Tag: gross quarterbacks

Lamar Jackson (!), Russell Wilson, Kirk Cousins and the grossest NFL quarterbacks of Week 11

Week 11’s two most disappointing quarterbacks squared off in Pittsburgh and it was… kinda great?

Lamar Jackson does not enjoy facing the Pittsburgh Steelers.

He may get excited for it. He may fully understand the gravity of one of the game’s best rivalries. But there’s no team in the NFL he’s been worse against. His 5:8 touchdown:interception ratio and 66.7 passer rating are both career worsts against any opponent he’s faced as a pro.

That held true in Week 11 when he traveled to the former Heinz Field for a familiar struggle. Jackson had one of his worst performances of the season Sunday. Was he the week’s most disappointing quarterback?

Fortunately, we’ve got a metric that can help figure that out.

Using the advanced stat expected points added (EPA) can gauge how much a quarterback brings to the table compared to a typical player. By comparing each passer’s Week 11 EPA against their 2024 average to date we get a better picture of just how frustrating their performances were. And we can find both of those thanks to The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin and his incredibly useful stats sites RBSDM.com and HabitatRing.com.

This is a metric that gauges disappointment based on what we’d typically expect. Will Levis had a negative EPA in Week 11 while losing to the Minnesota Vikings, but he pretty much always has a negative EPA, so he missed the list. Who was the worst? There were several candidates but only one man can truly call himself the grossest quarterback of Week 11.

Please bear with me for any Twitter embed issues. Our editing software has become a whole problem on that front the past few weeks. Rest assured, if there’s a play alluded to in the text it’s worth clicking through to see if it didn’t make it into the article itself.

5. Mac Jones, Jacksonville Jaguars

David Reginek-Imagn Images

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: -7.7

Week 11 EPA: -11

Difference: 3.3 points worse

via habitatring.com
I’m beginning to think Bill Belichick wasn’t Mac’s problem.

4. Jayden Daniels, Washington Commanders

Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: 6.1

Week 11 EPA: 0.1

Difference: 6.0 points worse

Daniels was once again fine — his performance against the Philadelphia Eagles could have even been encouraging for a typical rookie quarterback. But that’s not what Daniels is; he’s an immediate star who put up MVP caliber numbers his first half-season in the NFL.

On Thursday, he was stymied by an Eagles defense that his evolving into a terrifying presence. Since its Week 5 bye, Philadelphia has only allowed more than 20 points once. Their -0.235 EPA allowed per play over that stretch is best in the league.

That doesn’t explain this interception, however.

With Terry McLaurin bracketed, Daniels only threw four passes that traveled more than 10 yards downfield in Week 11. He completed as many to Reed Blankenship as his own teammates.

3. Kirk Cousins, Atlanta Falcons

Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: 2.7

Week 11 EPA: -6.8

Difference: 9.5 points worse

For the second straight game, Cousins was kept out of the end zone and threw an interception. That was a difference maker in a close loss to the New Orleans Saints in Week 10. But in Week 11 he got boat raced by Bo Nix, which feels so, so much worse.

Cousins struggled against a top three passing defense that’s getting an All-Pro season from Patrick Surtain II and a Pro Bowl-ish emergence from Riley Moss. Together, they limited Atlanta’s top downfield targets — Drake London, Darnell Mooney and Kyle Pitts — to six catches and 97 yards on 14 targets. Half of his 18 completions came within one yard of the line of scrimmage.

2. Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens

Barry Reeger-Imagn Images

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: 11.3

Week 11 EPA: 0

Difference: 11.3 points worse

Well, that’s not going to help Jackson’s back-to-back MVP argument. The dynamic dual-threat quarterback was capably wrangled by one of the defenses that knows him best. The Pittsburgh Steelers limited him to 253 total yards and, impressively, a sub-50 percent completion rate at Acrisure Stadium.

Granted, that wasn’t entirely his fault:

Still, this was a departure from the dynamic downfield passer who’d been able to hit his targets in stride and lead wideouts to big gains after the catch. He threw seven deep balls and only one was caught — and that was by Steelers rookie Payton Wilson in an absurd play.

