Battle Red Blog
I love to do this every now and then for both football and baseball. The general idea is that removing names is a purer way to look at numbers. We feel a certain way about players positively or negatively. There is nothing wrong with that, but those emotions often get in the way of dispassionate analysis. Granted, we are looking at quarterbacks here. We can throw in all of the numbers in the universe and still not capture everything that is going on.
We can divide analysis into two basic categories: tangible evidence and intangible evidence. Tangibles are things we can measure. Yards, points, accuracy, and anything else that can be counted counts as a tangible. Intangibles are things that can’t be measured. We are talking leadership, clutch performance, and what some people call the “it” factor. I only concern myself with tangibles. So, we could prattle on about intangibles all day and they do matter, but since I can’t quantify it, I won’t try to measure it.
For our purposes, we will look at completion percentage, passing yards per game, rushing yards per game, total yards per game, touchdown passes, rushing touchdowns, total touchdowns, and interceptions. We are looking at the numbers for only the 2024 and 2025 season. I think most people will figure out who we are talking about, but we will keep it a secret until the end of the article.
QB A: 24 games. 61.7 PCT, 181.9 PYDS/G, 13.8 RYDS/G, 29 PTD, 7 RTD, 16 INT
QB B: 25 games, 64.2 PCT, 217.2 PYDS/G, 16.9 RYDS/G, 31 PTD, 0 RTD, 17 INT
What’s interesting is that when you combine rushing and passing, QB A comes out slightly ahead. He produced 36 total touchdowns in 24 games where QB B produced the 31 touchdowns in 25 games. If the name of the game is scoring points then the first quarterback has been better over the past two seasons. Of course, this is where we get to the whys and what fors. Before we get there, let’s take a look at what this looks like over a 17 game schedule.
QB A: 61.7 PCT, 3092 yards passing, 235 yards rushing, 21 TD passes, 5 rushing TD, 11 INT
QB B: 64.2 PCT, 3692 yards passing, 287 yards rushing, 21 TD passes, 0 rushing TD, 12 INT
It is a loaded question, but who would you rather have as your quarterback? At first blush, I would say they are pretty darn equal. If we added in some context here, we would point out that player A is 10-12 as a starter (he came off the bench twice) and player B is 13-12 in those 25 games. Both quarterbacks are essentially captaining .500 teams.
Player A = Bryce Young
Player B = C.J. Stroud
Due to his rookie season, the narrative is that Stroud is a franchise quarterback and Young is not. I’d respectfully submit that the answer is not nearly that cut...
