Peter King-Yet again
 

Just read his MMQB article. He rankes all 32 starting QBs for the coming season. Naturally he has Manning and Brady #1-2, and our boy Croyle comes in dead last.

Link?

Why wouldn't Croyle be dead last?

Ryan Leaf would probably rank lower, but he's coaching at West Texas A&M now.

Unproven 2nd year QB? I don't see why anyone would rank him too much higher than last anyway.

Our new secret weapon...

yet he has culter in around 6 or 7. don't make much sense to me.

Here's the link:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...l?eref=writers

Someone should post this in Brodie Croyle's locker...

I can think of a few QB's in the league that are WORSE than "unproven".

link is blocked by firewall. Could someone post article

For instance, he has Tarvaris Jackson rated ahead of Croyle. Why? He hasn't started a game and he didn't have near the college career Croyle did.

I also personally like seeing Cutler that high. It will make the "fall" that much more sweet.

I wanted to be pissed at first, but let's face it...that's where he should be ranked...totally unknown quantity. He won't be dead last after the season though. /homer

He has Croyle behind Charlie Frye and Josh McCown...

Here ya go:

It's been a little boring around the NFL over the last month or so. Lots of off-the-field crappola going on, but not much to sink your football teeth into. Here's my attempt to stir things up. It's the first MMQB Quarterback Ratings.

Here's what I've done: ranked the 2007 starting quarterbacks in the league from 1 to 32, from Manning (Peyton) to Croyle (Brodie). The rankings are in the order of quarterbacks who will have the best seasons in 2007 and 2007 only.

The highlights:

• Manning's No. 1 (Surprise!): A year ago, I would have picked Tom Brady over Manning. But fair is fair. Manning beat Brady twice in 2006, won the Super Bowl and put all the can't-win-the-big-one stuff behind him. Now Peyton has the ultimate reward -- being picked over Brady in the inaugural MMQB Ratings.

• I'd take Drew Brees over Carson Palmer if I were starting a team right now. Sacrilege! With fewer weapons and the same comeback from serious injury, Brees has narrowly outplayed Palmer over the past two years, and I think it's a good bet he will in '07.

• Want my upset specials in the top 10? Try Vince Young and Jon Kitna. Young's the most feared young player in football right now. More feared than Reggie Bush. He ran for nearly as many touchdowns last year (seven) as Mike Vick has rushed for in the last two years (eight). And I put Kitna at No. 9 because, quite simply, he is the right trigger man for the Lions' offense, and I believe he'll throw for 4,300 yards again.

• It's not that I don't like Donovan McNabb. I do. I just don't trust him to stay healthy. I rank the Eagles' QB 12th because I have no confidence that McNabb, at 30 and having missed a combined 13 games over the last two years, will be upright in December.

• Ben Roethlisberger 17th? What gives? From Year 1 to Year 2 of his career, his completion percentage dropped 3.7 points; from year two to three, 3.0 points. His TD-to-interception ratio, plus-eight in 2005, dropped to minus-five last year. He is profoundly inconsistent. I say he's a C-plus player until I see six or eight straight weeks of the same guy.

• Mike Vick's understudy will be better this year than Mike Vick. I've got Matt Schaub 19th and Vick 21st. Schaub's gobbling up Gary Kubiak's system this spring and I think he'll be a low-error, efficient player. I have no idea what Vick will be, or if the feds will let him finish what he starts with the dog-fighting probe progressing to a possible indictment this summer in his home state of Virginia. Vick is still far too inconsistent throwing the ball ... stunningly so for a man with his talent.

• Eli Manning, who could playing for two jobs this year (his own and Tom Coughlin's), enters the pop charts at number 23. He'll need to be feistier and significantly more accurate, neither of which I am confident will happen, to save his career in the Meadowlands.

• Rex Grossman's got some improving to do. I hadn't seen such a low-performing passer in the Super Bowl since Trent Dilfer with the Ravens seven years ago, and quite frankly I'm surprised the Bears didn't get some insurance at the position with a youngster in the draft. I have him 27th, fairly ridiculous for a first-round pick who started in the Super Bowl.

As for how I arrived at my picks, other than with a divining rod, I used a few measuring sticks. I value wins from my quarterback, which helped Manning and Brady, the leaders in victories over the last two years. I value postseason success; their seven combined wins over the past two years is significant. Completion percentage and yards-per-attempt are the two passing stats I value the most because they tell you how often a quarterback succeeds in efficiently moving the chains through the air. Finally, intangibles. Brady led all passers with a 10 on a 10-point scale, because he's a coach, an offseason facilitator, a free-agent recruiter -- and he does it while retaining respect from the guys he often has to lean on hard.

And hey -- don't go saying, "King's such an idiot! He thinks Jon Kitna's one of the best quarterbacks in football.'' That's not what I think. What I think is by the end of this year, we'll have seen Kitna as one of the 10 most productive quarterbacks in the NFL this year. Kitna's the golden child, in the perfect spot for a quarterback in 2007, just as with every Mike Martz quarterback in the past few years. Now, it's fine if you want to say, "King's such an idiot! He thinks Kitna's going to throw for 4,300 again! No way!'' It's fine because it's your opinion, but it's probably wrong.