This led to an overall neutral performance. Jackson, statistically, didn’t add anything to the Ravens’ offense. He didn’t take anything away, either. That doesn’t make him the worst quarterback of Week 11, but it does represent a disappointing performance from the MVP front runner.

1. Russell Wilson, Pittsburgh Steelers

Barry Reeger-Imagn Images

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: 4.5

Week 11 EPA: -13.7

Difference: 18.2 points worse

Well, this is unusual. The grossest quarterback of the week faced off with the runner-up and still managed to escape with a win. Even after he did this!

Wilson had his typical moon ball success with George Pickens for a 37-yard gain, but was otherwise short on explosive plays. He averaged just 4.1 yards per dropback, factoring in a single rushing yard on four attempts and four sacks taken.

Wilson was pressured significantly less often than Jackson (29 percent to Jackson’s 43 percent) but still managed to find trouble. This was a throwback to the Broncos version of the Pro Bowl quarterback. Pittsburgh won regardless because there’s no franchise in the league better suited to survive mediocre passing. Could this be an omen of things to come?

Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams, Aaron Rodgers (!) and the grossest NFL quarterbacks of Week 10

Rodgers stared down a bottom five pass defense… and did nothing. Daniels went flat when the Commanders needed him most.

Aaron Rodgers was riding high after beating the Houston Texans in Week 9. He’d unlocked the full capability of Garrett Wilson and had thrown a season-high three touchdown passes in an upset primetime win. It was only one game, but it showcased the promise the New York Jets had seen when they traded for a quarterback about to hit his fifth decade on this planet back in 2023.

This high did not last. Rodgers and the Jets were kept out of the end zone entirely in Week 10 against an underwhelming Arizona Cardinals defense. This was a major disappointment. But was Rodgers the most disappointing quarterback of Week 10?

Fortunately, we’ve got a metric that can help figure that out.

Using the advanced stat expected points added (EPA) can gauge how much a quarterback brings to the table compared to a typical player. By comparing each passer’s Week 10 EPA against their 2024 average to date we get a better picture of just how frustrating their performances were. And we can find both of those thanks to The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin and his incredibly useful stats sites RBSDM.com and HabitatRing.com.

This is a metric that gauges disappointment based on what we’d typically expect. Daniel Jones had a negative EPA in Week 10 while losing to the Carolina Panthers, but his -4.4 was still better than his season-long average of -5.0 EPA per game, so he missed the list. Who was the worst? There were several candidates but only one man can truly call himself the grossest quarterback of Week 10.

Please bear with me for any Twitter embed issues. Our editing software has become a whole problem on that front the past few weeks. Rest assured, if there’s a play alluded to in the text it’s worth clicking through to see if it didn’t make it into the article itself.

5. Jared Goff, Detroit Lions

Thomas B. Shea-Imagn Images

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: 4.8

Week 10 EPA: -1.5

Difference: 6.3 points worse

Goff completed 10 passes in his first half against the Houston Texans. Three were to guys wearing Battle Red uniforms.

In fairness, one came on a last second Hail Mary and the other two were deflected. This still showed an uncharacteristic lack of pocket awareness from the veteran quarterback who’d thrown 11 touchdowns without an interception over his previous five games.

The fresh start of the second half lasted less than two minutes before pick No. 4 — this one from the red zone to wipe out a scoring opportunity. A fifth interception followed.

Then the Lions came back from a 16-point halftime deficit anyway. I’m not sure exactly how you stop Detroit if five interceptions can’t do it.

4. Aaron Rodgers, New York Jets

Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: -1.3

Week 10 EPA: -8.4

Difference: 7.1 points worse

Rodgers had a tremendous opportunity against a bottom five passing defense. Instead, he failed to find the end zone, falling 31-6 to the Arizona Cardinals and leaving the Jets one defeat away from a ninth-straight losing record.

Rodgers gained a net 128 yards on 38 dropbacks. He completed a single pass that traveled more than 10 yards downfield. Behold, the pass chart of a game manager!

via nextgenstats.nfl.com

New York traded away multiple high value draft picks, then spent two seasons adding former Rodgers teammates of varying ability just to wind up with Davis Mills behind center in Arizona.

