Ian Allan
Kurt Warner wins the Jekyll and Hyde Award for the 2007 season. Or maybe that's not quite the right name for it, because Warner managed to be good and awful at the same time.
He was terrific as a passer, particularly during the second half of the season. Consider how he fared in a head-to-head comparision against Tom Brady:
WARNER IN FINAL EIGHT GAMES:
21 TD passes, 295 passing yards per game
BRADY IN FINAL EIGHT GAMES:
20 TD passes, 297 passing yards per game
Pretty darn impressive.
But Warner, while putting up those big numbers, was also way too careless with the football. Too many fumbles, and too many interceptions. He fumbled 12 times (including one game-loser in the end zone against San Francisco), and he tossed 17 interceptions.
Adjusting turnovers for playing time, he gave the ball to the other team more often than anyone (at least, among quarterbacks who played regularly).
The following chart takes the 28 quarterbacks who handled the ball at least 300 times on pass plays as well as scrambles. That includes sacks. It then divides that number of plays by turnovers, showing how often each guy tended to lose the ball.
Warner finishes in last place in this comparision. So despite the big yardage and touchdown numbers he compiled during the second half of last year, it could make some sense for the Cardinals to go with beer-bonging Matt Leinart, who's a lot younger and has more upside.
QUARTERBACKS, PLAYS PER TURNOVER, 2007
79.0 David Garrard
63.5 Jeff Garcia
53.0 Tom Brady
49.3 Joey Harrington
47.3 Donovan McNabb
40.6 Cleo Lemon
37.3 Matt Hasselbeck
37.1 Peyton Manning
34.7 Ben Roethlisberger
34.0 Chad Pennington
32.2 Brett Favre
31.4 Drew Brees
29.9 Jay Cutler
29.3 Carson Palmer
27.6 Kellen Clemens
27.4 Tony Romo
27.3 Derek Anderson
26.8 Matt Schaub
25.0 Vince Young
24.9 Jason Campbell
24.5 Jon Kitna
24.5 Tarvaris Jackson
24.3 Philip Rivers
23.6 Damon Huard
23.6 Marc Bulger
22.7 Kyle Boller
21.7 Eli Manning
21.2 Kurt Warner
-Ian Allan
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