Gus/ Completion Percentage

[SCall13]

Gus' comp % is obviously extremely low. Other than that, his stats weren't bad at all. If he could increase his percentage to between 58 - 60%, he'd have crazy good stats- not to mention how it would effect the recievers numbers.
Now I'm not saying this because I am Gus' biggest fan or anything. I am saying it in preparation for next season. If we end up drafting a young QB, Gus will more than likely be here and be the man again for one more season. It shouldn't be a bad thing: better chemistry with the recievers, everyone on the same page after a year together, improvement in certain areas of the O-line and a few more tweaks here and there. Take all this and Gus improving his completion percentage and our offense could really be dangerous when you couple our passing game with our 2 headed monster backfield. (Yes I think Ricky will be back)
So, yes we need youth behind center - we have needed it for years. But I'm prepared to see Gus again (for less money) and quite frankly, it will probably not be a bad thing. His comp. % has nowhere to go but up. Seriously! And he improved alot over the course of the year. Gus final TD/INT ratio= 18 TDs, 13 INTs. Not bad. His yardage total will improve as well. Let's say he goes from his current Comp. % to about 58%. THat is more big plays (we missed quite a few), that is more TDs, that is making the defense respect our pass even more, which in turn will open up our running game even more. It's all relative.

OK, I say all this but I do realize that if we are able to get the right QB in, he can improve us immediately. But just to be ready- just in case, we need to be ready for Gus and we should anticipate improvement in his play. Just my thoughts and rants and ramblings.

 

[Awsi Dooger]

I completely agree that completion percentage is the wild card for Gus. This is the 6th season he has had with 230+ attempts. Strangely erratic in that 3 of those seasons, including this year, were just slightly above 50%, while the other 3 were 57% or higher. Nothing in between. When you look at my favorite stat of yards per attempt, obviously the numbers were very high in the 57+% years, and much worse when he's struggling to complete half his passes. BTW, Gus ended up something like 6.1 yards per attempt this year, which was exactly the percentage I predicted for Linehan's passing game this year in one preseason thread. But really it looked and functioned much better than a typical 6.1, if the completion percentage can just be bumped.

 

[SCall13]

I completely agree that completion percentage is the wild card for Gus. This is the 6th season he has had with 230+ attempts. Strangely erratic in that 3 of those seasons, including this year, were just slightly above 50%, while the other 3 were 57% or higher. Nothing in between. When you look at my favorite stat of yards per attempt, obviously the numbers were very high in the 57+% years, and much worse when he's struggling to complete half his passes. BTW, Gus ended up something like 6.1 yards per attempt this year, which was exactly the percentage I predicted for Linehan's passing game this year in one preseason thread. But really it looked and functioned much better than a typical 6.1, if the completion percentage can just be bumped.

It's amazing what a few percentage points can do for a player, and more importantly, the offense.

 

[Aqua4Ever04]

Yea but thats the thing. Gus is who he is. He isnt going to start getting better now. His career is on the decline (not sayin he was ever any good). We know what we are getting with Gus, a bottom 5 QB in the league. Very hard to win like that

 

[Phinz420]

Gus's completion % is definatly no stat to be satisfied with, however lets consider the fact he threw the ball deep more than any other QB in the NFL this year along with a considerable amount of drops that plagued us during our losing streak.

Gus finished with 2996 yards. Going into the season with our stud backfield I did not think Gus had a chance to put up those kind of yards along with 18 TD /12 int. There is much room for improvment but things are looking much better than they did at this possition before.

 

[Roman529]

I could live with Gus being the starter again next year...he got better every week as did our offensive line....I think we need to get a few new d-backs, another stud o-lineman, BUT if we could get a QB like Cutler I would take him 1st and groom him to replace Gus. :)

 

[deepsouth_46]

I would also say that if the receivers stopped dropping passes and occasionally made a play on a badly thrown pass that is in reach that gus' numbers would be big. I am not complaining here. I just thought that some of the blame belongs with the receivers as well. I know there have been a ton of drops this year.

 

[nopony]

If he could increase his percentage to between 58 - 60%, he'd have crazy good stats- not to mention how it would effect the recievers numbers.

That is incredibly unlikely. His career rate is 54%. He had his "good" completion percentages in his prime. He'll be 35 and highly unlikely to suddenly get it together.

And it's not like the rest of his stats were GOOD. 6.01 YPA? 13 picks and 13 fumbles (although he was good at not losing the fumbles, give him that).

In any event, saying a quarterback is good except for his completion percentage is like saying "Reggie Howard wouldn't be bad if he could cover people" or "Prison isn't so bad if it weren't for the male rape."

 

[nopony]

Gus finished with 2996 yards. Going into the season with our stud backfield I did not think Gus had a chance to put up those kind of yards...

Yards are meaningless as an evaluation tool if you are throwing 57 times a game. The important number for that is 6.01 YPA. 6.01.

It doesn't matter how often you throw deep or throw nothing but screens, if you're only averaging 6.01 per attempt, then your passing game is ineffectual.

 

[Jaj]

Completely agree. That's why when people bag on McNair for passing to his TEs they're morons, because he gets nearly 7 yards which is a huge difference.

 

[nopony]

I would also say that if the receivers stopped dropping passes and occasionally made a play on a badly thrown pass that is in reach that gus' numbers would be big.

1- there were also a TON of bad throws they did catch. That evens out. That's always been Chambers (until now, hopefully) make the circus catches and drop the lay-ups.

I mean, even today... a GREAT game for Gus... some of his throws were just perplexing far off. He's always been like that. They used to joke that if you wanted to intercept Gus don't play the reciever, play five yards behind him.

2- Every QB has recievers that drop the ball. You can't give Gus those back without giving them to the other QBS, thus still making him the 30th ranked QB in the league.

 

[Jaj]

1- there were also a TON of bad throws they did catch. That evens out. That's always been Chambers (until now, hopefully) make the circus catches and drop the lay-ups.

I mean, even today... a GREAT game for Gus... some of his throws were just perplexing far off. He's always been like that. They used to joke that if you wanted to intercept Gus don't play the reciever, play five yards behind him.

2- Every QB has recievers that drop the ball. You can't give Gus those back without giving them to the other QBS, thus still making him the 30th ranked QB in the league.

I mean it's ridiculous some of the excuses. His rating will be a 71.9 for the season. Woopedeeedo...

 

[nopony]

Completely agree. That's why when people bag on McNair for passing to his TEs they're morons, because he gets nearly 7 yards which is a huge difference.

Also, there is another cost to having long passes eat up a bigger portion of your average... that means way more 4-and-outs. We were getting killed in ToP early in the season. That's why to run a vertical offense you also need a QB that can get the five and ten yarders when you need to sustain a drive.

 

[Jaj]

McNair makes complete sense for this team.

 

[Phantom]

I would also say that if the receivers stopped dropping passes and occasionally made a play on a badly thrown pass that is in reach that gus' numbers would be big. I am not complaining here. I just thought that some of the blame belongs with the receivers as well. I know there have been a ton of drops this year.

Yea well it equals out, because he missed about a 100 open recievers this year and their #s would be better with a consistent qb which Frerotte is not............