Peter King is late with his MMQB, which means I am late with my MMQB Review. I guess Peter was up too late last night having early morning chats with Brett Favre about how it feels to play the Packers as a member of the Vikings to start writing his MMQB. I can't be expected to make fun of him on time if he can't be punctual with his MMQB.
The title that was on CNNSI.com said Peter was telling "NFL Truths." I guess it is just easier for Peter's editors to rip off Jason Whitlock than to think of a creative way of selling Peter's MMQB to get people to click on the link.
1. The Giants might or might not be the best team in football, but I can tell you this: They're the deepest.
Yes Peter, let's talk about this. I know we only talked about the Giants in-depth in MMQB about how deep they are in connection with their wide receiving corps (when David Tyree was going to get cut) and in regard to their defensive line (with the signing of Chris Canty, among others this off season), but I don't think we have talked about how deep the Giants are overall. Let's do that.
Jerry Reese does a good job, I think we all know this by now. The Giants are deep, you only need a computer and a link to a depth chart to figure that out. It no longer qualifies as news.
The Giants instead have a productive quarterback, Eli Manning, playing smart football and have three budding receivers -- Steve Smith (24), Mario Manningham (23) and Hakeem Nicks (20) -- who have combined for an average of 197 yards and two touchdown catches a game ... with none of the Plaxico Burress headaches that came with that star.
I am not saying every team needs an All-Pro receiver but a team also needs a guy who can make catches and get open when no one else on the team can get open. These three guys seem to be doing a great job but it remains to be seen in my mind if Smith or Manningham can become a reliable target like Burress was. I think 3 guys can replace Burress over a season but I believe the time will come when Manning will need a go-to receiver and one of these guys will have to be that guy. If they can do that is my question.
At the time, he really wanted to hire Gregg Williams as his defensive coordinator; Williams had a history of making chicken salad out of chicken feathers, and Payton knew his talent on defense was decent but limited, particularly in pressure packages. Payton knew where the Saints' offer was -- a little over one million (I can't be sure precisely what it was) -- but he also knew Williams was on the way to Green Bay after a great visit with the Saints, and he knew the Packers would offer him more than New Orleans did.
"So I had a couple of beers in me,'' Payton told me over the weekend, "and I start thinking, 'I make enough money. We really need this guy. I'm going to offer some of my own money to try to make this happen.' So the next day, I walk into [general manager] Mickey Loomis' office and say, 'Mickey, take $250,000 of my salary, add it onto our offer for Gregg and let's get this thing done right now.' Mickey called [owner] Tom Benson, they discussed it, and they agreed. So we upped the offer.''
So Sean Payton drunks dials his General Manager and gives him personnel ideas? This could be a good idea. I would like to see more organizations do this...just make all personnel decisions while drunk. Draft players drunk, go to the Owner's Meetings drunk and cut/sign players while drunk. I would want this team to succeed.
What Payton fails to mention here is that he was probably going to get fired if the Saints stunk this year, so he was betting $250,000 of his own dollars Gregg Williams would help him keep his job. So he thought, "If I give up $250K, I may get a contract extension. It's a gamble but a good one since I am probably going to get fired." Only beer can make this decent logic seem absolutely brilliant.
Whether Denver's a championship team or not -- and allowing an insane 6.5 points per game through four weeks suggests they'll battle San Diego for the AFC West title -- there's one thing you have to love about the Broncos: They've got a Patriot way (what a coincidence!) of tuning out the outside crappola and focusing on the only thing that matters -- the next play.
I will take this time to say I was wrong about the Broncos. I didn't think they would beat Dallas this past weekend and they did. They may end up being a good team. Mark Sanchez on the other hand didn't look so good against the Saints. Maybe we should hold off on the Hall of Fame ballots for another week or so.
4.The Titans have lost as many games in 24 days as they did in five months last year.
On offense, the kneejerk reaction is to change quarterbacks (Jeff Fisher told me last night he's staying with Kerry Collins), which I wouldn't do for one more week. Simple reason:
Vince Young sucks even worse than Kerry Collins?
This game against Indianapolis at home Sunday night is the Titans' season, pure and simple, and I don't want the latest on-the-job-training game for Young to come in a game that is positively a playoff games for Tennessee. That, plus the fact Collins has been more productive (51 more passing yards per game) and just as accurate as he was a year ago.