3. Joe Flacco, Indianapolis Colts

Grace Smith/IndyStar

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: 0.9

Week 10 EPA: -11.9

Difference: 12.8 points worse

The Flacco of 2023, who launched bombs and propelled the Cleveland Browns to the playoffs, is dead. The Flacco of 2024 looks much more like the fading veteran to whom we’d come accustomed as a New York Jet and Denver Bronco.

His very first play of the game saw him blank Taron Johnson, sitting underneath in coverage waiting to turn Flacco’s mistake into six hard-fought points.

One drive later, Flacco threw another interception — this time in Buffalo territory to snuff out a potential scoring drive. Things improved from there, but the 39-year-old couldn’t complete a Colts comeback, taking a brutal sack on fourth down in the red zone in what was a 20-13 game, then effectively sealing this one with his third pick of the day. After churning this game film, it may be Anthony Richardson’s turn in the starting lineup once more.

2. Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears

David Banks-Imagn Images

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: -3.9

Week 10 EPA: -18.2

Difference: 14.3 points worse

The New England Patriots and a bottom 10 defense allowed Williams a wonderful opportunity to throw his first touchdown pass since October 13. Instead, the Bears were held out of the end zone altogether thanks to an offensive line that allowed its young quarterback to be sacked nine times.

Williams had little room to operate against a bottom 10 pass rush. D’Andre Swift couldn’t find lanes because his blockers were getting smothered by a defense that had given up 100-plus rushing yards each of the last seven games. The end result was 39 dropbacks and 69 net passing yards. Each time Matt Eberflus dialed up a passing play, it averaged fewer than two yards of forward progress.

Williams didn’t complete a single pass that traveled more than 10 yards downfield. He only attempted four.

1. Jayden Daniels, Washington Commanders

Amber Searls-Imagn Images

2024 expected points added (EPA) per game: 9.3

Week 10 EPA: -7.2

Difference: 16.5 points worse

Daniels wasn’t the worst quarterback of Week 10, but his incredible start left him with more room to fall than any other passer in the league. While he was able to spread the field and made Terry McLaurin look great once more:

The accuracy and efficiency that defined his rise to rookie of the year frontrunner washed away with the game on the line. Daniels had three drives in the final 17 minutes in which any points would have pushed the Commanders’ lead to two possessions and made a Pittsburgh Steelers comeback very unlikely. He gained two first downs between them (though a third was negated by a genuinely baffling fourth down spot in his final snap of the afternoon).

Daniels’s line over those final three drives? Nine attempts, four completions, 49 passing yards, one rushing yard and a sack for a loss of 11. 11 plays and 39 net yards with the game on the line. Rough scene.

Still, it’s merely a speed bump against a veteran-laden top 10 defense. Daniels will be back. Sunday’s setback just gives him a lower perch from which he’ll fall if he donks up again next week.

Trevor Lawrence, Jalen Hurts, Baker Mayfield and the grossest QBs of Week 18

Lawrence couldn’t drag the Jaguars to the playoffs. Hurts’ Eagles are limping their way there.

The final weekend of the 2023 NFL regular season kicked off with a rainstorm and two backup quarterbacks. In the end, Mason Rudolph led the Pittsburgh Steelers into playoff position by toppling Tyler Huntley’s Baltimore Ravens.

It’s been that kind of year in the NFL; one defined by unexpected gunslingers occasionally thriving but mostly struggling behind center. 2023 will be the year that guys like Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Tommy DeVito, Tyson Bagent, C.J. Beathard, Bailey Zappe and Jaren Hall all earned starts. Injuries and ineffectiveness helped bring scoring to a five-year low, down nearly six points per game from 2020.

This left the capacity for entirely too many awful quarterback performances. But most of them were uninteresting slogs from players from whom we’d come to expect nothing. What this weekly column has dived into is the quarterbacks who were supposed to be great — or at least passably good or even unremarkable but consistent — and then fell flat on their faces for one game.

