NightLink: Which Division Has the Best QBs?

Kyle Orton C-

But I think calling them “professional” is being awfully generous.

is a Free Agent if I can recall right, unless he recently resigned with Buffalo, other than an excellent list!

So is Russel/Garcia.

I like the idea here. I think you nailed most of the grades pretty well, but I personally don’t think Aaron Rodgers is better than Carson Palmer… especially If you are talking about pure QB ability/potential and not ability based on their team. I’d probably also give Kerry Collins more cred, considering his season and lack of options, but then again 2 years ago I would have given Derek Anderson a “B”. lol.

And just to be argumentative, I think Flacco should be a “B”. He had a great year, but I wouldn’t necessarily put him up there with the rest of the "A"s yet.

and what gives? No Vince Young or Matt Leinhart?! j/k

there is actually a project afoot to do something similar for all positions in the NFC North using bloggers for each site. Stay Tuned.

I cannot give Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco As. Firstly, they are rookies and I need to see more. Secondly, as good as they were Ryan more so than Flacco they cannot be put into the same grade as Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.

how could you not include the mighty Luke McCown, Tampa’s Matt Cassell-in-waiting? And don’t overlook the possibility of a Jake Plummer comeback, if he gets tired of the hiding-in-the-mountains-smoking-dope-and-looking-like-Ted-Kaczynski lifestyle.

I know he’s overrated, but still, he deserves an A

Who is the best QB in the NFC North, Cutler or Rogers?

Good jorb on using the tags.

Scale:
A: Elite QB
B: Set at QB
C: QB will get the job done
D: I guess you could start him
F: It’s about to get ugly
(For the rookies I’m rating them as I’d expect they’d do as starter week 1)

As: Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees
Bs: Cutler, Warner, Rodgers, Rivers, Ryan, Romo, E Manning, McNabb, Palmer, Flacco, Roethlesburger, Pennington,
Cs: Orton, Garrard, Cassel, Delhomme, Campbel, Quinn, Bulger, Hasselbeck, Rosenfels, Schaub, Collins, Edwards, Simms, Garcia
Ds: Culpepper, Stafford, Tavaris, Leftwich, Shaun Hill, Anderson, Sanchez, Russel
Fs: Freeman, Alex Smith, Nate Davis, Clemons,

3-12-14-8-4 seems like a nice curve on the grade.

im assuming you made a mistake i give flaco a C+ hes a glorified verison of orton as a rookie. I mean serioiusly palmer is a top 5 QB no doubt just cause he was injured doesnt take away from that everything else i agree with

He is in the top 10, though.

palmer is a hell of a qb when healthy heres my top five
1. Tom brady
2.Peyton Manning
3. Ben roethlisberger
4.Drew Brees
5.Carson Palmer
Honorable mentions
Jay Cutler
Kurt Warner
Donovan Mcnabb
Philip Rivers
Tony Romo

if mike ditka wear to unretire and play quarterback he’d break all passing records on one drive. Only one questions big ditka or a mini ditka?

I’m not entirely clear from what you wrote whether you are attempting to evaluate QB’s:

1. In their current context now (i.e. taking into account their current O-Line, WR’s, play-calling tendencies of their head coach and off. coordinator, etc.); or

2. Evaluating them (as much as possible) based on their “pure skill” as a QB—i.e. how would these QB’s rank out if you compared them by giving them all turns playing with the same set of WR’s, same head coach & offensive coordinators, etc.

I think that the list becomes pretty significantly different depending upon whether you are attempting to do #1 or #2, and that this is a big part of the reason why there are so many responses in the thread strongly disagreeing with some of your ratings.

So to take one example, Marc Bulger. You have him rated as a C. Well if you are looking at him in the given context he is in, I agree completely. His O-Line is porous, his WR’s are weak, and in recent years SJax has not been his old self which means the running game hasn’t been much of a threat, so teams can just sit on the pass. The end result is some lousy football. But if you backtrack a few years to when the O-Line was solid, SJax was clicking on all cylinders, and his WR’s were a real threat—Bulger was putting up top-5 QB numbers. Easily an A (and probably an A+ if you went to a plus/minus rating system). If you were to take Bulger today and rip him out of StL and plop him down somewhere like New England where he has a decent O-Line and Moss/Welker to throw to, I am quite convinced you would see an “A” Marc Bulger still.

To take another example, based on skill alone, there is no way you can give Matt Cassel a C like you did in your article. If you compare his stats last season to those of Matt Ryan, Eli Manning, Joe Flacco, and Ben Roethlisberger (all four of whom you rated as an A), Cassell had a better QB rating, more passing yards, and a higher completion percentage than ANY of the four of them. Of, and he also had a significantly better TD-to-INT ratio than all of them except Eli. So there is simply no freaking way that Cassell is a C while those guys are an A if you are judging pure skill. However, again, if you are judging them in the context of the team they are playing on now…then it makes sense, as his trade to KC gives him a much weaker offense to work with than he had in NE last year.

Anyways, good article. Could just be made even a bit better if you clarified more precisely the basis for the ratings assigned.

My list consists of Bears QB’s for the past 15 years. The grades are for their performances as a Chicago Bear. I don’t give a crap that Chris Chandler brought the Falcons to the Super Bowl, capiche? Oh yea, and if any of you ever received a grade in school of F- or F+, your teacher either hated you or hated you a lot. F means FAILURE which means no need for explanation of grade either.

Erik Kramer – B+
 - Set almost all single season passing records for the Bears.
Steve Walsh – D+
 - Helped the Bears get to the playoffs.
Dave Krieg – F
Rick Mirer – F
Steve Stenstrom – F
Moses Moreno – F
Shane Matthews – F
Cade McNown – F
Jim Miller – C+
 - Playoffs! Throw up some decent numbers.
Chris Chandler – C-
 - Remember when he almost got his head knocked off against Philly? (that bumped him up from a D+)
Henry Burris – F
Kordell Stewart – F
Jonathan Quinn – F
Craig Krenzel – F
Chad Hutchinson – F
Rex Grossman – C+
 - Love him or hate him. No questions the guy had flashes of brilliance, if Jim Miller gets a C+ for getting the Bears to the Playoffs… Rex gets a C+ for helping in getting the Bears to the Super Bowl.
Brian Griese – C-
 - Bad record, decent numbers. C- might be a little too lenient.
Kyle Orton – B-
 - 2nd best QB of the past 15 years, in my humble opinion. Great rookie year, fairly consistent, decent game manager, and EASILY the Bear’s MVP this off-season in being the deciding factor for the Jay Cutler trade.

-Delhomme isn’t great but he isn’t a C, I’d give him a B.
-With your “Clutch” thing in account then Rodgers has to be a B or C, considering all those games the Pack lost in the closing minutes last year when they had the ball.
-I think Trent Edwards is a C
-I think Palmer is an A still. I know injuries have slowed him but he’s still got talent. If he stays healthy he will remind everyone why two years ago he was mentioned in the elite tier of QBs w/ Manning and Brady.