NFL Top 10 Series: QB Honorable Mentions

With the 2012 NFL season steadfast approaching, it’s time to begin an original Garden State Sports Guy production: The NFL Top 10 Series. For the next 129 days, (yes, that’s how much time left there is until football season starts folks) I’ll be unveiling what I believe are the Top 10 players are at each position in the NFL.

These will include:

Quarterbacks

Running Backs

Fullbacks

Wide Receivers

Offensive Tackles

Offensive Guards

Centers

3-4 Defensive Linemen (Includes Ends, Interior Linemen/Nose Tackles)

4-3 Defensive Ends

4-3 Defensive Tackles

3-4 Outside Linebackers

4-3 Outside Linebackers

3-4 Inside/4-3 Middle Linebackers

Cornerbacks

Free Safeties

Strong Safeties

Yep, that’s right folks: we’re REALLY getting down and dirty here on this blog. It might be time consuming but I need something to do with myself this summer along with the other things that I’m doing this summer, like seeing multiple ballparks or getting violently drunk. Okay, so maybe the last part might not be true… or maybe it will be. God damn I can’t believe I just used that.

Anyways, we’re delving right into the glamour position in the National Football League. Quarterbacks. The Commanders in Chief. The Head Cheese. And before we bring you who is #10, we’re going to honor those who weren’t able to make the cut. No disrespect to any of these players, but I just can’t look at these guys and say, “yeah, they’re in my Top 10.”

If you’re mad, I’m sorry. But like they always say, if you’re getting people mad, you did something right obviously. Let’s go.

Honorable Mentions for the Quarterback Position

Ryan Fitzpatrick: Holding the first honorable mention is essentially being the 16th best quarterback in the league, meaning half of the league would be better off with having you as your quarterback. I’m of the opinion (while it may be miniscule) that right now Ryan Fitzpatrick holds that title and here’s why. Fitzpatrick hasn’t totally sucked so far in his tenure in Buffalo, unlike the other quarterbacks that they have had over the years. J.P. Losman, Trent Edwards, Brian Brohm, just to name a few.

While the contract extension the team gave to Fitzpatrick may have been hasty, it’s not crazy to say that he was *somewhat* deserving of it. He helped bring Buffalo to a hot start and has put together two solid seasons for a team that has been starving for some semblance of relevance over the last decade. I’m not expecting big things for Fitzpatrick and there may not be MUCH more improvement for him in the near or close future, but I’ll say that he won’t make me look stupid next year and he’ll play up to an above average level. He’s got the skills to do that.

Matt Schaub: Has there ever been a quarterback more praised for doing absolutely nothing over his entire career? If not, enter Matt Schaub. Schaub was “the best kept secret” as an Atlanta Falcon in 2005 and 2006 when some believed that he should take over the reigns for Michael Vick. If you didn’t know, that whole thing didn’t exactly work out so well and Schaub was shipped off to Houston for a pair of second round picks and the two swapped first round picks in 2007. Jamaal Anderson was selected with Atlanta’s eighth overall pick in 2007, Justin Blalock with their 2nd, and Houston’s pick was sent to Washington for Fred Davis. So, you could say it was kind of - sort of - really was a total wash. For the most part Schaub has done a good job of leading an aerial assault in H-Town, but some skeptics say that anybody could run that offense and still be comfortable and lead them to victory.

That was just about proven correctly when T.J. Yates took over for Matt Schaub after he was sidelined with an injury (let’s face it when hasn’t Schaub gotten injured?) and the Texans remained as a formidable force in the AFC before losing to Baltimore in a hard fought game in the AFC Divisional Round. Schaub’s inconsistencies also include his ability to lose games on his own (low key, probably more times has Schaub cost the Texans victories than his Texas counterpart who we’ll see later on in the series) in embarrassing fashion. See, the interception to Josh Wilson on Monday Night Football a couple of seasons ago to lose them the game in overtime to the Baltimore Ravens. Schaub has a lot of critics to answer to including yours truly this season with the Texans pegged as a preseason Super Bowl contender. If they underachieve (and it’s CLEARLY because of Schaub) the critics may continue to pour on him. And maybe people will stop putting him in their Top 10 lists based on style and no substance. Geez.