So basically Kerry Collins has been "bad" this year, yet he is having a better year in passing yards than last year. So the Titans are thinking of benching Collins even though he is playing very close to his career averages and isn't that far off how he played last year. How much proof do we need a quarterback gets too much credit when a team wins a game and gets too much blame when they lose a game? I don't know how Peter got deluded into thinking that Kerry Collins was a good quarterback, but he did.
How can you not love this game tonight?
Just because Peter King loves Brett Favre and the rest of the media is shoving this game down our collective throats doesn't mean we should love the game tonight. I personally don't care. I would like to see Brett Favre lose but that doesn't mean I am watching the game. You can not love this game if you don't like excess amounts of hype, which I don't.
Brett Favre has been an efficient caretaker so far, making one ridiculous play (the touchdown throw at the end to beat San Francisco last week)
Why does Favre keep getting credit for this throw when it was the catch that made the touchdown happen? The catch was much better than the throw. Of course the media adores Brett Favre so he gets all the credit.
The Tillman saga gets more curious.
Peter starts going on and on about how Pat Tillman hated the Army and then Peter wonders why Tillman re-enlisted (On second thought, I don't think Tillman re-enlisted, he just decided to not ask for his release from the Army two years into his three year commitment. The odds of him getting the release weren't good anyway, so what follows is all speculation since the Army got it's hands on Caleb Campbell and would probably not have let Pat Tillman go either) instead of taking a free agent contract in the NFL. Apparently Pat Tillman had become disillusioned with the war in Afghanistan, and wrote about this in his personal journal. There is a book coming out that is based partly on Tillman's journals and the author doesn't know why Tillman didn't just get out of the Army when he could. Of course anyone who has been in the military could probably answer that question since there tends to be great friendships and bonds that occur between those who are in the military together that sometimes span beyond what a person wants to do and spans into what he feels a duty to do.
A part of me is a little offended that neither Peter King, but more so the author of the new Tillman book, can understand why Tillman re-enlisted. If you write a book about the guy and still don't understand why he re-enlisted you didn't pay enough attention. Tillman probably felt like he had a duty, and the fact the guy is a fucking hero overall, could be two of the reasons he chose to re-enlist. Miserable or not miserable he did what many other people can't do, which was do something he felt was right even though he didn't really feel like it was right, but he did it because of duty he felt to others.
Peter was wondering what team Tillman would have ended up with...guess which one he comes up with?
I don't know what team would have signed him. But the Patriots, even with Rodney Harrison, then 32, ensconced at strong safety, were not deep on the back end, with only one other solid NFL player, Eugene Wilson (let go two years later). After the Belichick letter, I bet Tillman would have walked to Foxboro and taken any role Belichick would have offered.
Both Dave McGinnis, who coaches him in Arizona, and Bob Ferguson the guy who drafted him said he could have a job when he got back no matter what. But, Bill Belichick wrote a letter to Tillman and Peter seems to think that is where Tillman would have gone based on this letter...and why not, it's where Peter thinks every player should go play. If Joe Montana decided to un-retire and play in the NFL again, Peter would think the Patriots would sign him.
7. New England (3-1). Hey, sometimes good teams have to escape. The Patriots were breathing a pretty big collective sigh of relief after the most catchable ball of this NFL Sunday bounced off Mark Clayton's chest in the final seconds.
I am going to keep rubbing this in...remember all those "New England is done" articles from two weeks ago? Where are those articles at now? Just another example of shitty reactionary journalism at it's worse.
15. (tie) Cincinnati (3-1). I'm not a Bengal buyer.
They clearly can't be any good. They beat #10 on Peter's Fine Fifteen, it's true they didn't beat the Browns that badly this weekend even though his #2 team didn't exactly blow away the Chiefs this weekend which didn't affect their ranking, and the Bengals came within a lucky miracle catch of beating #5 on Peter's Fine Fifteen. What's there to believe in other than the fact the Bengals should be ranked higher just based on the victories they have?
Stat of the Week
Forty percent of the Green Bay active roster has never met Brett Favre. Of the 53 players eligible to dress for the Packers in the Metrodome tonight, 21 joined the team after Favre's departure in March 2008.
Add eight practice-squadders and two of three injured-reserve players who weren't on the team in Favre's last season there, and Favre would have a pretty strange time if he walked in to the Green Bay locker room at these days. He wouldn't know 31 of the 64 players in there.
Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre
Oh my God, shut up about him. Everything in Peter King's world revolves around Brett Favre. I could probably understand if Peter worked for ESPN/ABC and need to publicize the game tonight but he's just doing this all on his own.
Offensive Players of the Week
He named three of them, but at least he used the plural.
MVP Watch
4. Darrelle Revis, CB, New York Jets. Three more very good defensive plays in a tight game Sunday at New Orleans.
A cornerback? Really Peter? Why would Peter list a cornerback 4th in his MVP Watch?
5. (tie) Joe Flacco, QB, Baltimore. He's a Mark Clayton drop from being third on this list.
So Flacco has become less valuable because Mark Clayton can't catch a perfectly thrown pass that Flacco threw? How does Mark Clayton's inability to catch a pass make Joe Flacco less valuable again?
I want to emphasize that Peter King gets to vote for NFL Hall of Fame members, as well as other NFL awards, and he is using this logic in his MVP Watch. Peter doesn't think a quarterback is as valuable if his receivers don't catch perfectly thrown passes he throws.
Spent Friday at Jets camp, 30 minutes west of the Meadowlands in Florham Park, with lunch in tony Madison with Darrelle Revis and Jerricho Cotchery.
Remember when I wondered how Darrelle Revis got 4th place in Peter King's MVP Watch? I wonder no more...he has a personal relationship with him. Everyone knows when Peter King likes you and you like him, he will do PR for you in his columns. He's like your own personal biggest fan.
Let's get to Peter's list of top NFL quarterbacks:
1. Peyton Manning. It's possible he's a notch better while turning over his receiver corps?
2. Tom Brady. A struggling post-surgical month does nothing to alter my opinion of him.
3. Ben Roethlisberger. Vaulted Brees, Rivers with his terrific Super Bowl.
So if Rivers or Brees has a terrific Super Bowl, they will vault back over Roethlisberger? Sorry, this seems pretty arbitrary to me.
4. Drew Brees. He carries the most explosive team of the season's first quarter.
5. Philip Rivers. Deep arm was questioned in '04 draft. Nevermore.
6. Matt Ryan. Smartest, most mature of the young guns entering NFL in last four years.
7. Jay Cutler. We don't have to love him to admire his ability.
8. Eli Manning. Terrific first month reinforces solid winning resume.
9. Carson Palmer. Needs to keep lifting his average team to stay in top 10.
The Bengals were the 6th worst team in the NFL last year without Carson Palmer and this year they are 3-1. That at least shows how valuable he is to the Bengals. I would personally put him above Manning at the very least. Maybe I don't value Eli Manning enough.
10. Tony Romo. I know, I know. I like him more than the average American male.
11. Donovan McNabb. Would be higher if he exhibited better durability.
Yes, because the Eagles and Kevin Kolb have struggled so much without McNabb in the lineup. Does Peter think McNabb would have thrown two straight 400 yard games or something?
This is a bit too high for him in my opinion. The Eagles have proven they can win games without McNabb. This doesn't make him a bad quarterback but not one of the top 11 in the NFL in my book.
12. Kurt Warner. Debated this one because of age, but he was so good last January.
13. Aaron Rodgers. Continues to be oblivious to the pressures of the job. Good trait.
#13? I find this to be a little bit too low for him. I think he is better than this, especially when the only reasoning given for the guy above him (Warner) is that he played well last January.
a. Why, FOX, why? Why show the top 10 plays of Brett Favre's career? How many celebrations of his career have you done, and how many more will you do? What possible relevance do the top 10 plays of his career have this weekend?
This coming from Peter King. The same guy who mentions Brett Favre in EVERY column of MMQB he has done since God knows when (go back and check, he has mentioned him nearly every week since at least the beginning of this year). Peter is also the guy who just calculated how many players on the current Packers team Brett Favre played with. Come on Peter, you are as obsessed with Brett Favre, if not more so.
Peter may have also missed the part of the pregame show where Terry Bradshaw roasted Favre for retiring and unretiring.
5. I think New England could have the quirkiest schedule a team has ever faced. It opened the season against the 0-0 Bills, the 1-0 Jets, the 2-0 Falcons, the 3-0 Ravens and now gets the 4-0 Broncos ... and then against what could be the 0-5 Titans (if they lose to Indy this week) and the 0-6 Bucs (if they lose to Philly and the Panthers).
