In today’s football world there are an insane number of advanced stats to help figure out just how good or valuable certain players are and how loaded teams may be.
One of those numbers when it comes to quarterback play is Total QBR which is done by ESPN. Now what exactly is Total QBR?
Per ESPN – Adjusted Total Quarterback Rating “values the quarterback on all play types on a 0-100 scale adjusted for the strength of opposing defenses faced.”
Alright, so we know with just three or four games in the book the sample size is small, but with that in mind, how do the top 25 rank to date?
Sam Hartman had another solid showing for Notre Dame but fell from the top-five this week. Who jumped him? And who is the new No. 1?
Here are the top 25 following the conclusion of Week 3:
Weird seeing a Notre Dame quarterback so high…been a long while
In today’s football world there are an insane number of advanced stats to help figure out just how good or valuable certain players are and how loaded teams may be.
One of those numbers when it comes to quarterback play is Total QBR which is done by ESPN. Now what exactly is Total QBR?
Per ESPN – Adjusted Total Quarterback Rating “values the quarterback on all play types on a 0-100 scale adjusted for the strength of opposing defenses faced.”
Alright, so we know with just two or three games in the book the sample size is small, but with that in mind, how do the top 25 rank to date?
Sam Hartman has been better than advertised at Notre Dame. Does he crack the top five? And where do some of the quarterbacks Notre Dame will soon compete against check in?
USA Today Sports released a ranking of the best quarterbacks in the nation. Find out where he ranked here.
Another year, another elite signal-caller in the huddle for Alabama.
Lately, top quarterbacks there have become synonymous with the Crimson Tide. The position has certainly usurped top running backs and elite defensive units as being labeled the primary difference-maker for the team. You might as well take a step back, Oklahoma Sooners.
One could say that the change happened as Jalen Hurts began coming into his own as a shifty dual-threat quarterback. Others might assert that it began with Tua Tagovailoa’s infamous 2nd & 26 against Georgia in the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
In a string of elite quarterbacks, we have gone from Hurts, to Tagovailoa, to Mac Jones and now Young at the helm. The former three now have careers in the NFL with the Eagles, Dolphins, and Patriots, respectively. As things are looking now, Young is considered one of the top pro prospects in the 2023 draft.
In a weekly Top-10 ranking compiled by USA TODAY Sports, Young was ranked the No. 1 QB in the country for Week 3, just ahead of Ole Miss’ Matt Corral at No. 2 and Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder at No. 3.
Young has yet to throw an interception this year while tossing 10 touchdown passes and averaging 8.1 yards per throw. He has a total of 811 yards through the air, at an average of 270.3 yards per game. Young is completing passes at a rate of 68% on the year, displaying sound accuracy.
The nation will continue to watch as Young develops in awe and anger, alike, pontificating on the fact that Alabama has yet another top field general at the helm of the offense, wondering when their team might be so lucky.
Truth is, luck is not involved, unless a portrait of Nick Saban and his amazing recruiters appear in the dictionary next to the word. I just checked, it is not. Otherwise, it’s just great recruiting.
Alabama is set to play Southern Miss on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. CT on the SEC Network. Here’s more information on how you can watch, stream and listen to the game.
View the Roll Tide Wire staff predictions right here ahead of the matchup.
While watching, you can reference this guide on the key issues plaguing the Tide through three weeks of the season.
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Layne Gerbig on Twitter @LayneG_29
Notre Dame’s Ian Book continues to earn national recognition for the outstanding 2020 season he’s having.
Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book has had a stellar 2020 season where he’s seemingly improved each week over the past month or so, continues to get national recognition.
Book, who has led Notre Dame to a 9-0 mark and clinched a spot in the ACC Championship Game, has been named to the Davey O’Brien weekly award list four times this year as well.
Now Book has officially been selected to the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award Class of 2020.
NOTRE DAME, Indiana — University of Notre Dame graduate student quarterback Ian Book has been selected to the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award Class of 2020. Named to the award’s weekly honor list four times this season, Book is one of 35 FBS quarterbacks recognized.
Book is undefeated in 2020, leading the Irish to wins over ranked opponents No. 1 Clemson and No. 19 North Carolina. With 29 career wins as a starter, he is tied for the most all-time by a Notre Dame quarterback. His .906 win rate (29-3) as a starter ranks second among all FBS quarterbacks, while his 29 wins tie for third among all FBS passers, even as he owns only the 12th-most starts by a current FBS quarterback.
