Mike Sando Discusses Tendencies Of John Skelton And Kevin Kolb

Many of you like the statistical posts that we do here on ROTB. Most of the time, they involve some stats from Pro Football Focus or some other premium stats site, but this time, Mike Sando from ESPN has put together a post that has those already involved.

On his NFC West blog, he discusses the tendencies of both Kevin Kolb and John Skelton, the two main quarterbacks for the Arizona Cardinals. What the stats tell us is that the battle for the starting job in 2012 will not be won over easily.

The two main receivers on the team last season, Larry Fitzgerald and Andre Roberts, saw more production when Skelton was throwing them the ball. According to ESPN Stats and Information, Fitz received 11 targets per 65 snaps from Skelton, whereas he was only looked at an average of 7.9 times per 65 snaps when Kolb was under center.

Andre Roberts was at 6.9 targets with Skelton as compared to 4.7 with Kolb.

But Kolb did trump Skelton in some other categories. His yards per attempt average was .7 higher than Skelton's, which means that players tended to have bigger plays when Kolb was throwing the ball.

Most noticeably, Jeff King averaged 10.4 yards per attempt with Kolb on the field. With Skelton, that number was limited to just 5.6. The same goes for Fitz. With Kolb as his QB, he averaged 10.4 yards per reception and only 8.3 with Skelton.

Kolb was sacked more, but Skelton had more plays that negatively affected the team.

So what does this all mean? Truly, it doesn't mean all that much as to who will win the starting job. Both quarterbacks are capable, but it will inevitably come down to a battle in training camp before coach Ken Whisenhunt makes that decision.

To the victor go the spoils.

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