Play-action: Jared Goff, Los Angeles Rams
Given the extent to which Sean McVay’s offense is based on play-action — no team had more play-action passing attempts than the Goff’s 202 — it’s quite disconcerting how ineffective he was with it. Goff had the league’s lowest play-action passer rating (82.9), completing 128 of those 202 attempts for 1,617 yards, just three touchdowns, and five interceptions. Play-action generally presents an open invitation to shot plays downfield, so when you add in the fact that Goff had just 675 air yards on all those attempts… well, it’s one more reason Goff’s enormous contract makes less and less sense.
Without play-action: Luke Falk, New York Jets
Perhaps it’s unfair to single Falk out here — he was the Jets’ replacement for Sam Darnold when Darnold had his unfortunate bout with mononucleosis last season — but hoo boy, the numbers are not at all good. On 56 passing attempts without play-action, the sixth-round rookie from Washington State completed 38 passes for 295 yards, no touchdowns, and two interceptions. Falk had just 69 air yards on those throws, by far the least in the NFL — Denver’s Brandon Allen, another sixth-round rookie pressed into service, had the second-lowest air yard total with 140 on just 22 completions.
The broken play: Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills
In his second NFL season, the Bills’ franchise quarterback varied wildly at times between big plays and instances in which nobody was quite sure what he was doing. Things tended to get reductive when the original play broke down and Allen had to improvise — on those kinds of plays, Allen posted a ghastly 21.5 quarterback rating (spiking the ball over and over would have given him a 39.6 rating), completing just six of 25 passes for 124 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions.
Under pressure: Jameis Winston, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
If you’re defined as a quarterback by how well you perform under pressure… well, Winston certainly defined himself in 2019. It should come as no surprise that no other quarterback came close to his 16 interceptions under pressure (Philip Rivers finished second with 12, and Ryan Fitzpatrick finished third with eight), and Winston also took 47 sacks under pressure. In that context, his 1,244 yards and 10 touchdowns under pressure are just noise.
Without pressure: Baker Mayfield, Cleveland Browns
There are several reasons for Mayfield’s statistical regression in 2019 from his outstanding 2018 rookie campaign, and his decision-making even when he wasn’t pressured was a primary factor. When he wasn’t harassed, Mayfield still threw a league-high 16 interceptions on 394 attempts, and a league-worst 84.0 quarterback rating.