Pro Football Focus is at it again, and this time the football scouting and analytics firm released its latest deep ball quarterback rankings.
According to PFF’s Sam Monson, Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson is the second-best deep ball thrower in the NFL.
44.6% completion percentage, 15.1 yards per attempt, 102.8 Passer Rating
Only Jimmy Garoppolo — who benefits hugely from the scheme in San Francisco when it comes to deep shots — had a higher adjusted completion rate on deep passes than Deshaun Watson last season. Watson has the arm to make special deep passes, and while he made a lot of big plays, only three passers threw more interceptions on deep shots than the five Watson managed over the regular season.
Even though coach Bill O’Brien says he doesn’t know anything about Pro Football Focus, the pro personnel scouting must be using some sort of analytics. Why else would the 2020 receiving corps’ most dominant trait be speed, which is another key component of executing deep ball completions?
The only quarterback higher than Watson on the list was the Seattle Seahawks’ Russell Wilson, which makes sense. Since entering the league in 2012, Wilson has proven to be a consistent deep ball thrower year in and year out.
In terms of rankings, it is all subjective; whether Wilson is No. 1 or Watson No. 2 has no material impact on the Texans’ ability to make the deep passing game a key part of their 2020 offense.
“I think when you look at the people that we have in our offensive unit room right now, you’ve got a lot of explosive players there for us, guys that have unique skillsets, guys that are experienced and guys that have produced at a high level in this league,” offensive coordinator Tim Kelly said on May 20. “It’s an exciting thing to be able to kind of sit back and watch those guys come together throughout this virtual offseason and learn the offense and kind of come together as one unit.”