Tag: completion percentage

One big reason why Jordan Love’s completion percentage is so low

Jordan Love has been fine passing out of neutral passing situations. His completion percentage tanks on 2nd-and-long and 3rd-and-long.

Being forced to throw in difficult passing situations — such as second-and-long and third-and-long — is at least one reason why Jordan Love’s completion percentage is so low through the first five games of the 2023 season.

Entering Week 7, Love ranks last among the 33 qualified quarterbacks in completion percentage at 55.6.

Packers offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich pointed to the difficulty of passing when playing behind the sticks on offense as a major reason why Love has struggled to complete a high number of passes.

“We’ve just got to help him with what we’re doing, making sure that we’re staying efficient as an offense to allow him to get a better completion percentage,” Stenovich said Monday. “Because anytime you’re in these second-and-long situations, things like that, it’s not a high percentage of completions. Third-and-long, we’ve had way too many third-and-longs, and again you’re not going to have a very high completion percentage. So, we definitely do need to do a better job, first and second down, keeping those manageable situations so we can be more efficient as an offense. I think that completion percentage kind of tells the tale of just our offense isn’t very efficient now, for sure.”

The numbers support Stenavich’s conclusion. On 1st-and-10, a completely neutral passing situation, Love is completing 65.4 percent of passes (34/52). It’s the difficult passing situations that are killing his completion percentage.

On 2nd-and-7 or longer, Love has completed 13 of 33 passes (39.4 percent).

On 3rd-and-7 or longer, Love has completed 14 of 30 passes (46.7 percent).

In any game situation other than 2nd-and-long and 3rd-and-long, Love is completing 63.6 percent of his passes.

A few things: Passing in the NFL in obvious passing situations is difficult, even for great quarterbacks and great offenses. Defenses are too good, secondaries are too fast and pass-rushers are too disruptive to consistently win on obvious passing downs. Also, the combination of Love, a young group of skill position players and an offensive line still trying to find its footing after losing David Bakhtiari isn’t nearly good enough to consistently operate on second-and-long and third-and-long.

The Packers must start playing better on early downs or Love and the passing game will continue struggling to execute. It usually all ties together. The Packers are averaging 3.6 yards per run on first down and have committed too many penalties and produced too many negative plays on early downs. Love’s completion percentage will remain low if he’s constantly facing second-and-long and third-and-long over the course of the 2023 season.

Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith makes top 10 in 2022 NFL QB Index

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith landed at No. 9 overall in Marc Sessler’s 2022 NFL QB Index, one spot above the GOAT, Tom Brady.

Throughout the 2022 regular and postseason, 68 quarterbacks had the chance to start an NFL game. Around the NFL writer Marc Sessler took a look at each and ranked them top to bottom for his final QB Index piece of the year.

Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith landed in the top 10 of Sessler’s list.

“Philip Rivers once received a Comeback Player of the Year nod for improving marginally from one autumn to the next,” Sessler writes. “Snagging that same award earlier this month, Geno offered something far meatier, sticking it to his summertime critics (read: this blogger) by waltzing into a post-Russ universe, starting every game and blasting Wilson’s single-season Seahawks passing record into the sun.”

“He also led the league in completion percentage, crafted a 32-to-12 touchdown-to-pick ratio and displayed dramatic improvement as a deep-strike artist,” Sessler continued. “Few players have more effectively dropped a continent-clearing hammer on the haters.”

For his impressive season, Smith finished at No. 9 overall, one spot above the GOAT, Tom Brady.

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Why Seahawks QB Geno Smith is exactly what you want in a teammate

After a phenomenal first season as a starter in Seattle, Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith shows why he’s exactly what you want in a teammate.

Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith might not have logged the best outing of his life on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that the former backup QB has had a phenomenal season in his first go as a starter in Seattle.

Replacing franchise quarterback Russell Wilson was not going to be easy for anyone, but Smith more than rose to the occasion.

“Man, Geno just showed us who he’s always been – he’s a gamer,” coach Pete Carroll said after the Week 18 win. “Even when it’s all on the line he’s going to go out there still be poised, still going to play. It’s hard, especially when you go out there and things don’t go your way early on. We had picks and stuff like that, but to show the fight and how you respond that’s what you want in a player; that’s what you want in a teammate.

