FanPost

How Did Jay Cutler Measure Up In 2013?

So, I love a good Cutler debate as much as the next hater apologist fan. Who doesn’t? Is Jay an elite level of talent? Have we got the most we can get from Jay? Have we given him enough to work with? Where does Jay stand compared to other NFL QB’s?

But what I struggle with is a decent measuring stick. Everyone likes to look at things like; our record with Jay vs our record without him, Jay’s TD to TO ratio, career stats vs seasonal stats, or more recently, Jay vs Josh. What I wanted was a fair comparison for Jay Cutler THIS season. But compare him to what? Or to whom? So, with that in mind, without wasting an entire weekend pouring over statistics, I came up with a quick measuring stick.

Here were my criteria; How did Jay play against a team? What was his completion percentage, yards, and touch downs vs interceptions. Now, how to compare him to what, or to whom? I chose to look at other quarterbacks in the league playing the same team, under similar circumstances, during roughly the same time period.

In other words, if Jay played a team at home, how did other QB’s look at home vs that same team? If Jay beat a team on the road, how did other quarterbacks do against that same team while they were also on the road? I wanted to keep the games relatively close together in order to attempt to do two things; 1. Keep major statistical factors out of the equation like early fall vs late winter or fresh teams vs. really worn down ones. 2. Cut down on work for me.

So I looked at every team that played the same teams Jay did (when Jay took the majority of the snaps), in the same venue (home vs road), during roughly the same time period (give or take 4 weeks). And here’s what I came up with...

CP/AT (%) YDS TD INT

Vs Bengals

Week 1 Jay Cutler 21/33 (64) 242 2 1

Week 4 Brian Hoyer 25/38 (66) 269 2 0 (Edge Hoyer)

Vs Vikings

Week 2 Jay Cutler 27/38 (71) 292 3 2

Week 1 Matt Stafford 28/43 (65) 357 2 1 (Push)

At Steelers

Week 3 Jay Cutler 20/30 (67) 159 1 0

Week 1 Jake Locker 11/20 (56) 125 0 0 (Edge Cutler)

Week 7 Joe Flacco 24/34 (71) 215 1 0 (Edge Flacco)

At Lions

Week 4 Jay Cutler 27/47 (57) 317 2 3

Week 1 Christian Ponder 18/28 (64) 236 1 3 (Edge Cutler)

Week 7 Andy Dalton 24/34 (71) 372 3 0 (Edge Dalton)

Vs Saints

Week 5 Jay Cutler 24/33 (73) 358 2 0

Week 4 Ryan Tannehill 22/35 (63) 248 1 3 (Edge Cutler)

Week 8 Thad Lewis 22/39 (56) 234 1 1 (Edge Cutler)

Week 3 Carson Palmer 18/35 (52) 187 0 2 (Edge Cutler)

Vs Giants

Week 6 Jay Cutler 24/36 (67) 262 2 0

Week 8 Matt Barkley 17/26 (65) 158 0 1 (Edge Cutler)

Week 4 Alex Smith 24/41 (59) 288 3 2 (Edge Cutler)

Vs Lions

Week 10 Jay Cutler 21/40 (53) 250 1 1

Week 11 B Roethlisberger 29/45 (64) 367 4 0 (Edge Big Ben)

Week 6 Brandon Weedon 26/43 (60) 292 2 2 (Edge Weedon)

Week 14 Nick Foles 11/22 (50) 179 1 1 (Edge Cutler)

At Browns

Week 15 Jay Cutler 22/31 (71) 265 3 2

Week 13 Chad Henne 22/40 (55) 195 2 1 (Edge Cutler)

Week 12 B Roethlisberger 22/34 (65) 217 2 1 (Edge Cutler)

At Eagles

Week 16 Jay Cutler 20/35 (57) 222 1 1

Week 14 Matt Stafford 10/25 (40) 151 0 0 (Edge Cutler)

Week 13 Carson Palmer 24/41 (59) 302 3 2 (Edge Palmer)

Vs Packers

Week 17 Jay Cutler 15/24 (63) 226 2 1

Week 15 Tony Romo 29/48 (61) 358 2 2 (Edge Romo)

Week 13 Matt Stafford 22/35 (63) 330 3 2 (Edge Stafford)

Now, I know this isn’t a perfect system. I know this leaves out significant factors such as injuries to players, strong weather systems, yards on the ground by QB’s etc... but I think it provides an interesting snapshot. Again, relatively speaking, how did other QB’s do against the same teams in similar circumstances?

So, there it is. I was attempting to be as objective as I could while searching for a fair comparison. Bottom line is, this was the best way I could provide what I thought was a reasonable way to compare Jay Cutler to his peers. Flawed as it is. Your thoughts?

(You’ll notice that I also gave edges to different players for different match ups. This is strictly based on my opinion. Feel free to argue away, but here’s what I came up with. In these match ups, based on my opinion, Jay played better than 58% of his competitors. If you wanted to look at what that would mean in the league, Jay would have played better than 19 of the 32 NFL QB’s or, Jay would rank 13th in the NFL. I know that’s really stretching some statistics. This didn’t compare Jay to every QB in the NFL. Several of these QB’s weren’t even regular starters. But several were name brand guys. Also, this basically eliminates many AFC teams so maybe I shouldn’t rank Cutler at all.)

This Fanpost was written by a Windy City Gridiron member and does not necessarily reflect the ideas or opinions of its staff or community.