Friends, there have been a lot of them. 2023 saw stars like Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow and Josh Allen all drop stinkers in the middle of flawed seasons. And it didn’t matter all that much in the long run, because everyone was at least kinda-sorta lowkey flawed this fall. Week 18, despite its lack of big names amongst a field of meaningless games, added a final chapter to that lore.

So who was Week 18’s grossest quarterback?

Fortunately, we’ve got tools to better understand just how damaging each underwhelming performances was. Using the advanced stat expected points added (EPA) can gauge how much a quarterback brings to the table compared to a typical player.

By comparing each passer’s Week 18 EPA against their 2023 adjusted average, we get a better picture of just how frustrating their days were. And we can find both of those thanks to The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin and his incredibly useful stats sites RBSDM.com and HabitatRing.com. So let’s take a look at who disappointed the most in the final weekend of the 2023 season.

Josh Allen, Tua Tagovailoa, Bryce Young and the grossest QBs of Week 17

Allen was still good enough to beat the Patriots. Young couldn’t keep pace with, sigh, C.J. Beathard.

After 12 minutes of Sunday’s game between the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills, Bailey Zappe and Josh Allen had combined to complete four passes. Technically.

Exactly half those caught balls were Zappe interceptions in a stretch of absolute garbage football. That’s not ideal, but whatever. It’s Bailey Zappe. If he were expected to be good, someone would have claimed him when the Patriots released him prior to Week 1.

Allen, on the other hand, is more concerning. In one quarter of play he’d dropped back 12 times. His Bills gained negative-10 net yards in that span. Neither one of his two completions actually made it beyond the line of scrimmage.

via RBSDM.com

Allen eventually regressed back to the mean, though his struggles with deep throws continued. His 169 passing yards — on a 50 percent completion rate — were enough to outlast Zappe en route to a 27-21 win that keeps the Bills’ AFC East title hopes alive. He and Zappe combined for zero passing touchdowns, four interceptions and a 100.6 stacked-up passer rating on the same day Lamar Jackson was roasting the Miami Dolphins for five touchdowns, zero turnovers and a perfect 158.3 rating.

That leaves plenty of questions left to be answered. Not for the Patriots, who expected little from their backup quarterback and who benefitted from a loss (top two draft pick coming, maybe?). And since Zappe couldn’t be Sunday’s most disappointing quarterback because his baseline of play is nearly subterranean, does that mean Allen was? If not him, then who?

Fortunately, we’ve got tools to better understand just how damaging each underwhelming performances was. Using the advanced stat expected points added (EPA) can gauge how much a quarterback brings to the table compared to a typical player.

By comparing each passer’s Week 17 EPA against their 2023 adjusted average, we get a better picture of just how frustrating their days were. And we can find both of those thanks to The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin and his incredibly useful stats sites RBSDM.com and HabitatRing.com. So let’s take a look at who disappointed the most in the 17th Sunday of the 2023 season.

Trevor Lawrence, Jake Browning, Sam Howell and the grossest QBs of Week 16

Browning was due for a dropoff. Howell, on the other hand, is a long-smoldering coal seam poisoning the land above him.

Trevor Lawrence is going through it right now.

The former No. 1 pick’s career has been defined, thus far, by collapse. There was whatever the hell was going on as a rookie, which could be explained away (validly) by the presence of human canker sore Urban Meyer on the sideline. Then there was 2022’s rise, punctuated by his ability to make the Los Angeles Chargers fold after a 27-0 lead en route to a Wild Card win in Jacksonville.

2023 has swung the pendulum back in the opposite direction. After beginning the season 8-3, his Jaguars have crashed back to 8-7. Their playoff position has only been buoyed by the awfulness of the injury-riddled AFC South around them. Lawrence hasn’t been immune to that; his four-game losing streak saw him suffer an ankle sprain and wind up in the league’s concussion protocol leading up to Week 16.

Then, however … eesh.

Lawrence’s turnover woes continued in Tampa, where he threw two interceptions and fumbled once while falling behind 30-0. He eventually recovered for a touchdown toss to Calvin Ridley that only mattered for fantasy managers. He was then was yanked for CJ Beathard — partially due to a shoulder injury, partially due to a hopeless game — that only further endangers his finish to 2023.