“Somebody that’s just going to keep on fighting.”

And fight he did. Smith ended the regular season with some incredible numbers.

Smith will get a shot to impress in the postseason when the Seahawks square off against the 49ers in San Francisco on Saturday to kick off Wild Card Weekend.

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Drew Brees is once again the NFL’s all-time leader in pass completion percentage

Drew Brees is once again the NFL’s all-time leader in pass completion percentage after some young challengers to his title took a nosedive:

Look, there’s no doubting whether Drew Brees is one of the most accurate quarterbacks in NFL history. But it’s still good to see it written down and backed up by the numbers. Brees is once again the NFL’s all-time leader in completion percentage after some young aspirants to his title took a nosedive — his career mark of 67.7% is the highest measured at Pro Football Reference out of 208 qualifying quarterbacks, meaning those who have attempted at least 14 passes per game as well as at least 1,500 career pass attempts.

Brees was briefly unseated by Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, who returned from his league-mandated suspension for alleged sexual misconduct with a lot of rust to knock off. Watson notched completion percentages of 54.5%, 61.9%, and 64.3% in three games with the Browns so far, but he has a chance at leveling out against the Saints themselves on Sunday afternoon. He’s completed 60.0% of his passes for the Browns through three games so far, and those poor performances dropped Watson’s career number from 67.8% down to 67.5%.

What about other contenders? San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (67.6%) is on the mend, as is Arizona Cardinals passer Kyler Murray (66.8%). NFC playoff hopefuls Dak Prescott and Kirk Cousins (both 66.7%) are on Brees’ heels, as are Los Angeles Chargers standout Justin Herbert (66.6%) and his former protégé Teddy Bridgewater (66.4%). Kansas City Chiefs MVP favorite Patrick Mahomes (66.3%) rounds out the group of active passers with a claim to Brees’ title.

So it’s all but certain that Brees will be surpassed again someday — likely for good. That’s just how it goes. But he’s a surefire lock for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in a few years regardless of who owns this record. Brees claimed dozens of them during his storied NFL career, and he’ll hold onto many of them for quite a long time. Before we know, he’ll have his own bronze bust enshrined in Canton to make sure his accomplishments aren’t ever forgotten.

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Seahawks veteran QB Geno Smith earns 1st Pro Bowl nod of his career

After 10 years in the NFL mostly as a backup, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith has finally earned his first Pro Bowl nod.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith has come a long way in his 10-year career to finally earn his first nod onto a Pro Bowl roster. Smith is among four Seattle players who were named to the 2023 Pro Bowl Games.

Smith was originally selected by the Jets in the second round of the 2013 NFL draft out of West Virginia. He was inconsistent throughout his first two seasons as a starter before serving in a backup role his last two years in New York. He next spent time as a backup with the Giants and the Chargers before signing with Seattle in 2019.

After backing up quarterback Russell Wilson for three seasons, Smith earned his chance to start for Seattle in 2022 and has never looked back. He now heads the league in completion percentage with a whopping 71.4. In addition, Smith has the second-best passer rating (105.3), ranks fourth in passing touchdowns (26), sixth in completions (337), seventh in yards (3,671) and is tied for ninth place in attempts (472).

All that from a guy who many considered a career backup at best.

“Honestly, my focus is on this week and this game,” Smith told reporters Wednesday before hearing of his honor. “Obviously, those things are personal accolades, but I’m focused on the team part of it. It’s really important for us to go out there and get a win. It’s a crucial part of our season. We got three games left to figure out what we are going to do here.

“I’ve just been focused on that and locked in on that.”

Congrats to Smith and the rest of the Seahawks who will be representing Seattle and the NFC in the 2023 Pro Bowl Games.

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Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes makes franchise history in Week 15 win vs. Texans

#Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes claimed two franchise records from Alex Smith during the Week 15 win over the #Texans.

Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes claimed a few pieces of franchise history during the team’s Week 15 win over the Houston Texans.

During the course of the game, Mahomes ran for his 11th career rushing touchdown. In doing so, Mahomes now has the most rushing touchdowns by a QB in franchise history in their career. It breaks the tie that he held with Alex Smith (10) for the most rushing touchdowns by a QB in franchise history. Keep in mind, this is only the fifth year that Mahomes has been a starter for the team. It’s also not the only record that Mahomes claimed from Smith on Sunday.

