The Vikings re-signed Matt Cassel. He should be their opening-day starter, and he was a lot better than Christian Ponder last year. Minnesota has brought in Norv Turner to serve as the offensive coordinator, and he should help spark Cassel.
That’s the theory, anyway.
As I’m picking through the numbers and starting to put the pieces of the 2014 magazine in place, I noticed that inside the 10-yard line last year, Cassel completed only 6 of 20 passes – just 30 percent.
One other quarterback also went 6 of 20 in that part of the field, and as luck would have it, it was the quarterback Turner worked with in Cleveland last year – Jason Campbell.
Here are the stats for the 32 guys with at least 20 pass plays in that part of the field. For the “touchdowns” those include not only TD passes but also successful 2-point conversion throws.
| PASSING INSIDE THE 10-YARD LINE | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tm | Player | Comp | Att | Pct | TD | Int |
| Mia. | Ryan Tannehill | 18 | 27 | 66.7% | 12 | 0 |
| Den. | Peyton Manning | 40 | 61 | 65.6% | 27 | 0 |
| Dall. | Tony Romo | 27 | 44 | 61.4% | 20 | 0 |
| Sea. | Russell Wilson | 14 | 24 | 58.3% | 12 | 1 |
| S.D. | Philip Rivers | 25 | 43 | 58.1% | 14 | 1 |
| K.C. | Alex Smith | 18 | 31 | 58.1% | 10 | 1 |
| Phil. | Nick Foles | 15 | 26 | 57.7% | 12 | 0 |
| Balt. | Joe Flacco | 23 | 40 | 57.5% | 15 | 0 |
| N.O. | Drew Brees | 24 | 42 | 57.1% | 16 | 1 |
| Hou. | Matt Schaub | 13 | 23 | 56.5% | 7 | 0 |
| Chi. | Jay Cutler | 18 | 32 | 56.3% | 15 | 2 |
| Cin. | Andy Dalton | 20 | 36 | 55.6% | 13 | 3 |
| Pitt. | Ben Roethlisberger | 22 | 40 | 55.0% | 14 | 0 |
| Ten. | Ryan Fitzpatrick | 11 | 20 | 55.0% | 6 | 0 |
| T.B. | Mike Glennon | 12 | 23 | 52.2% | 10 | 0 |
| Ind. | Andrew Luck | 19 | 37 | 51.4% | 12 | 1 |
| NYG | Eli Manning | 10 | 20 | 50.0% | 6 | 0 |
| Atl. | Matt Ryan | 24 | 48 | 50.0% | 13 | 2 |
| G.B. | Aaron Rodgers | 13 | 26 | 50.0% | 7 | 1 |
| N.E. | Tom Brady | 20 | 41 | 48.8% | 14 | 1 |
| Car. | Cam Newton | 11 | 23 | 47.8% | 9 | 0 |
| Det. | Matthew Stafford | 19 | 40 | 47.5% | 15 | 0 |
| S.F. | Colin Kaepernick | 14 | 30 | 46.7% | 10 | 2 |
| St.L. | Sam Bradford | 11 | 24 | 45.8% | 11 | 0 |
| G.B. | Matt Flynn | 9 | 20 | 45.0% | 5 | 0 |
| St.L. | Kellen Clemens | 8 | 18 | 44.4% | 6 | 0 |
| Was. | Robert Griffin III | 14 | 32 | 43.8% | 11 | 0 |
| Ariz. | Carson Palmer | 16 | 37 | 43.2% | 10 | 1 |
| NYJ | Geno Smith | 8 | 22 | 36.4% | 5 | 0 |
| Jac. | Chad Henne | 12 | 35 | 34.3% | 5 | 1 |
| Clev. | Jason Campbell | 6 | 20 | 30.0% | 3 | 0 |
| Min. | Matt Cassel | 6 | 20 | 30.0% | 4 | 2 |
—Ian Allan