At this time of year, I’m mostly compiling and analyzing stat charts. Slice and dice the stats every way you can, and see who comes out on top (and at the bottom). That can help poke you in the right direction on players. I just got finished compiling the stats for passing inside the 10, and it’s always a good one.
Russell Wilson, I am surprised to see, struggled in this area. He was also poor, recall, in this part of the field the previous season (most notably with the interception at the end of the Super Bowl). But they added Jimmy Graham in the offseason, and Wilson played really well in the second half of the year.
Overall numbers, however, were subpar – 10 of 27 passing, with 9 TDs and a sack. Among quarterbacks with at least 20 pass plays, only Colin Kaepernick, who played his way onto the bench, compiled a lower percentage of balls.
Matthew Stafford, on the other hand, was very good in that part of the field, completing 77 percent of his passes. Marcus Mariota was also shockingly good, at over 70 percent. This was the second year in a row, notice, that one of the best goal-line quarterbacks was a rookie – Derek Carr cut it up in that part of the field last year.
Eli Manning and Andy Dalton were the co-leaders at 3 interceptions each. Teddy Bridgewater, meanwhile, was the most likely to get caught holding the ball, with 5 sacks in only 22 pass plays.
These numbers are home cooked, so I left the 2-point conversions in there. To make the chart more readable, I have blended them in with the touchdowns (which are actually just “scores” here).
| PASSING INSIDE THE 10 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | Comp | Att | Pct | TD | Int | sack |
| 1 | Matthew Stafford, Det. | 30 | 39 | 76.9% | 21 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Marcus Mariota, Tenn. | 17 | 24 | 70.8% | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Ben Roethlisberger, Pitt. | 28 | 45 | 62.2% | 20 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | Sam Bradford, Phil. | 13 | 21 | 61.9% | 9 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | Kirk Cousins, Wash. | 27 | 44 | 61.4% | 18 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 | Alex Smith, K.C. | 13 | 22 | 59.1% | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Cam Newton, Car. | 18 | 31 | 58.1% | 12 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | Drew Brees, N.O. | 18 | 31 | 58.1% | 11 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Matt Ryan, Atl. | 22 | 38 | 57.9% | 14 | 2 | 1 |
| 10 | Tom Brady, N.E. | 23 | 40 | 57.5% | 17 | 2 | 2 |
| 11 | Joe Flacco, Balt. | 16 | 28 | 57.1% | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| 12 | Philip Rivers, S.D. | 17 | 30 | 56.7% | 14 | 1 | 0 |
| 13 | Derek Carr, Oak. | 13 | 24 | 54.2% | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 14 | Eli Manning, Buff. | 22 | 41 | 53.7% | 15 | 3 | 3 |
| 15 | Ryan Fitzpatrick, NYJ | 18 | 34 | 52.9% | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | Blake Bortles, Jac. | 28 | 55 | 50.9% | 22 | 2 | 2 |
| 17 | Andy Dalton, Cin. | 13 | 26 | 50.0% | 12 | 3 | 0 |
| 18 | Aaron Rodgers, G.B. | 28 | 56 | 50.0% | 20 | 2 | 0 |
| 19 | Matt Hasselbeck, Ind. | 9 | 19 | 47.4% | 7 | 1 | 1 |
| 20 | Carson Palmer, Ariz. | 19 | 41 | 46.3% | 14 | 1 | 3 |
| 21 | Josh McCown, Clev. | 11 | 24 | 45.8% | 8 | 0 | 1 |
| 22 | Jay Cutler, Chi. | 19 | 42 | 45.2% | 11 | 2 | 2 |
| 23 | Ryan Tannehill, Mia. | 19 | 45 | 42.2% | 12 | 2 | 1 |
| 24 | Teddy Bridgewater, Minn. | 7 | 17 | 41.2% | 6 | 0 | 5 |
| 25 | Jameis Winston, T.B. | 18 | 46 | 39.1% | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| 26 | Russell Wilson, Sea. | 10 | 27 | 37.0% | 9 | 0 | 1 |
| 27 | Colin Kaepernick, S.F. | 7 | 20 | 35.0% | 3 | 0 | 1 |
—Ian Allan