The rare two-time team captain has totaled 237-consecutive passing attempts without an interception this season, tied for the longest active streak in the FBS and the longest streak in Notre Dame quarterback history.
In 2020, Book has completed 157 passes for 2,097 yards and 12 touchdowns, rushing 83 times for 412 yards and six touchdowns.
Book ranks second all-time in Irish records in career passing yards (8,215), touchdown passes (69), QB rushing yards (1,445), total offense yards (9,660) and points responsible for (498).
In his career, Book has been named to the O’Brien Great 8 weekly list seven times, including selection to the list for the past three-consecutive games (vs. No. 1 Clemson, at Boston College and at No. 19 North Carolina). He has been recognized a total of four times in 2020.
The award will select 16 semifinalists based on a selection committee and a fan vote. Semifinalists will be announced December 7. The fan vote will take place on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and the winner of the vote on each of the three sites will receive the equivalent of two additional committee member ballots.
Following the naming of the semifinalists, the next round of fan voting will take place from Monday, Dec. 7 to Sunday, Dec. 20 with the three finalists named on Tuesday, Dec. 22. The final round of fan voting will occur from Tuesday, Dec. 22 until Wednesday, Dec. 30. The winner will be announced on Thursday, Jan. 7 on the 30th annual The Home Depot College Football Awards, which will be held virtually from 7-8:30 p.m. (ET) on ESPN.
After another stellar showing against Boston College, Ian Book received national praise as Notre Dame’s starting quarterback
Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book continues his steady rise the last couple weeks after playing another great game at Boston College over the weekend.
Book has turned into a fringe Heisman Trophy candidate and although that appears incredibly unlikely for him to ultimately win, him being a finalist all of a sudden doesn’t seem so crazy.
Additionally, the Notre Dame signal caller was named a Manning Award Star of the Week after his efforts against Boston College, the third time Book has been named a winner during his career and first in 2020.
Notre Dame’s official release on Book’s award can be read below:
NOTRE DAME, Indiana — Adding to his honors following the 45-31 win over ACC rival Boston College Saturday, graduate student quarterback Ian Book was named a Manning Award Star of the Week for his performance.
Fans can vote for Book to be named the Manning Award Quarterback of the Week by visiting https://bit.ly/VoteIanWeek11 and “liking” Book’s photo. Voting closes Thursday at Noon ET.
It marks the third time in Book’s career that he has been named a Manning Star of the Week, and first time this season. The honor comes on the same day Book was named to the Davey O’Brien Award Great 8 List for Week 11 and recognized as honorable mention for the CFPA National Performer of the Week.
In Notre Dame’s eighth-consecutive win of 2020, and 14th-consecutive overall (the longest streak in the FBS), Book went 20-of-27 for 283 yards and three touchdowns, with zero interceptions and zero sacks for a 198.8 QB rating. He also added 10 rushes for 85 yards and a touchdown.
With a 74.1 completion percentage, Book led all ACC quarterbacks on the weekend. Book was also the only ACC quarterback not to take a sack this weekend (among eligible QBs), and his 10.48 yards/attempt were the second-most in the ACC for the week.
Book has now totaled 195-consecutive attempts without an interception, which is the third-longest active streak in college football, and the longest streak among all Power 5 players. It ranks second only to Brady Quinn’s 226 in 2006 (Michigan State to Army) in Notre Dame records.
Book was the only ACC quarterback on the weekend to throw three touchdowns and zero interceptions, while also avoiding any sacks. Ranking tied for eighth nationally in touchdown passes on the weekend, of the seven quarterbacks who threw more, three of them threw interceptions, and only one of those seven was not sacked. Book’s 198.8 passer rating Saturday ranked sixth on the weekend among all FBS quarterbacks.
Accounting for four touchdowns (three passing, one rushing), Book’s game marked the first time a Notre Dame player has been responsible for four or more touchdowns in a single game since he did it at Stanford in 2019. Book has led the Irish to score 45 or more points in two-consecutive games for the first time since 1996 (vs. Pitt 60-6, vs. Rutgers 62-0).
Entering Saturday, Boston College’s scoring defense ranked fourth in the ACC, allowing 24.6 points per game. Notre Dame surpassed that mark in the first half alone with 31 points in the first 30 minutes.
The Irish return to play Friday, November 27, when they travel to play North Carolina in Chapel Hill (3:30 p.m. ET on ABC).
Seattle Seahawks signal-caller Russell Wilson leads the pack as the NFC West ranks second among all divisions in quarterback play.