In addition to his rushing prowess, Mahomes had a dominant day throwing the ball. He completed 36-of-41 passes for 336 yards and two touchdowns in Houston. That’s an 87.80% completion percentage — which is now the highest completion percentage (minimum of 20 attempts) by a Chiefs QB in a single game in franchise history.

Smith previously held the completion percentage record with 86.36% against the Oakland Raiders in October of 2016, when he completed 19-of-22 passes. Smith actually now owns No. 2 through No. 5 on the franchise leaderboards, but he never completed more than 25 passes in those games. It makes the record by Mahomes all the more impressive and one that will likely stand for a very long time.

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Seahawks QB Geno Smith nothing short of ‘spectacular’ in Week 4

Seattle Seahawks QB Geno Smith continues to quietly put up impressive numbers, including those in his “spectacular” Week-4 win in Detroit.

The Seattle Seahawks won a shoot-out Sunday in Detroit, with a good deal of credit going to starting quarterback Geno Smith. Smith finished the Week-4 outing completing 23 of 30 passes attempted for 320 yards and two touchdowns. He also logged seven carries for 49 yards and the Seahawks’ first rushing touchdown of the season.

Coach Pete Carroll was quick to acknowledge his QB after the game.

“Geno played some spectacular football, spectacular football, not just the throwing and the catching but the command of the game and running the whole show,” Carroll said. “He did an incredible job, and he ran the ball too for 50 yards or something.

“So, fantastic day, I don’t know how you can do a whole lot more, play a lot better than that.”

Through four games played this year, Smith’s 77.3 completion percentage is the highest for a QB through his first four games in a season in NFL history. Not a bad stat for someone most pundits had relegated to a career backup.

“He played pretty good football, man,” Carroll continued. “I’m just thrilled for him and for our guys that he’s had this kind of early success to jump-start this season and show us that we can play really good football with him at the helm, and he’s just been so rock steady throughout this whole process, and then he’s playing and doing it, taking it on the road.”

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Seahawks have been conservative, and it’s time to let Geno Smith cook

Through the first two games of the season, the Seattle Seahawks have been looking to run the ball but it’s time to turn QB Geno Smith loose.

The Seattle Seahawks are now 1-1 on the year following a “humbling” loss to the San Francisco 49ers after beating Russell Wilson and the Broncos to open the season.

Seattle is still getting used to quarterback Geno Smith leading the charge, and growing pains are evident even with the veteran at the helm. Over the first two outings, Smith has completed 81% of his passes, but for a total of only 392 yards and two touchdowns.

Coach Pete Carroll was asked Monday morning whether or it’s time to open things up.

“We don’t need to hold him back at all. I think Geno’s got his game ready to go,” Carroll told host Mike Salk and Brock Huard during his Seattle Sports radio hit. “We need to trust him and we need to maybe give him a few more opportunities and stuff. We’ve been pretty solidly conservative, counting on running the football, and when we didn’t run the football, then OK, we didn’t have much of a mix that we needed.”

Through the first two games, Smith has connected on 47 of 58 pass attempts. Decent enough, but it’s time to see what Smith can do if he’s really turned loose.

“We can do better with that,” Carroll said of the conservative playcalling. “And whether that’s right or wrong, that’s not the point. The point is that we need to keep expanding. We have too many explosive avenues to go to, and we’ve got to make sure that these guys show up.”

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Raiders QB Derek Carr has historic day despite loss of top weapons

Raiders QB Derek Carr has historic day despite loss of top weapons

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No player outside of perhaps Derek Carr himself has meant more to the Raiders offense the past three years than tight end Darren Waller.

All offseason, the Raiders talked about how the offense goes through the Pro Bowl tight end. Sunday they came into their week seven game against the Eagles without that top weapon after Waller suffered an ankle injury in practice this week.

And by halftime, the Raiders also lost Pro Bowl running back Josh Jacobs to a chest injury.

Despite the losses of his top weapons, Derek Carr simply went off.