Just say it...I won't think differently of you.
6. I think NBC's Rodney Harrison created quite a stir Sunday night, saying Tom Brady should take his skirt off and put some pants on. In other words, Brady should man up and, I guess, not take these piddling calls the refs are giving to him.
I did not think Peter was going to post anything for today, so I started a post for tomorrow and I tackled this subject. I will update what I wrote for tomorrow, but I didn't get that Harrison was joking. I know he thinks it is awesome to be buddy-buddy with players and make little jokes like this but you work for a major network and it is your job to analyze games and use your "expert" opinion to tell the viewer what happened and why. It's not exactly the time to use sarcasm or inside humor that may mislead the viewer about what you actually think. Viewers want analysis not to hear players use inside jokes and fake statements of fact that only amuse that analyst and his friends.
b. Even by JaMarcus Russell's standard, the past month has been about as dismal as a quarterback could have. His quarterback rating in each of his four games: 47.6, 46.0, 33.6, 48.5. Amazing. He has one touchdown pass. The first pick in the 2007 NFL Draft has one touchdown pass.
Yeah, but he had that one good game against Notre Dame in January that one year! He's good because of that, right? He beat Brady Quinn in a bowl game! Doesn't anyone remember this?
JaMarcus Russell is giving Ryan Leaf and Akili Smith a run for their money as the worst bust among quarterbacks taken in the Top 5 of the draft. I actually think Russell is worse than the other two.
f. Three picks for Trent Edwards ... lots go into picks, including far too much pressure over an inexperienced offensive line, but Edwards can't be throwing three interceptions.
What happened to Peter listing Trent Edwards in the same class as Sanchez, Ryan, and Flacco as an up-and-coming quarterback in the NFL? You mean we actually have to wait for actual facts to support this assessment? That's no fun.
I love it when sportswriters make assessments of players, like Edwards, prematurely and then you never hear them admit or say they did this. Despite the fact he hasn't shown he is in the same class as Ryan and Flacco, Peter King put Trent Edwards in the same sentence as them over the past couple weeks anyway.
b. I'm not opposed to fighting in the NHL, except when it's clearly premeditated. How can Donald Brashear skate out onto the ice in his first game with the Rangers this year and, with no provocation, drop the gloves with some thug from the Penguins and go at it? Just stupid. That's the kind of fighting the league should come down hard on.
Fighting is perfectly fine as long as their is a good reason for it according to Peter...but there has to be a good reason. Though the outcome is the same, there is a fight, Peter wants there to be an actual disagreement occur.
g. My baseball awards:
NL Cy Young: Adam Wainwright, St. Louis. Led in wins and IP, fourth in ERA.
This could be the right answer but not for the reasons Peter lists here.
I would like to see Peter just write about baseball for a few weeks. I may not even talk about anything else on this blog if he did that.
Who I Like Tonight
I'll give you a hint...it's Brett Favre's new team.
Tell me if there is anything I missed...
22 comments:
Coming soon to theatres and laundromats near you... Matt Cassell as Tom Brady in THE PATRIOT WAY.
I could be mistaken, but I don't believe Tillman re-enlisted. He owed the Army three years, but could have asked for an early-out after two and didn't, which most soldiers won't do during wartime, since it doesn't look good. If he had and the Army granted it, it would have been only because he was a football star, since the Green Machine isn't letting go of anyone these days.
PK's idea to penalize arranged hockey fights is unworkable. If the NHL outlawed this, players would just make sure there seemed to be an on-ice reason for the fight before they dropped the gloves.
I actually have to give Peter a little bit of credit for his baseball awards. I think that at the end of the day he got the majority of the correct. Maybe it's because when I got there I expected him to declare Jeter MVP and whoever won the most games in the AL Cy Young and was shocked that he got those two right.
NL MVP gets him no credit though, as any sports writer in any field (even Euro soccer) who doesn't pick Pujols should immediately be fired.
Jamarcus Russell is atrocious. The thing is, I didn't think that he was good in college. How any scouts actually though that he would be a good QB in the NFL is a mystery. At least Leaf was good in college. Leaf's downfall was his immaturity and making enemies of his team. Russell is just bad. I'll agree with you that he might be the biggest bust ever.