Finally, I used the 32 quarterbacks who I think will start for their teams opening day. Do I think JaMarcus Russell will be the man in Oakland by Election Day? Absolutely. But not by Labor Day. And I don't think Charlie Frye will hold off Brady Quinn for the year either. Even if I feel the team is making the wrong move (as in Kansas City going with the very green Brodie Croyle, which it looks like the Chiefs are going to do), that's the guy I've rated here.

In the chart below, I've done a ranking of the 32 projected starters using combined 2005 and 2006 stats, just to give you a baseline of what the player has done the last couple of years and using that as a partial barometer of 2007 success.

One final note: Now that he's won the Super Bowl, how special is Peyton Manning, and how long a shadow must he cast for his little brother in New Jersey? Check out his line. Among two-year starters returning to start in 2007, Peyton's the most productive over the last two years (8,144 yards), the best at getting it downfield (8.06 yards per throw), the most accurate (.660), with the best touchdown-to-interception ratio (+40). For years, we could say -- and not be wrong -- that all Manning does is put up great numbers. Now we've got to say he puts up intergalactic numbers while, at the same time, putting his team in a good position to win.
QB Rankings (Stats combined from '05 and '06)
Rank Player Team Wins Playoff wins Yds/Att. Pct. Yards TD/INT Ratio Rush Yds. Intang. Age#
1. P. Manning Ind. 26 4 8.06 .660 8,144 +40 81 9 31
2. T. Brady NE 22 3 7.30 .624 7,639 +24 191 10 30
3. D. Brees NO 19 1 7.58 .644 7,994 +24 81 9 28
4. C. Palmer Cin. 19 0 7.65 .650 7,871 +35 78 8 27
5. M. Bulger St. L 10 0 7.54 .642 6,598 +21 73 6 30
6. M. Hasselbeck Sea. 20 3 7.20 .615 5,901 +18 234 8 31
7. V. Young* Tenn 8 0 6.16 .515 2,199 -1 552 7 24
8. P. Rivers* SD 14 0 7.27 .614 3,503 +12 48 7 25
9. J. Kitna * Det. 3 0 6.89 .622 4,307 -3 170 7 34
10. J. Cutler* Den. 2 0 7.31 .591 1,001 +4 18 5 24
11. T. Romo* Dall. 6 0 8.61 .653 2,903 +6 100 5 27
12. D. McNabb Phil. 9 0 7.66 .581 5,154 +19 267 7 30
13. S. McNair Bal. 17 0 6.58 .622 6,211 +9 258 5 34
14. B. Favre GB 12 0 6.37 .586 7,766 -9 91 8 37
15. C. Pennington Jets 11 0 6.83 .637 3,882 0 136 6 31
16. J. Delhomme Car. 19 2 7.19 .606 6,226 +14 43 8 32
17. B. Roethlisberger Pit. 16 4 8.00 .608 5,898 +3 167 5 25
18. M. Leinart* Ariz. 5 0 6.76 .568 2,547 -1 49 6 24
19. M. Schaub* Hou. 0 0 7.73 .560 703 +3 97 6 26
20. J.P. Losman* Buf. 8 0 6.68 .580 4,391 +5 294 6 26
21. M. Vick Atl. 15 0 6.30 .539 4,886 +9 1636 5 27
22. J. Garcia* TB 5 1 6.22 .604 2,246 +5 138 6 37
23. E. Manning Giants 19 0 6.49 .551 7,006 +13 101 4 26
24. T. Green Miami 14 0 7.60 .621 5,356 +5 141 8 37
25. A. Smith SF 9 0 6.20 .562 3,765 -10 250 6 23
26. J. Campbell* Wash 2 0 6.27 .531 1,297 +4 107 5 25
27. R. Grossman* Chi. 14 2 6.65 .543 3,452 +2 2 5 27
28. B. Leftwich Jax 11 0 6.77 .584 3,282 +12 108 5 27
29. J. McCown* Oak. 3 0 6.80 .604 1,836 -2 139 6 28
30. T. Jackson* Min. 0 0 5.86 .580 475 -2 77 4 24
31. C. Frye Cle. 6 0 6.20 .628 3,456 -8 275 5 26
32. B. Croyle* KC 0 0 3.29 .429 23 -2 -3 6 24
# Age at the start of the 2007 regular season.
*Has not spent the last two seasons as starter.

While the last few guys could probably be flopped around some, it's not like it's a huge stretch. Every other guy on that list has at least started an NFL game.

According to Peter King's own analysis, that's not where Croyle SHOULD be ranked.

The only rationale for him rating Tarvaris Jackson two slots ahead of Croyle is if he's (incorrectly) weighting yards per attempt or rushing yards for 2 QB's who've NEVER STARTED A GAME.

They're the same age and they've never started a game. Because of that fact, it seems to me that the most important "stat" for two unknowns would be his "intangible" rating. Croyle is a 6. Jackson is a 4. Yet Jackson rates better overall.

Furthermore, there's no way Croyle should be below Frye. We don't know what Croyle is yet, but he still has a CHANCE to be good. Frye doesn't.