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Factoid

Next Great Quarterbacks?

Bortles, Bridgewater shine in initial preseason action

I notice that two of the marquee rookie quarterbacks put up good preseason numbers. Blake Bortles in particular, connecting on a lot of downfield throws. Teddy Bridgewater worked mostly against the deep backups, but he managed to finish with a passer rating of 111.2.

Cross-referencing against previous years, Bridgewater and Bortles grade out as two of the top four preseasons by quarterbacks taken in the first round. In the last nine years, only four other quarterbacks have had passer ratings over 100.

On the downside, there doesn’t appear to be a strong correlation between that first preseason and eventual pro success. EJ Manuel and Mark Sanchez are the only other quarterbacks with passer ratings over 110, and neither of them is on the fast track to stardom.

Arguably the best quarterbacks on the list are Andrew Luck, Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Cam Newton and Matthew Stafford. None of them have great preseason stats in their first year.

FIRST-ROUND QUARTERBACKS -- PRESEASON STATS
YearPlayerPctYardsTDIntRating
2013EJ Manuel78.8%19920112.0
2014Teddy Bridgewater61.2%28350111.2
2009Mark Sanchez64.9%34731111.0
2014Blake Bortles62.7%52120110.0
2006Jay Cutler64.5%56141108.3
2012Robert Griffin III64.5%19320103.3
2007Brady Quinn64.4%3003196.5
2010Sam Bradford60.0%3383095.9
2006Matt Leinart61.7%3142095.5
2012Andrew Luck62.1%5223289.3
2011Jake Locker65.3%3162188.5
2010Tim Tebow64.1%3442288.0
2011Christian Ponder55.1%2901079.5
2014Johnny Manziel50.8%2962076.7
2008Matt Ryan57.6%2942175.1
2006Vince Young50.9%3571169.1
2008Joe Flacco52.2%2841068.3
2012Ryan Tannehill52.6%4141166.9
2011Cam Newton42.1%3001064.9
2011Blaine Gabbert50.0%3651164.3
2012Brandon Weeden49.0%2970159.7
2009Matthew Stafford54.5%3891452.8
2009Josh Freeman44.9%2381341.0
2007JaMarcus Russell---000---

—Ian Allan

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