Marcus Mariota is great. He just is. I understand that some of you may not really fully appreciate him, but that is what I am here for.
Let’s talk about the most important stats for a quarterback.
Touchdowns
Obviously touchdown are important, and it doesn’t really matter if you have to get them on the ground or through the air. However, for the sake of an even comparison as quarterbacks, I am just going to include passing touchdowns.
If you have a quarterback that puts up 400 yards per game, but never punches it in is that better than a QB that puts up 300 and gets 3 TDs a game? No, probably not.
Touchdowns are the lifeblood of football, and at the end of the day the ability to score touchdowns is what makes quarterbacks stand out.
Interceptions
Just like how passing touchdowns can fire up and offense, interceptions can destroy an offense and their momentum.
I don’t have to go on about this, we all know INTs are bad.
TD/INT ratio
A good measure of how productive a QB is compared to his mistakes.
Completion percentage
How accurate is your quarterback? Adjusted completion percentage may be a better indicator of that, but finding a way to get the ball to players that will catch it is inherently part of a QB’s skill set.
Straight up completion percentage shows you just how often does your QB throw a catchable ball to a wide receiver that can come down with the ball.
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Yards per game
You don’t have to light up the stat sheet, but if you can’t throw for more than 150 yards, you are probably relying on a lot of help in the running game to move the ball.
Yards per attempt
Just like the TD/INT ratio is important, so YPA. It is a way of keeping in perspective the work of a player who gets an insane volume of throws.
Who should be compared?
Alright, now that we know what to look at, the question is who should we look at? Well, since we are looking at Marcus Mariota, let’s look at the top quarterbacks from the 2014-2016 NFL draft class.
So, using those 7 QBs who is the best and who is the worst? All these stats are from Sport Reference.
| On average | Games Played | Completion Percentage | Passing Yards | Y/A | Pass TDs | INTs | TD/INT Ratio | Medal points |
| Blake Bortles | 38 | 58.90% | 249.7 (2nd) | 6.7 | 1.57 | 1.18 | 1.33 | 2 |
| Teddy Bridgewater | 29 | 64.90% (2nd) | 212.1 | 7.2 (3rd) | 0.97 | 0.72 | 1.35 | 3 |
| Derek Carr | 41 | 61.10% | 238.1 | 6.4 | 1.7 (2nd) | 0.68 (3rd) | 2.5 (3rd) | 4 |
| Jameis Winston | 24 | 58.60% | 253.3 (Best) | 7.2 (3rd) | 1.6 (3rd) | 1 | 1.6 | 5 (3rd) |
| Marcus Mariota | 21 | 62.60% | 238.3 (3rd) | 7.6 (2nd) | 1.71 (Best) | 0.86 | 1.99 (2nd) | 8 (2nd) |
| Carson Wentz | 8 | 64.40% (3rd) | 236.3 | 6.9 | 1.1 | 0.63 (2nd) | 1.75 | 3 |
| Dak Prescott | 8 | 66.50% (Best) | 252.5 | 8.1 (Best) | 1.5 | 0.25 (Best) | 6 (Best) | 12 (Best) |
So if you are a Tennessee Titans fan, you have to be pretty confident in your young QB after seeing those stats right? He is clearly very good in a quarterback crop that looks like it has some real stars.
If we are going by “medal points” (i.e. Best/Gold=3 points, 2nd=2, 3rd=1) Mariota ends up coming out as the 2nd best young QB thanks to strong performances in his YPA, TDs per game, passing yards, and TD to INT ratio.
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You honestly can’t ask for any better considering that he just now has an offensive line and is starting to get some weapons in place.
If you didn’t think that Marcus Mariota was particularly strong I encourage you to check this out and reconsider.
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