Just to put some of us Jets fans (and other fans) in perspective: Chad Pennington still holds the record for accuracy in the NFL. However, he only played in even number years cause he was injured every other year. Stafford may be a better QB from the throwing, completion, TD, INT, fumble stat perspective, but if his career continues to be injury plagued, he will be the Lion's Pennington. QB class of 2009 won't be defined until 2019. It's fun for discussion but green colored glasses off or on, you would be a fool not to take Sanchez at this point in his career. What good is having a QB with Marino/Manning-esque numbers if the team as a whole doesn't have enough to win an SB. Rodgers has that IT factor. Sanchez does too. Granted Aaron is a much better QB, but he had 4 years behind Favre. Sanchez was thrown to the wolves in his rookie season. Lets let class of '09 have a few more years under their belts and give the teams time to catch up with the QB investments.
I wouldn't take Rivers over Sanchez. I've seen Rivers come up short time and again in the playoffs and now he looks to be hurt and declining in his eighth season. There are QB's out there that I would swap Sanchez for but Rivers is not one of them.
Why...because its true? Didn't Rivers put up a stinker to the Pats after going 14-2 in the regular season? Again, what good are regular season fantasy stats if the rest of the team sucks. What good is having a stat master for a QB if he crumbles under the weight of a spotlight game? Sanchez had the big stage in college and doesn't melt under pressure. I don't care if Sanchez is forever ranked with Trent Dilfer - as long as a 2nd VLT is sitting in the case at Florham Park.
Rivers is the better player, but one thing he does not have that Sanchez is excellent at is poise under pressure situations. Rivers falters there
Of the top 32 QBs, I can legit say that 7 have accomplished more than Mark Sanchez in terms of team success. Drew Brees Aaron Rodgers Tom Brady Ben Roethlisberger Eli Manning Donovan McNabb Peyton Manning (IR)
The difference was that it was pretty clear that Manning would eventually win one of those, the only question was how he'd make it happen. Rivers is one of those guys who looks really good but his team never performs in the game it absolutely has too, whether that's regular season or playoffs, and as a result he's unlikely to get a ring. He had LaDainian Tomlinson in his prime and Antonio Gates and he couldn't get over the top. It doesn't get better than that.
Manning has played poorly more often than not in January which is why he only has one SB. Rivers poor play in January is why he has only onw title game app(a game where the backup came in trailing and they won).
Both of these QBs are on track to be great NFL QB's. They were both taken as high first round picks and both were "projects" coming out of college.
In terms of teams success. Can't you read? What has Rivers accomplished aside from crumbling under pressure.
It's not just January and it's not just when he plays poorly. The Chargers have lost a bunch of games over the years where Rivers played great except for the fact that they couldn't turn that great play into more than 3 TD's or so. Philip Rivers is an under-achiever when it comes to taking his performance and turning it into meaningful points for his team. That's the problem. The Chargers lost 5 games last year when they gave up 28 or fewer points. That doesn't sound like a strange stat at all until you realize that they scored 441 points overall. With that overall offensive performance there's no way they should have been losing games 21-14, 27-20, 20-17, 23-20 and 28-13. That's why they missed the playoffs. Their offense was inconsistent.
Not saying he's the 7th best, but he's still accomplished more. Sure it's a team game, but there are many cases of QBs on great teams who haven't accomplished as much as him. It's too often that people say that Sanchez's success has been a product of the team around him like he's had no part of it. Take Rivers who puts up great regular season stats, but in the playoffs on top tier teams he can't do anything. Sanchez thrives in high pressure situations and he's proved it so far in his short career. I can say the same thing about someone like Eli Manning who is hot and cold, but when the pressure is on, he seems to come alive.
Freeman's a good young QB. He's just having the same problems that all good young QB's have from time to time. Unless you're talking Dan Marino or Peyton Manning you can't throw the ball as much with a young QB as the Bucs have over the last two seasons without having the NFL catch up to you as the film accumulates.
people need to wait alot longer before they start making any declarations. again more overreactions from Sanchez having a solid game vs Freeman losing one for his own team the Bucs offense is in a rut right now because they switch around WR's alot trying to get young talent on the field. (Benn, Briscoe, Parker) Mike Williams and K2 have been his security blankets and teams now have film on it. Also, whenever their ground game fails or with Blounts recent absence, Freeman tends to make the same exact mistakes Sanchez makes. so far the only differences ive seen between the two are A)Freeman is tougher ala Big Ben when it comes to fighting off defenders and making those downfield throws with pressure (which naturally comes with him being bigger than Sanchez) B)Sanchez has had the tougher litmus test throughout his short career and has looked about impressive as Freeman vs lesser competition. (Minus the Freeman performance vs the Packers . thats when i became sold on the kid.) EDIT: also something Jets fans can relate to is that Greg Olsen (Bucs OC) is starting to catch the same flak that Schotty has been. so while its easy to point at a bad game from Freeman and a good one by Sanchez I think cooler heads will prevail and realize we need a few more years to make accurate comparisons IMO Stafford is easily better than both of them but is looking to be Chad Pennington with a cannon at this point
If all you watch of the Lions are highlights then, sure, Stafford looks better. Didn't seem so great against the 49ers when I got to see more than his best plays.