In most seasons, teams would be wrapping up minicamps before they break for the summer and the start of training camps at the end of July. This year, however, has been radically changed by the coronavirus pandemic which has led to a virtual offseason.
Regardless, there is still hope for the future and a 2020 season. With that said, NFL.com contributing columnist Adam Schein is looking ahead to which division will provide the best quarterback play this year and the NFC South – comprised of Falcons’ Matt Ryan, Panthers’ Teddy Bridgewater, Saints’ Drew Brees and Buccaneers’ Tom Brady – top the list.
“At age 31, Wilson is a megastar and already a first-ballot Hall of Famer,” Schein writes. “He makes everyone around him better. He has a mind-meld with Tyler Lockett, and don’t sleep on D.K. Metcalf making another leap to true stardom in Year 2. Russ headlines the division.”
Kyler Murray, Jared Goff and Jimmy Garoppolo round out the West’s signal-callers who are also likely to have impressive seasons in 2020 earning the division the No. 2 spot.
How do we define a great quarterback? Of course, you’d ideally want a guy who can do everything required of the position at a high level, but that’s not generally possible because the requirements are so varied and exacting. Tom Brady is never going …
How do we define a great quarterback? Of course, you’d ideally want a guy who can do everything required of the position at a high level, but that’s not generally possible because the requirements are so varied and exacting. Tom Brady is never going to juke a linebacker out of his socks on a scramble (unless you count this play against Hall-of-Famer Brian Urlacher in 2006). Lamar Jackson was the NFL’s unanimous MVP last season, but as dynamic as he is as a thrower and runner, there are still minor processing issues that showed up in the playoffs.
Patrick Mahomes is probably the best quarterback in the NFL right now, but he still threw two interceptions in Super Bowl LIV. Drew Brees had had seasons in which his deep ball seemed to disappear, only to return in time.
So, when evaluating quarterbacks, coaches and player personnel people need to figure out what attributes work best for their teams, and respond accordingly. It doesn’t matter that Brady isn’t Lamar Jackson — he’s also the best pocket mover the position has ever seen. And while Jackson may break the NFL if (more likely when) he sands down his few rough spots, he’s also the most impossible mobile quarterback to solve since Michael Vick in his prime.
Who’s best under pressure? Who performs at the highest level when using play-action? Who needs to keep his drops short and orderly to maintain his poise, and which quarterbacks thrive on the broken play?
We’ll be taking deeper dives into these individual questions over the summer, but for now, here’s the NFL’s best quarterbacks from 2019 when you need just one of these kinds of throws.
(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions).
The three-step drop: Ryan Tannehill, Tennessee Titans
(Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports)
Play-action was a crucial part of the Titans’ passing game when Tannehill took over for Marcus Mariota halfway through the 2019 season, but the quick game was another integral aspect. And on three-step drops, Tannehill led the league with a 123.9 passer rating, completing 96 of 138 passes for 1,356 yards, 12 touchdowns, and two interceptions.
The five-step drop: Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints
(Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports)
Moving from the three-step drop to the five-step drop gets us into the intermediate passing game (say, 10-19 air yards), and that’s where Brees reigned supreme in 2019 with a 132.4 passer rating on such throws. He completed 79 passes on 106 five-step throws for 955 yards, 11 touchdowns, and one interception.
The seven-step drop: Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks.
(Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports)
As the NFL has transitioned to more of a quick passing game by default, the seven-step drop is almost a thing of the past. Jared Goff was the only quarterback in 2019 with more than 50 attempts on seven-step drops (68), but it was Wilson, Goff’s NFC West rival, who proved most effective on those longer dropbacks with a 157.6 passer rating. Wilson completed 23 of 30 passes for 450 yards, five touchdowns, and no interceptions. He also took sacks on 16.7% of his dropbacks, which is the nature of the beast. Interestingly enough, Wilson also dominated on zero-step and one-step drops, with 11 touchdowns and just one interception.
The designed rollout: Baker Mayfield, Cleveland Browns
(Mitchell Layton-USA TODAY Sports)
It may surprise you to know that Jared Goff had the most rollout throws in the NFL last season with 75, 15 more than any other quarterback. But Goff wasn’t the most efficient quarterback when rolling out — that was Mayfield, who completed 16 of 20 passes for 285 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. Expect far more boot-action rollouts for Mayfield in Kevin Stefanski’s offense in 2020.