I clearly remember laughing at that '07 draft with Quinn and Russell, arguing that if they had been in the same draft class with Leinart, Young, and Cutler, they wouldn't even be 1st round picks, yet somehow everyone was shouting that the Raiders had to pick Russell.
What does it say about King that he said at the beginning of the article "The Saints look like the best team in football", yet I expected the Giants to be at the top of his fine fifteen?
I hate to admit it, but I'm starting to accept that Eli might actually be a pretty good QB. He's been really impressive this year.
I think Kent is correct. Tillman wasn't in long enough to re-enlist, only not opt out. He had only been in the Army for 23 months when he was killed. I suspect this is another Peter King dubious fact.
Tony Romo rated over Rodgers....and they pay this guy to write columns! Not sure if you saw the last two plays of the game, but I now understand why Romo isn't very good. He completely locked into the right side of the field. He never looked left, even though the formation had two receivers on that side, but got the snap, and Jamarcused on Hurd, meaning he was going up against Champ Bailey. On the first attempt the slot receiver on the left was open by 3 feet, and on the 2nd attemp, the wide out on the left was open. Romo never even swiveled his head in the direction. It was amateur quaterbacking.
10. Green Bay (2-1). The calm before tonight's storm.
What does this even mean in terms of why this team is "ranked" 10th?
Frank Caliendo - isn't he just soooo funny? This guy is still around? And people find him funny?
You covered that STAT of the week...which wasn't really a stat at all. And then you covered the part where he calls out Fox for covering Brett to much. Just pathetic...unless of course he is being sarcastic becuase he talks about him all the time...if so, touche King.
Can you believe NE opened up the season against a team with a 0-0 record? Amazing!
He is wrong about the reason Pete Carroll is staying at USC...the real reason is because he sucks as an NFL coach. 33-31 record in the pro's. Plus he already is an a pro job, since they pay their players anyway.
c. Ricky Williams, 35 Miami touchdowns. Jim Kiick 28, Mercury Morris 29. Does that stun anyone else?
What is this saying? I'm confused. Is he saying 35 is a lot of TD's for a RB traded for 2 1st round draft picks? Or does he forget that half of those TD's came in one season when he was actually a sane person?
I'm not going to deny the Detroit pitching situation and how is was mishandled. However, what he is saying is Verlander should not have pitched Sunday so he could pitch Wed. But he doesn't bother saying that if he doesn't pitch sunday Detroit probably isn't playing Wed anyway. And it's now set up, if we make it, that Verlander will pitch games 2 and 5, I'll take that with Jackson pitching games 1 and 4 with Procello pitching game 3 at home instead of in Yankee stadium.
And I'm sorry, but in no way should a closer win any sort of award (like the AL RotY), unless of course there was an award just for them. Saving 26 games as opposed to starting 30 is no comparison.
I don't even know what to say about this list of QB's. He says Flacco would be 9th, ahead of McNabb. Unreal.
Dubs, I agree with you about the NL MVP choice and giving no credit...but I would also include that in the AL MVP and AL CY, those are two other awards have no doubt choices and anyone not picking them should have their votes revoked.
I wanted to go back and check for sure but Peter did say he re-enlisted didn't he? I don't want to put words in his mouth or anything. I looked back, and it could have changed, but Tillman was only 2 years into his 3 year service and he could have gotten a discharge but decided not to. I changed it. I don't think the Army would have let him go either.
I would like to see an on-ice reason given before fighting. Each combatant would have to state the reason and as long as it was a logical reason the fight could begin. It's a little too formal for hockey fights.
Dubs, I didn't have too much to say about the baseball awards in regard to Peter. He didn't do bad, though I do question, like AJ, giving the AL RoY to a closer over Andrus and Porcello. He did a good job of closing but I think the other two might have been better this year. He met my low expectations for him so I didn't get on him too much.
I don't know if a case could be made for anyone other than Pujols in the NL.
Russell was not great in college. I remember being a little stunned they were talking about him being a 1st round draft pick and the next thing you know he is the first pick of the draft. Even coming out of LSU there was talk about his work ethic and he didn't show much except in the Sugar Bowl(?) against Notre Dame where he was throwing to two Buster Davis and Bowe. I think he will be the biggest ever when all is said and done. If he played for an organization that he any sense where we couldn't use them as an excuse for his lack of development people would consider him worse than Leaf.
I have no proof of this but I knew Vince Young wouldn't be a good NFL QB. He couldn't see the field well at Texas and threw even worse.