Carr’s final line had him complete 31 of 34 passes for 323 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Yeah, he had just three incompletions on over 30 passes. That gave him a completion percentage of 91.2 for the game, eclipsing Carr’s previous career-best of 90.6 which he set in 2018.

“I’d say he’s pretty close to the next level,” interim head coach Rich Bisaccia said of Carr after the game. “He’s in concert with [offensive coordinator] Greg [Olson]. He’s so accurate. He can literally go through an entire Wednesday’s and Thursday’s practice and possibly three incompletions and he ends up throwing them again. He’s just got tremendous accuracy, tremendous command of the offense, he knows where everyone is supposed to be, he’s the first one in the building, he’s the last one to leave, just his preparation. I’ve been around a lot of good quarterbacks, but his preparation is just second to none. And I think he plays like he prepares.”

Not only is this a new career-high completion percentage for Carr, but it’s also the second-highest completion percentage in the NFL since 1950 for QBs with a minimum of 30 attempts. The only QB in the modern era with a higher completion percentage in a game was Drew Brees (96.75% in 2019).

In the process, Carr helped Waller’s replacement Foster Moreau to have a career day of his own, catching six passes for 60 yards and a touchdown. Moreau’s previous career-high for catches was four and yards was 47.

Moreau tied his career-high in the second quarter when he caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from Carr in which Moreau reached around the defender’s helmet to pull it in. A reminder that for a QB to put up a historic completion percentage like that, he needs his receivers to make some plays as well.

That TD catch tied the game up at 7-7 after the Eagles had opened the game with a touchdown drive.

The Raiders’ response was a drive that ended with an interception when Carr threw the ball behind Jalen Richard and had it intercepted off the deflection.

Carr shook off the interception and the Raiders ran away with the game.

The most impressive drive came in the second quarter when the Raiders got the ball at their own four-yard line and drove 96 yards for the touchdown to give them their first lead of the game at 14-7. A lead they would not relinquish.

Josh Jacobs scored that touchdown on a run out left and then immediately left the game with a chest injury. Then Kenyan Drake stepped in and the offense didn’t seem to miss a beat.

Drake picked up chunk plays on each of his runs, finishing with 69 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries (4.9 yards per carry).

It was a similar case last week for Drake both on the ground and through the air. Drake credits Carr for being a coach on the field.

“I just feel like there’s not a throw he can’t make,” Kenyan Drake said of Carr. “Whether it’s downfield, checking the ball down when he needs to, when you have a quarterback that’s cerebral in terms of dissecting the defense, understanding pre-snap looks, getting us to the exact play whether it’s that we need to get to a pass, we need to get to a run, it just makes the game flow so so much easier. It’s almost like having a coach out there on the field. And I enjoy playing with him because he has that ability to just be the guy that you can just rely on in the crunch. . . he’s just going to get the job done.”

Crediting Carr with on-field coaching makes total sense when you consider it’s been two games since Jon Gruden was forced to resign, leading to Carr having more autonomy with the offense.

Carr and the offense would score another 16 points, while the defense kept the Eagles from scoring to go on a 30-0 run that lasted into the fourth quarter.

The final score was 33-22, but it was never really that close. This team has now won by double digits in consecutive games for the first time since 2017. While the offense has had their two highest-scoring games of the season.

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Seahawks QB Russell Wilson named NFC’s Offensive Player of Week 1

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson is off to a red-hot start in 2020.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson is off to a red-hot start in 2020. For his performance in the team’s victory over the Atlanta Falcons Week 1, Wilson has been named the NFC’s Offensive Player of Week.

Against the Falcons, Wilson completed 31 of 35 passes attempted for 332 yards and four touchdowns. He finished with a completion percentage of 88.6  and a passer rating of 143.1.

“Russ has been extraordinary all camp,” coach Pete Carroll said after the win. “He had a great summer throwing the ball to everybody and he had perhaps his best throwing day, numbers-wise, just about as you could have. He was in great command of the game.”

This marks the 10th time in his career Wilson has earned the NFC Player of the Week nomination. He was named twice last season, in Week 2 and Week 9.

On Sunday, Wilson became one of only two quarterbacks in league history to pass for more than 30,000 yards and rush for more than 4,000 . . . Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young is the other.

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