For the past two days, I’ve been posting end zone stats for tight ends and wide receivers – which guys have been the busiest and most effective inside the 10 yard line. Today, let’s turn the focus on the guys throwing those passes.
I’ve got them ranked by workload, and no surprise with the 10 busiest passers in this part of the field. Manning, Brees, Ryan, Roethlisberger, Brady, Stafford, Luck, Rodgers, Rivers and Manning. The exact 10 names you’d guess without even looking at the numbers.
Which goes to prove that if you want a good quarterback, draft a good quarterback. This isn’t like running back, where guys like Justin Forsett and Jeremy Hill come out of nowhere and put up big numbers. With quarterbacks, we pretty much know who will put up the good numbers. Unless you get lucky with a flyer pick (maybe Sam Bradford hits it big in that Philly offense) you have to draft a good quarterback to have good quarterback.
(Note, by the way, that Rodgers missed half of a season; had he gone for all 48 games, he’d be No. 2 on this list.)
Besides straight volume, however, let’s also look at efficiency.
Five quarterbacks have successfully put the ball in the end zone on over 40 percent of their pass plays. Manning and Brees are in that group, which is what you would expect. Also Tony Romo. But the two leaders (and this is where it gets interesting) are Sam Bradford and Ryan Fitzpatrick).
Bradford in this part of the field (in the 2012-13 seasons) went 32 of 57, with 27 scores, 2 interceptions and 2 sacks. So he got it in the end zone on 46 percent of his plays. Fitzpatrick was just behind, at 44 percent.
That makes these guys kind of interesting this year, I think, with Bradford stepping into that Eagles offense. And Fitzpatrick (who won’t necessarily be a starter in September) is in New York, where he’ll be working with Chan Gailey again. The Jets have a neat pair of wide receivers (Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker).
Of this group of 30 quarterbacks (who’ve attempted at least 40 passes), six have gotten the ball in the end zone on under 30 percent of their plays. Some of the names are no surprise. Chad Henne, Geno Smith, Mark Sanchez and Michael Vick. Three of the players have ties to Philadelphia (when you toss in Nick Foles).
But two younger up-and-comer quarterbacks trying to bust into the top tier are also in this group. Cam Newton and Matthew Stafford. In the case of Newton, he might be a Vick-type quarterback. When a quarterback spends his whole life pulling the ball down and running when things start to break down, it’s hard for him to master the fine art of doing it through the air. And Stafford – well, maybe he’s just not as good as the Lions are hoping.
As with the previous charts, “EZ” means end zone – TD passes and 2-point conversions.
| PASSING INSIDE THE 10 (2012-2014) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Comp | Att | Pct | EZ | Pct | Int | sack |
| Peyton Manning | 97 | 161 | 60% | 66 | 40% | 1 | 5 |
| Drew Brees | 83 | 131 | 63% | 57 | 41% | 1 | 8 |
| Matt Ryan | 72 | 131 | 55% | 48 | 36% | 3 | 4 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 74 | 131 | 56% | 47 | 35% | 1 | 4 |
| Tom Brady | 71 | 130 | 55% | 51 | 37% | 2 | 8 |
| • Matthew Stafford | 55 | 126 | 44% | 39 | 29% | 3 | 7 |
| Andrew Luck | 67 | 124 | 54% | 45 | 34% | 3 | 9 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 66 | 121 | 55% | 47 | 36% | 2 | 10 |
| Philip Rivers | 62 | 112 | 55% | 38 | 33% | 5 | 4 |
| Eli Manning | 56 | 111 | 50% | 39 | 35% | 3 | 1 |
| Jay Cutler | 49 | 102 | 48% | 38 | 37% | 3 | 0 |
| Joe Flacco | 47 | 97 | 48% | 32 | 32% | 2 | 3 |
| Tony Romo | 55 | 94 | 59% | 42 | 42% | 1 | 5 |
| Ryan Tannehill | 55 | 93 | 59% | 35 | 36% | 1 | 5 |
| Andy Dalton | 47 | 88 | 53% | 34 | 35% | 3 | 9 |
| Carson Palmer | 40 | 82 | 49% | 27 | 33% | 2 | 0 |
| Russell Wilson | 44 | 78 | 56% | 31 | 36% | 2 | 9 |
| • Cam Newton | 27 | 71 | 38% | 21 | 28% | 2 | 3 |
| Colin Kaepernick | 33 | 66 | 50% | 22 | 33% | 3 | 1 |
| Alex Smith | 34 | 63 | 54% | 21 | 31% | 2 | 5 |
| Robert Griffin III | 31 | 62 | 50% | 20 | 31% | 1 | 3 |
| Sam Bradford | 32 | 57 | 56% | 27 | 46% | 2 | 2 |
| Ryan Fitzpatrick | 32 | 55 | 58% | 26 | 44% | 2 | 4 |
| • Nick Foles | 20 | 50 | 40% | 15 | 28% | 1 | 3 |
| • Chad Henne | 19 | 50 | 38% | 11 | 21% | 2 | 3 |
| Christian Ponder | 27 | 49 | 55% | 18 | 34% | 2 | 4 |
| Matt Schaub | 27 | 46 | 59% | 18 | 38% | 0 | 2 |
| • Geno Smith | 16 | 42 | 38% | 11 | 26% | 0 | 1 |
| • Michael Vick | 14 | 37 | 38% | 8 | 19% | 1 | 6 |
| • Mark Sanchez | 15 | 36 | 42% | 11 | 28% | 2 | 4 |
—Ian Allan