In Cleveland, Norv Turner is implementing an offense that features lots of downfield routes for wide receivers. That could mesh well with Brandon Weeden's throwing style.
I kind of like Brandon Weeden this year, in a sneaky kind of way. He's shown some ability to throw downfield, and that could/should make him a good fit in the offense Norv Turner is installing.
Turner likes to use lots of deep vertical routes. That's no secret. That's been a big part of his offense for the last 20 years with the Cowboys, Raiders, Chargers, Dolphins and Washington. That's how he likes to attack defenses.
And with Weeden, he's shown some ability to hit on those throws. He didn't have a lights-out rookie year, but he put up some yards and hit on some long passes. For the first third of last year, he was having a better season than Russell Wilson.
And at the end of the year, his 14 TD passes came from an average of almost 30 yards. Among the 31 quarterbacks with at least 10 TD passes, that was No. 1.
(Christian Ponder, on the other hand, was almost essentially a short-ball thrower last year; his TD came from an average of 6.7 yards. That's the lowest by any quarterback in the last 10 years among guys with at least 10 TD passes).
| QBs: Average TD distance | ||
|---|---|---|
| TD | Avg | |
| Brandon Weeden | 14 | 29.8 |
| Robert Griffin III | 20 | 28.4 |
| Jake Locker | 10 | 27.1 |
| Chad Henne | 11 | 25.0 |
| Cam Newton | 19 | 23.6 |
| Tony Romo | 28 | 23.0 |
| Joe Flacco | 22 | 21.8 |
| Colin Kaepernick | 10 | 21.6 |
| Michael Vick | 12 | 20.5 |
| Andrew Luck | 23 | 20.4 |
| Jay Cutler | 19 | 20.4 |
| Carson Palmer | 22 | 20.2 |
| Andy Dalton | 27 | 19.8 |
| Matt Schaub | 22 | 19.2 |
| Ryan Fitzpatrick | 24 | 19.2 |
| Sam Bradford | 21 | 19.1 |
| Ryan Tannehill | 12 | 18.7 |
| Philip Rivers | 26 | 18.6 |
| Eli Manning | 26 | 18.5 |
| Matt Ryan | 32 | 17.8 |
| Alex Smith | 13 | 17.6 |
| Tom Brady | 34 | 17.4 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 39 | 17.4 |
| Josh Freeman | 27 | 17.3 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 26 | 16.6 |
| Russell Wilson | 26 | 15.7 |
| Peyton Manning | 37 | 14.9 |
| Matthew Stafford | 20 | 14.4 |
| Drew Brees | 43 | 14.0 |
| Mark Sanchez | 13 | 13.5 |
| Christian Ponder | 18 | 6.7 |
--Ian Allan