Ian Book
We need to quit making excuses for him. He might not be playing with all the 1st string offense- but he's not playing against all the 1st team defense either. It's a mixed bag. If you are not seeing improvement now, then it's time to find someone else. Ian Book will never be an NFL starter. The best he will be is a backup.
Ian Book is not going make this active roster. The questions - is he worth stashing on the practice for a "just in case" need or can the Saints find another project QB to put on the practice squad.
Book may make the Practice Squad - but next offseason or at the draft, it's time to find another QB. Dalton could likely be the backup for a few more years. He's only 34 now.
The 3rd QB needs to be someone with a high ceiling... instead finding someone with a high floor.
I disagree with most of this, but especially the last sentence. Why does Book have a high floor vs. a high ceiling? A high floor would mean he's good now but doesn't have much room to improve... I think he has a pretty low floor (he's extremely raw) and a potentially high ceiling.
Look, he's a boom-or-bust player. If he was drafted in the 1st round he'd be a bust. But he was a 4th round pick. Taysom Hill was a guy everyone thought wasn't good enough to play QB, and yet he has a winning record at the position and a 70% career completion percentage. Obviously the staff that developed him sees something in Book or they wouldn't be wasting their time and subjecting the kid to the ire of enraged fans.
Maybe I need to read back through the thread but I don't see a lot of excuses being made for him? I just see some people saying "hey why are our heads exploding over this, other than anger?" He crapped the bed completely vs. the Texans, and last game he improved. Was it good enough? No, but there was OBVIOUS improvement in his huddle operations, communication, tempo, and the way he threw the ball.
The internal calculus/armchair GMing of "well Dalton is 34 now, so the square root of a Book's 3-year rookie contract divided by Mercury retrograde" is useless. He is a quarterback, he knows the offense, and he has some talent. If he can get better at reocgnizing coverages, going through his progressions, and using the pocket, we have a pretty decent QB on our hands. I see no harm in giving him another year on the practice squad.