Yes...the discussion of Kevin Kolb and John Skelton continues. Most of us already have our minds made up as to which player we would prefer have as the starting QB for the team. Some of us just want one to clearly play better than the other. Even still, we still have facets of their play we can look at.
Pro Football Focus looked at the best and the worst of quarterback play under pressure over the past three seasons. Both Kolb and Skelton show up, despite the fact that their playing time falls almost completely in 2011. Let;s take a look at what they did under pressure (which we know was quite a bit).
We know the story about taking sacks. Kolb was one of the worst, for whatever reason -- lack of poise, running into pressure or not knowing the offense to make a quick read and get the ball away. He was the fourth worse at getting sacked when under pressure -- going down 23.7 percent of the time. Matt Moore, Ben Roethlisberger and Blaine Gabbert were the only ones worse.
John Skelton had his issues. When under pressure, he completed only 39.1 percent of his passes, good for an adjusted accuracy rate of 50 percent. That is the fourth worst. The only quarterbacks worse at hitting their target were Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow and Jake Delhomme.
Kolb, on the other hand, was fourth best at accuracy under pressure. He completed 51.7 percent of such throws for an adjusted rate of 66.7 percent. The only ones better were Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning and Shaun Hill.
What can we get out if this?
Let's look at it this way, if the main reason for Kolb's sacks a season ago was being unfamiliar with the offense and his reads, then we can expect much better play this season. He will get sacked yet and know where to get the ball. If under pressure, he has shown to be more accurate. We will see better play.
Skelton has accuracy issues to begin with. If Kolb's issues are not related to that, then Skelton could win the job, but it will take marked improvement at hitting his targets when under pressure. Otherwise, the offense will struggle and the defense will be under a lot of pressure to perform at levels at least as high as they did the last half of last season, with little room for error.
Now...go. Discuss the quarterbacks yet again. Do these stats matter to you?
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