Cam Newton: A rookie getting an honorable mention? Like Mrs. Buttersworth, you butter believe it. And here we go: Lights – Cameron – Action! The #1 overall selection in the 2011 season impressed damn near everybody including myself, probably one of many skeptics on his ability to translate to the NFL, and had one of the best seasons by a rookie quarterback in recent memory. While he didn’t help lead the charge towards the playoffs like Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco did in 2008, Newton led the pack of a team in absolute shambles just a year prior in the Carolina Panthers (who decided to retain everybody that was with them in their 2-14 2010 campaign for some reason) and did a damn good job of doing so. His athleticism was unmatched on the field as much as he was on it and didn’t do too bad in the passing game. He gave veteran and former All-Pro wideout Steve Smith a renaissance year, just following Smith’s desires to leave the Panthers where he could find a quarterback that could actually get him the damn ball.

Newton will Superman himself into 2012 on a Panthers team that with a good draft is going to be a sexy pick to take over the NFC South reigns and make the playoffs. (A lot will need to be done to do that if you ask me) It’ll be no easy task though. Newton will regress. It’s stupid to think otherwise. Newton probably won’t be able to find as clear running lanes as he did this year with teams now having a wide variety of film on him. Newton will realize that he can’t always rely on Steve Smith and he needs to find other targets and weaponry around him to use including the backs behind him (DeAngelo Williams, Jonathan Stewart and Mike Tolbert). And most importantly, Cam needs to cut the turnovers and stop being so discouraged on the sidelines. Constantly from the games that I saw of Cam, after he threw an interception or made a mistake, that seemed to be the end of it for him and his discouragement would rise and bad play would be the end result. It’s almost like he doesn’t know how to handle adversity. And how could you blame him? He was a winner at the collegiate level and rarely -- if ever -- lost. Cam needs to drop the towel-on-head shtick and go out there and try to be what he was before he wound up in the National Football League: a winner.

But maybe Cam won’t regress. Maybe Cam will be everything Michael Vick was supposed to be and more. Perhaps next year maybe Cam Newton will find himself in the Top 10. Only time will tell if this rising star will continue to flourish in the Queen City.

Matt Ryan: This one makes me sad.

Matt Ryan (along with fellow draftee who will be mentioned in just a few moments, Joe Flacco) took the league by storm in 2008, vaulting the polarizing Atlanta Falcons to the playoffs a year after they were basically left for dead (if not for the swell addition of Michael Turner who finished in the Top 5 of MVP voting in the 2008 season). Falcon fans finally could look at their quarterback and feel a sense of pride after their former franchise quarterback (who coincidentally will ALSO be named later on in this post) dug the franchise deep into what seemed like an abyss and seemingly setting the franchise back for years. And so we thought, hey, this guy’s gonna be pretty damn good someday, ain’t he?

Of course things don’t always go according to plan. The Boston College alum is no doubt the Falcons’ franchise quarterback and Arthur Blank has come out in full support of his man as his career has, well, sort of plateaued. Some had him in the bottom half of the Top 10 going into the season (including yours truly) and believed with the addition of Julio Jones that he would shoot up even further with higher aspirations especially after the disaster that was the 2010 NFC Divisional Playoff game against the Green Bay Packers. (Sidenote: you’ll never hear from me that any of that was Ryan’s fault. Sure, he threw a game-changing interception, but how about the defense that let Aaron Rodgers do what he damn well pleased?)

The quarterback has no doubt shown his signs of promise. His aplomb and unabashed feelings and leadership in the dying moments of games has given numerous moments that have helped the Falcons in the regular season. He’s got tremendous poise, and is a beast under pressure netting one of the higher QB ratings in the league when feeling the heat, and given the circumstances is about everything Atlanta fans could have asked for. However, with praise, comes criticism, and many people see it. Falcons fan or not.

Atlanta’s man under center does have his flaws. Even though he’s one of the better quarterbacks in the league under pressure, this season many noticed he was a bit tentative and did have a lot of happy feet around the pocket. His vertical passing game is… well, non-existent. Ryan’s accuracy when throwing passes longer than 20 yards is abysmal. And when it comes to that, he never takes chances at throwing deep. Sure, you’d get a lot of piling on when throwing interceptions, but it’s the NFL. Those sorts of things happen. You throw a pick, you get right back up and to the sidelines and wait for your defense to keep you in position (which, albeit, rarely has happened for him) and you start firing lasers and throw bombs and let it fly. Unfortunately, Ryan hasn’t grasped that and continues to turtle his way around. I hate saying all of that because I am a Falcons fan, but I cannot have homer glasses. Is he as bad as people make him out to be? Not at all. He’s probably going to go down as one of the best quarterbacks in Atlanta Falcons history (which isn’t so illustrious with all due respect) and his passing yards total continues to increase year in and year out and he does do a tremendous job of keeping a low interception total (even if it is based on tentativeness in the pocket) and there’s only a select few quarterbacks that I’d take over him.