Eli is a good QB, but I still would want Carson Palmer over him at this point.
I don't know about Rodgers over Romo, though that is close in my mind. Romo is digging himself a hole and it mostly has to do with his last game non-heroics. He didn't look super great in the MNF game this week either. I wonder what is wrong with him?
Yes AJ, Peter King did a Brett Favre related stat of the week and then asked Fox why they over covered Favre. I don't know how he doesn't get this doesn't make sense. Tedy Brusci referred to Pete Carroll as the Pats "long time coach" on Gameday this weekend? Wasn't he only there like 3 seasons?
I don't believe Peter King feels Ricky Williams is good enough to be better than Mercury Morris and Kiick.
Detroit was in a tough situation because they had to win Sunday to play Wednesday, so it's really just a call the manager has to make. I trust Jim Leyland's judgment over Peter King's judgment. Jackson has proven this year he can handle Game 1 on the road.
I sort of agree with you on the RoY closer issue. Really the NL MVP and AL MVP/CYA was pretty clear cut this year. I don't see room for too much argument.
Notre Dame's disaster against LSU was in the Sugar Bowl. For some reason, Russell got an insane amount of boost for that game, even though ND all season long had been a good offensive team that couldn't stop the pass against anybody. he went from a having promise to being the consensus for the #1 pick.
Of course, if Al Davis hadn't gotten to pick first, he might have fallen a bit farther down. Anybody know what the lowest QB rating for a player throwing the qualifying number of passes in a season is? We could be looking at history.
I think we are looking at a record breaking year from JaMarcus Russell. He may break every futility record for a starting quarterback, if the Raiders can manage to keep him in there for the entire season. That will be the hard part. Of course they cut Jeff Garcia, so he may be their only viable option at this point.
Who would have thought that Raiders fans would be wishing for the salad days of Marques Tuiasosopo? Also, how bad do you feel if you're Charlie Frye or Gradkowski? You can't beat out this guy? Cripes.
I remember arguing about Russell before the daft with some LSU honks, and them trying to tell me what a great arm he had, blah blah. He wasn't accurate back then, he's not accurate now, and what can you say about a QB who when his team got to a bowl game, I think the previous year, played the backup, (Flynn??), instead of Russell, because the back up made better choices. You are right, he could be history in the making here folks.
As requested, here is the worst single season completion percentages in NFL history. I divided this into different eras, since they may not compare. The eras are pre-super bowl (1932-1964), super bowl/pre merger (1965-1969), merger/dead ball (1970-1977), live ball era/last decade (1978-1999), this century.
For comparison perspectives, the live ball era is from 1978 and on, when the NFL passed rules that made passing much easier, and resulted in much higher numbers.
Eligibility is defined as 14+ passes/game
PRE-SUPER BOWL (1932-1964)
1949 - HB Jug Girard (GB) 35.4% (he had a 31.6 rating, however, he was technically a halfback)
1950 - QB Tobin Rote (GB) 37.1% (26.7 rating)
1962 - QB Cotton Davidson (OAK) 37.1% (36.1 rating)
SUPER BOWL - MERGER (1965-1969)
1966 - QB Dick Wood (MIA) - 36.1% (30.6 rating)
MERGER - LIVE BALL ERA (1970-1977)
1976 - QB Gary Marangi (BUF) 35.3% (30.8 rating)
LIVE BALL - 1999 (1978-1999)
1988 - Rusty Hilger (DET) 41.2% (48.9 rating)
THIS DECADE (2000-2008)
2000 - Akili Smith (CIN) 44.2% (52.8 rating)
JAMARCUS RUSSELL 2009:
2009 - Jamarcus Russell (OAK) 39.8% (42.4 rating)
So, yes, Russell is aiming to have the worst single-season completion percentage in at least the live-ball era.
A few other interesting notes:
- Akili Smith 2000 (44.2%), Mark Brunell 2004 (49.8%), J.P. Losman 2005 (49.6%) are the ONLY QB's in the 2000s to have a season completion percentage below 50%.
- Steve Deberg in 1978 completed 45.4% of his passes, but only had a 40.0 QB rating, so Russell still has a live-ball record to shoot for.
We are watching history people. Rulebook, I really hope you have a job that requires the compilation and usage of mass quantities of data because you seem to be very good at that type thing.
