Bill Simmons on Tom Brady/Matt Cassel

[JD10367]

Originally Posted by milkman

Seriously, I'd be surprised to see anyone talking Pioli into trading Cassel this year, especially after the year he had here, making his value far less than what we gave up for him.

They're not yanking Cassel after one season. Especially not before seeing what Weis can do, and what Cassel looks like with a year of the Chiefs under his belt.

But I'd disagree with "especially after the year he had here". Yeah, he didn't look great. But he still did some things. He was 20th in passing yardage, better than Matt Ryan, Mark Sanchez, and some other QBs who might be considered "better than Cassel". His TD/INT ratio was dead even (as was Matt Hasselbeck's); Cutler's was one TD better than even, and Stafford and Sanchez had way more INTs than TDs.

His QB rating was 25th. Sucks, huh? But look at the 24 guys above him.

100+ to 90:
1. Brees
2. Favre
3. Rivers
4. Rodgers
5. Roethlisberger
6. P. Manning
7. Schaub
8. Romo
9. Brady
10. Warner
11. E. Manning
12. McNabb

90 to 80:
13. Flacco
14. Orton
15. Campbell
16. Palmer
17. Garrard
18. Young
19. Smith

80 to 70:
20. Ryan
21. Cutler
22. Henne
23. Hasselbeck
24. Bulger
25. Cassel (69.9)

I think it's safe to say that the top group of 13 are clearly pretty elite QBs. The rest could be mixed-and-matched IMO and the difference in their numbers can be attributed to the talent around them, the teams they played, and the bounce of the ball. I don't think David Garrard or Chad Henne are that much better than Cassel, just as I don't think Flacco, Orton, or Campbell are necessarily better than Carson Palmer.

For a guy with his first year with a new team, with a new coach (who is new at his job), and a shaky cast of characters, IMO Cassel did about what I expected. Sure, there were many games and plays he could've done better. Doesn't mean he's a bust.