But will he ever elevate himself? I’m not sure. We’ll see.

(You may have noticed I did not bring up playoff wins. Why? Because playoff wins are an absolute farce and there is a lot more to winning a game than just being the guy under center. Mark freakin’ Sanchez has a high amount of playoff wins and you sure don’t see him getting praised. Useless stat. About as useful in 2012 as pitching wins are)

Joe Flacco: “Hey now, GSSG, why is the best quarterback in the league an honorable mention!”

Hah.

Now I’m not going to sit here and act like Joe Flacco is not a good quarterback. Because he is. He’s better than a majority of the league, and a majority of the league would be a lot better off if they had him under center. He does a lot of things well, looks like Bert from Sesame Street and has some awesome facial hair. What more could you ask for, right?

A lot more.

Now I’ve heard a lot of people praise Joe Flacco (well, mainly Ravens fans especially Tyler Greever) for the amount of wins he has in the playoffs. Yes, that is true, he does have a lot of wins in the playoffs. But let’s go to the numbers.

At Miami (W): 9/23, 135 Yds

At Tennessee (W): 11/22, 161 Yds, TD

At Pittsburgh (L): 13/30, 141 Yds, 3 INT

At New England (W): 4/10, 34 Yds, INT

At Indianapolis (L): 20/35, 185 Yds, 2 INT

At Kansas City (W): 25/34, 265 Yds, 2 TD

At Pittsburgh (L): 16/30, 125 Yds, TD, INT

Vs Houston (W): 14/27, 176 Yds, 2 TD

At New England (L): 22/36, 306 Yds, 2 TD, INT

Now we’ll give Flacco the benefit of the doubt in his last performance against New England which frankly, if it were not for Lee Evans’ drop the Ravens would have been in the Super Bowl. But everything else to me screams average and mediocre to me. Do not even get me started with his performance in the 2010 Playoffs against New England. 4/10? 34 Yards? It’s a good thing ESPN’s hype machine wasn’t going around otherwise Flaccomania would have driven me off of a cliff considering how much they hyped up a guy who is not on this list as an honorable mention (because he stinks) for “just winning” and, of course, seemingly “ignoring stats.”

Now by no means am I comparing Joe Flacco to Tim Tebow, but let’s be real here: Flacco has been an average quarterback in the playoffs who has gotten the benefit of a sound run game and an elite defense around him. But, his performance against New England is promising and hopefully for his sake he progresses in the right direction, and with his ego stroke of his proclamation that he is the best quarterback in the league may give him an Eli Manning-like season. But his excuses are dwindling given the offense around him and time may be running out with a bit of an aging defense.

Stay cool, Joe.

Michael Vick: This is probably the closest choice of an honorable mention as honorable mentions get. I wanted to put Michael Vick in the Top 10, but something just wouldn’t allow me. Maybe it was the vendetta against him for ruining my team’s franchise? Nope, that actually doesn’t exist anymore. Frankly I’m happy for Michael Vick that he’s gotten his career back on track and that he’s performing at a high level. Just stinks that he plays for one of the teams that growing up I was taught to hate (because who doesn’t love hating on Philadelphia sports?).

The fact of the matter is when you look at Michael Vick whether it’s now or whether it was a couple of years ago at his peak, what you see with him is what you get. His athletic ability puts him above almost everyone in the league because what he can do so little can (aside from Cam Newton if you ask me) and his highlight reel is filled with plays stretching across the 2000s that have taken your breath away and left your jaw hitting the floor. The run against Minnesota in 2002? The jukes and broken tackles against Green Bay in the Wild Card? The superman dive against Carolina in 2004? (On my birthday, no less. What a present that was) I could go on and on.

His passing abilities have no doubt improved under Andy Reid who in my opinion is an underrated genius when it comes to developing quarterbacks. Look what happened to Donovan McNabb after he was dealt to Washington? Yes, McNabb was up there in age and it was obviously time for a change, but he was an absolute shell of himself as a Redskin. But Vick’s accuracy still leaves a lot to be desired as it always has for his career. Vick is still very prone to throwing interceptions and that is never a good thing for what you want in a quarterback. Neither is the fact that Vick is always prone to injuries from the fact that he gives up his body almost every time he leaves the pocket.

My final words on Michael Vick were what they were to start: he’s what he is. He’s a versatile athlete who is a very good quarterback in the league and a lot of teams would reap the rewards of if he was their guy. But also with all of that said you will get the interception-prone and injury-prone risk taker that he is.

If I had to classify Michael Vick with one word, I’d say this: enigma.