Martin, I watch LSU a lot for some reason. I think I really like Les Miles as a coach, but I didn't think Russell was all that great either. He wasn't bad but I was still surprised when he was the #1 pick. I did like me some Matt Flynn and thought he would be a great backup in the NFL. He is smart, makes good decisions and he always seemed to play well when it mattered. That's enough hyperbole, you get my point. I never bet against LSU, that's my gambling rule, which I break a lot. I bet against them this weekend saying they wouldn't cover the spread and they beat Georgia.
Charlie Frye should be able to beat out Russell. I don't think he is great but I would be he could do it if they gave him a chance...which they shouldn't because I want to see history.
There was a quarterback named "Dick Wood" or did you just throw that in there to keep me on my toes? Nowhere on that list was Ryan Leaf, so I get tired of hearing people say Leaf and Smith are still bigger busts than Russell. They are not...Russell has an outside chance to be the worst quarterback in history in regard to pass completion percentage and QB rating...yet they kept him over Jeff Garcia. I just don't get it.
Yes, there actually was a QB named Dick Wood. I was as shocked as you when I saw it.
In all fairness, Leaf threw 45.3% his rookie year in 1998. But, that was his rookie year, and this is Russell's 3rd year, so yes, I'll agree with you the Russell is a bigger bust.
Don't get me wrong, Ryan Leaf was horrible in his own way, but I still believe that when all is said and done, JaMarcus Russell will be the worst top 5 QB draft pick ever. The Raiders seem dedicated to sticking with him this year, so I don't see him getting pulled and he is probably only going to get more frustrated and worse.
I wish more people could pay attention to how bad Russell was this year. He is almost quietly having the worst year ever for a QB. He is not having any locker room blowups and he plays on the West Coast, so he may not get his due for being as bad as he is.
I can't believe his name was Dick Wood.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125417474811047435.html?mod=WSJ_hps_RIGHTTopCarousel
This is an interview with peter king...amazing he says one of his favorite memories is covering brett favre, well ill be!
another thing that amused me...how he repeats word for word what his editor said to praise him then at the end saying he didnt need the praise, yeah right
Dan, you must have stumbled across that or seen it on Deadspin because I have that article bookmarked and was trying to find a way to cover it here.
It's so funny because I thought about doing a little quiz to see how well we knew Peter King. I knew some of the answers to the questions before Peter answered. He can be so obvious at times. It's a good interview, I would like to find a way to work it in.
He also talked about playing golf with Brett Favre and then saying when talking about not wanting to get close to athletes (or the point where he gets too close), he talked about playing golf with athletes and being invited to their house...he was probably talking about Favre.
It's all about Favre to him.
Thanks for the research, Rulebook. Because I am basically a jerk, rooting for Russell to set incompetence records is the most fascinating thing about this NFL season.
Poor Raiders. At least this year's #1 pick has proved to be a star. No, wait a minute...
Peter King decided to write a Favre article about the game. From this article:
Rosenfels said the normally fun-loving Favre was pensive and withdrawn most of the week leading up to the game against the team he set every quarterback record for. "Not many jokes made this week,'' Rosenfels said. "He was studying a lot this week, wanting to make sure he had every read right.
Doesn't this imply that he usually doesn't care about getting every read right? This seems like a knock on his normal preparation to me.
Really Rulebook, why wouldn't Peter write an article about the game? It makes perfect sense doesn't it.
It does sounds like a knock on his normal preparation but I don't think it is meant to be that way. From what I heard Favre separated himself from his NYJ teammates all year so I don't know how he could become more withdrawn that I have heard he is anyway.
Peter King is an absolute hypocrite for calling out Fox for their Favre coverage and then writing a column about Favre after the game. He has saturated the world with more Favre coverage than anyone else.
I mean this in all lack of sarcasm. I think Peter King loves Brett Favre...potentially in that way.
Something is clearly off with King and his love affair with Brett. I mean something is really really really wrong here...I'm pretty sure Brett may need to get a retraining order on him soon.
To call out Fox and then write a whole column on him the next day is way over the top, I agree with you Ben.
I don't think Favre would get a restraining order because he likes the attention, but Peter King does talk about Favre every chance he gets to mention him. He has talked about him in every MMQB since the beginning of the year.
I don't see how he can tell Fox they are over doing it when he follows Favre's every move and tends to fawn over him. Peter must not be very self aware.
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