Pretty good observations on Flynn IMO. This explains quite a bit of why many a team wasn't impressed with Flynn:
From Cristl:
Defending Flynn
It seems like pass coverage has been the Lions’ Achilles’ heel since Hall of Famer Lem Barney last played in 1977 and that’s not far from the truth. They’ve ranked in the top 10 in pass defense only four times in the past 32 years. Vulnerable as they are in the secondary and playing without maybe their best cornerback, Chris Houston, the Lions still had their linebackers playing run first, kept only a single safety deep and dared Flynn to try to beat their mediocre corners.
He couldn’t do it.
Flynn completed 10 passes: A screen to Eddie Lacy for 20, a 16-yarder over the middle to James Jones with a middle linebacker in coverage, a 56-yarder to Jones in garbage time and nothing else for more than 9 yards.
It appeared the Lions played a heavy dose of what’s called trail coverage. When a corner respects a quarterback’s arm, he’ll try to stay ahead of the receiver. That’s what led to the back-shoulder throw — quarterbacks throwing behind a receiver when a defender is out in front of him. In trail coverage, a corner will stay tight to the receiver and run hip-to-hip with him.
They’ll do that against a quarterback with a weak arm for two reasons: No. 1, they figure the chances are the ball will be underthrown or thrown behind the receiver; No. 2, they figure even if they get beat, they’ll have time to recover because the ball will hang in the air.
There might be no better example of what ails the Packers’ passing game at the moment than a pass to Jordy Nelson across the middle with 13:30 to go in the second quarter. The Lions called an all-out blitz and rushed seven against a three-wide receiver set.
For starters, no defensive coordinator in his right mind would make that call if Aaron Rodgers was playing. It left Nelson one-on-one against a nickel back and tight end Andrew Quarless underneath and uncovered. As it was, Flynn had enough time and a choice of two receivers, but he didn’t get the ball out in front of Nelson quick enough and that gave Bill Bentley, playing trail coverage, time to recover and bat it away.
With 1:22 left in the half, Flynn threw deep up the sideline to Jarrett Boykin. The ball was underthrown and with the corner playing trail coverage, Boykin couldn’t come back for it the way Jones did on a 28-yard completion against Minnesota last Sunday.
For the most part, Flynn doesn’t even attempt to throw the ball up the seam. Those are much riskier passes than those to the sideline because there are more defenders in the middle of the field. Thus, the ball has to be thrown far enough so the defense can’t get underneath it. Those are passes that require both velocity and touch, and Flynn has given no indication in two games that he can make those throws.
A deep post to Jones in the first half wobbled and fell short. One to Boykin in the second half also was underthrown.On top of everything else, Flynn’s release is slow. He might have held the ball too long on two or three of his seven sacks, but the bigger issue is that the ball takes too long to get there.