Lawrence was bad. Was he Sunday’s most disappointing quarterback?

Fortunately, we’ve got tools to better understand just how damaging each underwhelming performances was. Using the advanced stat expected points added (EPA) can gauge how much a quarterback brings to the table compared to a typical player.

By comparing each passer’s Week 16 EPA against their 2023 adjusted average, we get a better picture of just how frustrating their days were. And we can find both of those thanks to The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin and his incredibly useful stats sites RBSDM.com and HabitatRing.com. So let’s take a look at who disappointed the most in the 16th Sunday of the 2023 season.

Tommy DeVito, Patrick Mahomes, Dak Prescott and the grossest QBs of Week 15

Mahomes and DeVito had very different days. But each was worse than we’ve come to expect.

Tommy DeVito and Patrick Mahomes are very different quarterbacks. One is a two-time MVP, two-time Super Bowl champion and arguably the most recognizable active quarterback in the world — even if his tight end’s girlfiend doesn’t make him the most famous player on his own team. The other is an undrafted rookie thrust into the spotlight by circumstance only to build himself into a sensation thanks to better-than-expected play and a zeitgeist with nothing but fond memories for The Sopranos and the first few seasons of Jersey Shore.

These two also had very different experiences in Week 15, but each winds up on the list of gross quarterbacks. Mahomes was perfectly fine in a 10-point win over the New England Patriots and occasionally, catastrophically, led into danger by his teammates. DeVito, hamstrung by awful blocking because that’s a key tenet of the New York Giants’ philosophy, plummeted back to earth in a touchdown-less 24-6 loss to the the New Orleans Saints.

Those were two frustrating games, but were DeVito or Mahomes truly the most disappointing passers this Sunday? Fortunately, we’ve got tools to better understand just how damaging each underwhelming performances was. Using the advanced stat expected points added (EPA) can gauge how much a quarterback brings to the table compared to a typical player.

By comparing each passer’s Week 15 EPA against their 2023 adjusted average, we get a better picture of just how frustrating their days were. And we can find both of those thanks to The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin and his incredibly useful stats sites RBSDM.com and HabitatRing.com. So let’s take a look at who disappointed the most in the 15th Sunday of the 2023 season.

Trevor Lawrence, C.J. Stroud, Patrick Mahomes and the grossest QBs of Week 14

This week’s grossest quarterbacks features 75 percent of the NFC South. Congrats, Baker Mayfield?

Trevor Lawrence played Sunday vs. the Cleveland Browns. Maybe he shouldn’t have.

While the high ankle sprain that ended his night in Week 13 didn’t hinder his running ability, it did seem to mess with his timing in the pocket. That might not have been an issue against an average NFL defense, but Cleveland’s top-two unit ate up every opportunity to harass the third-year starter. The Browns introduced static to the pocket all afternoon, Lawrence rushed throws and, oops, it led to three interceptions in a 31-27 loss.

Lawrence looked disjointed throughout the afternoon. Christian Kirk’s absence didn’t help, but the only player he clicked with was tight end Evan Engram. Calvin Ridley and Zay Jones stood as his top two wideouts; between them they had nine catches for 81 yards on 27 targets — barely three yards per pass thrown their way.

He may have been a problem in Week 14, but was he truly the most disappointing? Fortunately, we’ve got tools to better understand just how damaging each underwhelming performances was. Using the advanced stat expected points added (EPA) can gauge how much a quarterback brings to the table compared to a typical player.

By comparing each passer’s Week 14 EPA against their 2023 adjusted average, we get a better picture of just how frustrating their days were. And we can find both of those thanks to The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin and his incredibly useful stats sites RBSDM.com and HabitatRing.com. So let’s take a look at who disappointed the most in the 14th Sunday of the 2023 season.

Russell Wilson, Sam Howell and the grossest QBs of Week 13

Wilson threw three interceptions in the final 16 minutes to squander the Broncos’ comeback hopes in Houston.

Tim Boyle was bad enough to be replaced by Trevor Siemian for the New York Jets Sunday. But he’s always bad, so no one really paid all that much attention.

Russell Wilson, on the other hand, stopped a five-game winning streak in its tracks with a performance well below his 2023 standard. Thus, Boyle avoids a place on this week’s grossest quarterbacks list while Wilson reigns at No. 1.

Wilson was a problem for Denver, snuffing out his team’s comeback efforts with poorly timed interceptions that ended potential scoring drives and eventually closed out a thrilling game. He may have been a problem in Week 13, but was he truly the most disappointing? Fortunately, we’ve got tools to better understand just how damaging each underwhelming performances was. Using the advanced stat expected points added (EPA) can gauge how much a quarterback brings to the table compared to a typical player.

By comparing each passer’s Week 13 EPA against their 2023 adjusted average, we get a better picture of just how frustrating their days were. And we can find both of those thanks to The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin and his incredibly useful stats sites RBSDM.com and HabitatRing.com. So let’s take a look at who disappointed the most in the 13th Sunday of the 2023 season.

Mac Jones, Geno Smith, Baker Mayfield and the grossest QBs of Week 12

Happy Thanksgiving, here’s some terrible football.

The NFL’s Thanksgiving-Black Friday combo was a mess.

Every single game featured at least one vastly underperforming quarterback. One of them was Tim Boyle, so that was expected. In the cases of Jared Goff, Geno Smith and Sam Howell, it was not.

Each wound up on the wrong side of big deficits. Only Goff was able to climb back to respectability as the New York Jets, Washington Commanders and Seattle Seahawks combined to lose by 74 total points. So if you skipped holiday football to do some turkey prep or brave the crowds at the outlet shops or merely focus on the Division III playoffs instead (Mount Union, woof), you made the right choice.

That trend continued on Sunday. Derek Carr and Desmond Ridder traded off poorly thought out passes in an NFC South rivalry game between the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons. Kenny Pickett’s inability to find open receivers helped make Joe Burrow understudy Jake Browning look great by comparison. Mac Jones and Tommy DeVito were the starters in a game people actually paid money to see.

But which quarterbacks were truly the most disappointing? Fortunately, we’ve got tools to better understand just how damaging each underwhelming performances was. Using the advanced stat expected points added (EPA) can gauge how much a quarterback brings to the table compared to a typical player.

By comparing each passer’s Week 12 EPA against their 2023 adjusted average, we get a better picture of just how frustrating their days were. And we can find both of those thanks to The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin and his incredibly useful stats sites RBSDM.com and HabitatRing.com. So let’s take a look at who disappointed the most in the 12th Sunday of the 2023 season.

Jared Goff, C.J. Stroud, Zach Wilson and the grossest NFL quarterbacks of Week 11

Stroud looks mortal. Poor Bryce Young just has so, so little to work with.

C.J. Stroud had, in terms of turnovers, by far his worst game as a pro. He also had, in terms of expected points added and total yardage, a decent day.

Stroud threw for 336 yards, a pair of touchdowns and earned a 21-16 win. He also threw three interceptions, all of which came inside the Arizona Cardinals’ 20-yard line or deeper. Each cost him a chance to shut the door on a frisky Cardinals team with an upset on its mind.

All things considered, Houston Texans fans are probably happy to trade off a few uncharacteristic interceptions for another big winning performance from their new franchise cornerstone. For now, and for the first time this season, he lands on the gross quarterbacks list. Was he the worst signal caller of Week 11?

Fortunately, we’ve got tools to better understand just how damaging these underwhelming performances were. Using the advanced stat expected points added (EPA) can gauge how much a quarterback brings to the table compared to a typical player.

By comparing each passer’s Week 11 EPA against their 2023 adjusted average, we get a better picture of just how frustrating their days were. And we can find both of those thanks to The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin and his incredibly useful stats sites RBSDM.com and HabitatRing.com. So let’s take a look at who disappointed the most in the 11th Sunday of the 2023 season — and since we don’t have enough data on him, we’ll leave Dorian Thompson-Robinson off the list … for now.