Every week, win or lose, the Chad debate on this board continues. Some love him, some tolerate him, some hate him. But here's the question: Who is better right now? Let's get the obvious guys out of the way. Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Carson Palmer. Everyone else is debatable. You can call me crazy for even mentioning Chad in the same sentence as Tom Brady, Marc Bulger, or Matt Hasselbeck but those 3 haven't been impressive this season. Even still, put those guys ahead and I'm only seeing 6 guys better than Chad in the league. My point is, Chad is not Dan Marino. He's not John Elway. But it could be so much worse.
You seem to be jumping between "who is better" and "who is having a better year," which aren't the same thing. By either measure Brady and Bulger are much better than Pennington (and since when did 23 TDs, 8 INTs, and 270 yards passing per game become unimpressive? Those are Bulger's stats). Hasselbeck has certainly had a poor year. Anyway, who else is better? I would say McNabb for sure. Rivers has had a far better year, as has Romo. Remarkably enough, Losman has also had an appreciably better year, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that he's a better QB. Putting that all together, you have Pennington in a year where he stays healthy being around the bottom of the top 10. That seems reasonable to me.
Definitely a good point but the problem is that just 1 team wins the super bowl. I know Chad can take us to the playoffs. Can he take us to the Super Bowl??? You also forgot to mention Donovan McNabb when healthy.
Having Chad in the same list as Brady makes this automatically flawed. Brady has 23 TDs with 11 INTs with one of the worst groups of receivers in the league as opposed to Chad who has one of the best tandems in the league. If you want to go by performance this season, I would go with the following: Brees Manning Brady Damon Huard- 11 TDs 1 INT Bulger- strong arm, and insane accuracy McNabb Palmer Romo Rivers- True despite amazing supporting cast Losman- as far as this year, yes Steve McNair- smart, mobile, accurate Jeff Garcia- sadly Eli Manning- Failures are relative to his expectation level Matt Hasselbeck Delhomme Favre and maybe Vince Young I believe we've seen a similar list at some other point a few weeks ago, but you can put Chad's performance this year in the same sentence as David Carr, not Tom Brady
Brady and Bulger are not debatable. Brady is having a slightly down year but he's still light years ahead of Pennington. Bulger is having a great season. Since your criteria is "right now" you'd also have to include Garcia and Romo as clearly better then he is. Rivers, Losman and Cutler have also all looked better then Pennington this year. We're up to 10 so far. I'd probably put Pennington near the bottom of the next group which includes McNair, Grossman, Carr, Hasselbeck, Roethlisberger and Gerrard. So pretty much a middle of the pack, mediocre QB, which falls in line with my impression of his play this year.
I have never been impressed with McNabb. He always looks off his first target, even if he's wide open and is to quick to jump out of the pocket. I'll definitely give you Bulger but he has more weapons and has his own accuracy issues so it's not a no-brainer. I like what I've seen from Romo and, truth be told, I'd rather have Romo now because his ceiling is probably higher. But Rivers has been faltering lately - I would take Chad over him.
Cutler, Damon Huard, today's Favre, and LP Losman. You would prefer someone from that group to Chad right now? Get real.
Mcnabb has been to 3 NFC champs and a superbowl(in which he sucked ass farts Ill give you that)......this thread is obscene dude......please tell me you were only kidding with the Brady comparison.....please
Brady, Manning, Palmer, Brees, Bulger, and McNabb are better. As far as just guys this year, then you also add Romo, Rivers, Losman. After that, I would put Hasselbeck, McNair, and probably Roethlisberger ahead of him. I rate him a little above the Carr, Grossman, Gerrard, Leftwich, Favre, Young group. I think you could fairly put him anywhere between 10-17.
Have you seen or heard of Huard's and Losman's play this year? I know we love Losman jokes, but he's had a formidable year. Again, these are based on this year. Body of work is different, Chad has a considerable track record, but if you're looking at this year, it would be hard to argue those two.
Like I said in my original post, I'll give you the big 6, which includes Brady. But I'd honestly rather have Chad out there than McNabb. Either way, my point remains the same - you can find the 16th best QB in the league and call him the average in QB talent right now and Chad is definitely better. So, my main point is, it could be much worse.
I vehemently disagree with your ranking Eli Manning and Jake Delhomme as having better years than Pennington. Brees, P. Manning, Brady, McNabb, Rivers, Palmer, McNair, and Garcia are definitely having better years than Pennington. Young and McNair have been better than their stats would seem to indicate. The reverse is true of Marc Bulger (and remember, I like the guy- I went to school with him). Same with Huard.
I don't include Garcia, Huard, and Cutler because they haven't played enough to warrant it (Romo makes it, but just barely, and he's been *very* good). Pennington deserves some extra credit given the poor running game, which is why I don't put him behind McNair and Garrard. Grossman has shown very little that would label him ahead of CP in my mind. This was the first year Roethlisberger was asked to carry the team, and he was awful, so to me the jury is out on him. I still think him ranking around #10-12 is reasonable. What could be worrying, of course, is if Losman has really turned a corner, and if Young, Cutler, and Leinart build on quite respectable rookie years, since then he drops down to #15 or so.
McNabb, I can budge on. But Losman, Huard, Roethlisburger, and (worst of all) McNair. Give me a break.
Did you watch the Bengals/Broncos game this week? I was leery of Cutlers workout warrior status coming into the draft but watching him throw a 40 yard dart in the snow, on the run to Javon Walker for a TD it really looks like he could be something special. Shanahan took some lumps for his decision to start Cutler, but look at the Broncos now, they control their own destiny for the #5 seed while all the teams laughing at them benching Plummer are now looking up at them.
I must admit that I find this shocking. It must be noted, however, that their two wins with Cutler were against the Cardinals, and against a Bengals team that did everything they could to give the game away.
McNair doesn't have much of a running game either. Jamal Lewis was miserable in 05 and hasn't been that much better this year. I think it's fair to rank McNair ahead of Pennington based on the fact that the offense has jumped from 25th in points last season to 10th this year. Pennington has only improved the offense from 29th last year(when they had a ton of injuries, not just as the QB position) to 20th this season. Grossman seems similar to Chad in that there is an enormous variance in his good games where he looks like a world beater and his bad games where he looks like he doesn't belong in the NFL. Seems to me that Grossman's highs are a bit higher then Chad and his lows are a bit lower. I can go either way on this one. I give Roethlisberger a pass based on his generally excellent play his first 2 years in the league as well as his play on the way to the Super Bowl last year, where he did carry the team in my opinion. Cowher screwed the pooch bringing him back from his injuries too quickly and it cost them a playoff spot this year.
Why not McNair? This year, the two have been pretty similar, but McNair has obviously had the better career. If you are going by this season, then Losman has obviously been better. And Roethlisberger has a championship, and although the running game and defense are arguably the main reasons why, he did a very nice job when they needed him.
