FanPost

How much does QB situation matter?

I believe most people vastly underappreciate the importance of situation for QB performance. Here I'm referring to typical QB performance metrics such as QBR, passing yards, TDs, INTs, and even something as tape-driven as PFF rating. With respect to situation I am referring to the following:
  • Pass blocking [no time to throw => short passes only and a predictable offense]
  • Run blocking [a tremendous help in short yardage and goal line situations]
  • Skill players [it helps to have open receivers]
  • Play calling
  • Design of offense around the player
If we categorize QB situations by season or even game, I believe that we can clearly see drastic swings in performance when a QB's situation moves from one group to another:
  • Lamar from his rookie year with an offense designed for someone else to subsequent seasons with an offense built around him
  • Tannehill in MIA and then in TEN
  • Mahomes for most of his career vs the most recent SB
  • Wentz in his near MVP sophomore campaign vs his last year in Philly.
Below I will separate some QB seasons/games into different categories by way of example.
  • There are some QBs that have been put into near perfect situations for them to succeed with great pass and run blocking, either great or decent skill players, an offense designed to their strengths, and good play calling to their strong suits:
    • Lamar post his first season
    • Mahomes his entire career
    • Mayfield in recent years
    • Wentz to start his career
    • Dak his entire career
    • Jalen Hurts so far this season
    • Tannehill in recent years
    • Josh Allen once they added Diggs
    • Kyler post Nuk
    • Anyone playing QB for SF or LAR including Stafford this season
    • Heinicke in WAS
    • Brady most of his career except for those last lean years with no skill players in NE
    • Brees all those years in NO
    • Matt Ryan with Julio and Shanahan
    • Watson with Tunsil
    • Burrow this year
    • Carr the last few seasons although he could be in the next category because his line is up and down
    • Troy Aikman for the bulk of his career playing with the NFL equivalent of the Monstars
  • Other QBs get a number of advantages but miss out on one or two
    • Wilson outside of the first few years of his career
    • Herbert with top skill players and play-calling but suspect line play
    • Lamar his first year with an offense not designed for him
    • Burrow last year
    • Josh Allen his first few years
    • Kyler pre Nuk
    • Matt Ryan post Shanahan
    • Teddy in DEN
    • Stafford in DET
    • Watson pre-Tunsil
    • Kirk Cousins in Minny
    • CHI this year
    • Tua in MIA last year
  • Other QBs with multiple strikes against them to start such as no pass blocking, suspect run game, bad play calling, lack of skill players, offenses not designed around their skill sets
    • Wentz his last season in Philly with no line and no skill players
    • Darnold and Jones for most of their careers
    • CHI last year
    • Tua in MIA this year with the line falling apart
    • DET this year with all of the injuries

I'd love to hear what others think on these topics. Are there any seasons you'd add to the above? Note, this isn't about Darnold or Jones specifically, although it is interesting that they both clearly fall into the trash situation category for much of their careers. I'm more interested in broad takeaways and what you think/who else you'd add.

FanPosts are written by community members. This is simply a way for community members to express opinions too long to be contained in a comment.