Jamarcus Russell, but he's also not Colt McCoy either.
"no feel of pressure" - again, this goes back to his performance under pressure, which i believe is the main thing he needed to work on.
"not athletic enough" - once again this is all about how he handles pressure and how his footwork breaksdown. Well that and he looks robotic when he moves. Saying he's not athletic enough isn't saying he needs to be able to scramble from first downs, its saying he needs to be able to avoid pressure in the pocket.
So in summation, if every aspect of his game stayed the same, except for how well he handles pressure, there is no question in my mind that he'd be at least a 2nd round pick.