Who would you like as a Franchise Quarterback?

by mgrex03 on May 22, 2008 10:16 PM EDT in NFL General Comment 12 comments

Earlier this week, Matt Ryan signed a 6 year, $72 Million deal, with $34.7 Million guaranteed. This, in my opinion, is utterly absurd. I could go on and on about how ridiculous this is, but I'll point you in the direction of The Daily Norseman, SBNation's Vikings blog. Gonzo has a great article expressing my exact feelings about the entire situation much better than I ever could have. Here's the main idea:

There is NO reason for NFL teams to pay the amounts they're paying now to guys that haven't even attended an NFL Training Camp yet, never mind played in an NFL game. The NBA does it, and it's one of the few things that they actually do better than the NFL. The NBA doesn't have contract holdouts, they don't have to give potentially franchise-killing contracts to rookies. . .heck, even LeBron James had to earn his big payday. . .and teams know what they're getting into before they make their selections.

Make sure to check out the rest of his article. He makes some other great points.

Here's an exercise for you: I've put together the college stats for 6 quarterbacks drafted in the first round the past 3 seasons, minus Joe Flacco, as his stats are skewed by playing in Div 1-AA. The QBs are:

Jay Cutler
Matt Leinart
Vince Young
Brady Quinn
JaMarcus Russell
Matt Ryan

I've also included a 7th mystery quarterback, who was drafted some years ago. I've used the NFL's version of QB Rating, rather than the college Rating system.

	Starts	Comp	Att	Comp. Pct	Yds	YPA	TD	INT	Rating
A	46	929	1602	58.0%	11762	7.34	95	39	90.62
B	45	710	1242	57.2%	8697	7.00	59	36	82.66
C	42	851	1354	62.9%	11201	8.27	90	33	100.93
D	39	807	1245	64.8%	10693	8.59	99	23	110.69
E	32	806	1346	59.9%	9310	6.92	56	37	83.22
F	32	444	718	61.8%	6040	8.41	44	28	92.84
G	30	493	707	69.7%	6625	9.37	52	21	111.38

Tomorrow or Saturday, I'll post who each quarterback is, along with Stampede Blue's consensus choice of franchise quarterback.

Also, Tony Dungy will be joining Mike and Mike live from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 7:45 tomorrow (Friday) morning. You can hear it on ESPN Radio, and watch it on ESPN2.

1 recs | Comment 12 comments

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I agree that the NFL should adopt the NBA tiered system when doling out contracts to rookies. I think it’s a slap in the face to veteran players who have proven that they can play, while some kid who starred in college gets more money without proving a damn thing in the pros. If someone came to work for the company I work for, did my position without any real world experience and got paid more just because they had great potential, I’d be pissed. I think we Colts fans have been pretty spoiled by how well Polian drafts, so we don’t really have a lot of “Busts” on our team, but those teams that are consistently bad at drafting and draft high every year, they never get out of the cellar. It can be a vicious cycle. I think it’s one of the many reasons team owners opted out of the CBA the other day.

by danorocks17 on May 22, 2008 10:51 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I looked them all up because I'm a sucker

I won’t give the answer away, but I have to say that I was pretty shocked when I found out who was who, especially Jay Cutler for some reason.

Bullets Forever: Where fancy numbers and YouTube come together.

by JakeTheSnake on May 22, 2008 11:29 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

You should have at least put a guess down first

by mgrex03 on May 23, 2008 8:46 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah

I thought of that right after I posted. Needless to say, I felt kind of dumb because I always like guessing things.

That’s the last time try and deal with trivia at 11 at night.

Bullets Forever: Where fancy numbers and YouTube come together.

by JakeTheSnake on May 23, 2008 9:13 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'd take QB D

High # of starts, good completion %, high Y/A and great TD:INT ratio

G’s stats are great, but he has the least starts. That and the amount his numbers blow everyone else away make me think he played in a gimmicky offense that doesn’t translate.

Starts along with draft position (they’re all 1st rounders) are a good predictor of NFL success. More starts lets NFL scouts do there jobs. Without enough tape to evaluate a QB scouts let physical measurables and team success take too much importance.

Now I’m off to find out who I picked.

my blog http://shakennbaken.blogspot.com

by shake n bake on May 23, 2008 12:32 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs