Comparing quarterbacks

[Swarly]

I'm seeing a lot of talk about how bad Clausen has been, questioning whether he should be benched or if it was a mistake drafting him. I'm going to try to keep this post objective so I'll try not to comment on that, I just want to post some stats of some of today's successful quarterbacks and how they did in their first season starting *Some stats may be incorrect. I tried my best to get them all right, so if you see something incorrect let me know and I'll fix it.*

Successful rookie seasons:

Philip Rivers - *didn't start until his 3rd season* 3,400 yards, 22 touchdowns/9 interceptions, 92 QB rating

Aaron Rodgers - *didn't start until his 4th season* 4000 yards, 28 touchdowns/13 interceptions, 93 QB rating

--The following quarterbacks all started their rookie season. Some started a full season, and some only started a part of the season.--

Matt Ryan - 3400 yards, 16 touchdowns/11 interceptions, 87 QB rating

Joe Flacco - 2900 yards, 14 touchdowns/12 interceptions, 80 QB rating

Ben Roethlisberger - 2600 yards, 17 touchdowns/11 interceptions, 98 QB rating

and on the other side, some not so great rookie seasons..

Peyton Manning - 3700 yards, 26 touchdowns/28 interceptions, 71 QB rating

Mark Sanchez - 2400 yards, 12 touchdowns/20 interceptions, 63 QB rating

Eli Manning - 1000 yards, 6 touchdowns/9 interceptions, 55 QB rating

Donovan McNabb - 900 yards, 8 touchdowns/7 interceptions, 60 QB rating

Matthew Stafford - 2200 yards, 13 touchdowns/20 interceptions, 61 QB rating

Josh Freeman - 1800 yards, 10 touchdowns/18 interceptions, 59 QB rating

Jimmy Clausen - 400 yards, 1 touchdown/3 interceptions, 52 QB rating

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So when you look at the quarterbacks who were thrown into the starting role early on, they obviously weren't very successful. Now there are a few who showed that they could be great; such as Manning who threw 26 touchdowns and over 3,000 yards, or Sanchez who had an outstanding post-season and brought his team to the AFC championship. Then there are some who just looked awful from the beginning of the season to the end.

I see a lot of people(not just Panthers fans) who automatically bring up Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan when they're talking about rookie quarterbacks and how they can be successful.. it's actually frustrating because it really set the bar high on rookie expectations, when in reality it's rare for a quarterback to provide an immediate impact in their rookie season.

Falcons were #2 in rushing, and the Ravens were #4 in rushing in their rookie seasons. To go along with that, the Steelers had the #2 ranked rushing game during Ben Roethlisberger's rookie season(he also had a successful season.) They both obviously had a lot of help from their teams that contributed to their success.

I can't comment on most of these quarterbacks supporting casts, because I don't follow other teams like I follow the Panthers, but I can't imagine their supporting cast being that much worse than the Panthers at the moment. As I said at the beginning of this post, I'm not going to comment on who should start or who shouldn't. I'll leave that to you all.

and that's it! hope it was a good read.

[HPPantherzfan]

Nice write up but I think you compaired all other rookies in the list, playing a full season, versus Jimmy playing 3 games?!

Not sure thats a fair comparison!

I get you point though...the team (including Jimmy) has sucked

[Pox 08]

Good write up.

It's sad though, that we have to have these comparison because so many chumps are calling for Clausen's head after just 3 games.

He could have a 20 qb rating so far and 1 td and 10 int and I'd still go with the rookie so he could get more experience under his belt before judging him one way or the other.

[Jackofalltrades]

Not to mention thats a comparison of successful QB's, leaving out names like Leaf and Russel.

As has been said a hundred times now- he's a rookie and it's far too early to judge him.

[Mr. Scot]

Not to mention thats a comparison of successful QB's, leaving out names like Leaf and Russel.

As has been said a hundred times now- he's a rookie and it's far too early to judge him.

Throwing in some of the less successful guys would be interesting.

[Happy Panther]

He can lose all he wants this year as long as he shows promise.

Which he has not

[Jackofalltrades]

He can lose all he wants this year as long as he shows promise.

Which he has not

I disagree, I think he's shown several flashes of potential. There's plenty of stuff to work on still, but I like a lot of what I've seen thus far- given the circumstances.

[Happy Panther]

I disagree, I think he's shown several flashes of potential. There's plenty of stuff to work on still, but I like a lot of what I've seen thus far- given the circumstances.

It hasn't been much. He needs to show something in the next few games

[Swarly]

well I only included the successful quarterbacks to show that a players first season is by no means an indicator of future success or failure, and a lot of people seem to think otherwise.

[mj4life]

It hasn't been much. He needs to show something in the next few games

hard to show much with less than creative play calling & wr's just as green as you

[MattB]

He can lose all he wants this year as long as he shows promise.

Which he has not

I agree. You can understand mental errors etc... but what you want to see are the flashes of potential which quite frankly he hasn't shown. The game against the 49ers is huge for him. He has the bye week to prepare and needs to show that he can become a winning NFL quarterback.

[Happy Panther]

I agree. You can understand mental errors etc... but what you want to see are the flashes of potential which quite frankly he hasn't shown. The game against the 49ers is huge for him. He has the bye week to prepare and needs to show that he can become a winning NFL quarterback.

Somebody gets it!

[Happy Panther]

hard to show much with less than creative play calling & wr's just as green as you

Good NFL QBs will show promise even on crappy teams.

Great NFL QBs will win despite having a bad surrounding cast

[Cyberjag]

It hasn't been much. He needs to show something in the next few games

Have you seen any improvement from game to game so far?