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ESPN seriously compared Andrew Luck to Brian Hoyer

NFL: Chicago Bears at Indianapolis Colts Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

As if we needed another silly comparison from ESPN, they never fail to surprise us. And for that matter, neither does any other national network. However, recently on NFL Live it got downright blasphemous.

Look, i’ll be the first to criticize Andrew Luck when he deserves it, and he hasn’t been flawless in his young career by any means. But, let’s be just a little practical here, nobody has the right to compare Luck to someone like Brian Hoyer.

Hoyer has been serviceable throughout his career with 5 different teams, but that’s where any and all compliments stop from me. Yet, that didn’t stop a ridiculous comparison of Luck’s and Hoyer’s last two seasons in the NFL.

This may be as bad as an ESPN reporter comparing Peyton Manning to Trent Dilfer following the Broncos Super Bowl victory. But, let’s stay on track here.

I don’t think I need to tell any of you what kind of quarterback Andrew Luck is, nor do I need to defend his natural talent regardless of his inconsistencies that pop up. On the other hand, let’s drop some statistics of our own over these past two seasons.

Over the last two seasons Luck has a touchdown rate of 5.5 percent, Hoyer’s is 4.4 percent. Luck’s been sacked 56 times (6.68 percent of attempts) and Hoyer has been sacked 29 times (5 percent of attempts). And let’s go clutch while we’re at it. Luck has 6 game winning drives over his last two seasons, while Hoyer has a grand total of 1.

How about we compare Luck’s last two seasons of touchdown passes to — oh, let’s say Hoyer’s career. ‘The Answer’ as ESPN likes to call it, is Luck — 46, Hoyer — 44. Passing yards? Let’s just put it this way, Luck had thrown for more yards than Hoyer has in his entire career by Week 3 in 2014. Need more?

Luck has only one season with less than 500 attempts which is obviously in 2015 when he missed 9 games. Each of those seasons Luck has a completion rate north of 60 percent save for his rookie season. Hoyer has only thrown for more than 400 attempts once in his illustrious career (2014) and he dropped an eye-popping 55.3 percent completion rate.

Let’s have just one more.

Over the last three seasons, which are the only three in which Hoyer has thrown more than 100 attempts, Luck’s QBR (which is an ESPN stat) has been 68.5, 57 and 71.2 respectively. Hoyer comes in at 42.5, 56.1 and 61.1. Funny, they forgot to mention those numbers.

So, what have we learned today children? Don’t make ridiculous comparisons when you know it doesn’t belong in any conversation...ever.