“Elite” is a term that is thrown around way too often in the NFL. This past week John Clayton of ESPN called Joe Flacco an elite quarterback. Last season analysts were already calling Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman elite. This is the preverbal “rock bottom” of throwing around the word elite to any NFL quarterback that has a good season. Both Freeman and Flacco had great seasons last year, with Freeman throwing for 25 touchdowns to just 6 interceptions. Flacco threw for 25 and 10 while leading the Ravens to the playoffs before losing in the divisional round. Through his career, Flacco has a 4-3 playoff record with a 60.7 completion percentage and 86.4 quarterback rating. Freeman, on the other hand, has never made it to the playoffs and boasts a 59.5 completion percentage and a 79.8 quarterback rating.
To call these two elite at this stage in their careers is just wrong. Focusing on Flacco, he has without a doubt been the strongest quarterback the Ravens have had in their current history of having a dominant defense. Flacco does have a decent playoff record for a fourth year quarterback, but much of that can be attributed to the Ravens all-world defense. New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez is said to be the weakest link on the Jets team. The Jets have a similar team structure to the Ravens; a team with a strong defense and emphasis on the running game. Through two and a half seasons, Sanchez has a 4-2 playoff record with a 72.9 quarterback rating and 54.7 completion percentage. Sanchez has thrown for less touchdowns and more interceptions than Flacco has, but the stats are not all that different. Factor in a difference 6% in completions and a 14 point difference in quarterback rating, the two players aren’t far off from each other.
Using the same comparison as Flacco, Freeman has similar stats to Sanchez as well. Freeman and Sanchez both entered the league in 2009. With fewer games played, Freeman has thrown for three less interceptions and one more touchdown. Both players have 7,000 yards passing to their credit and a 6 yard average per attempt pass. Freeman has never led the Bucs to the playoffs, the closest being last season when they went 10-6 and missed the wild card by one game.
The point of this is, if analysts are going to call guys like Flacco and Freeman elite, then using the same stats (playoffs, career qb rating, career passing stats), average quarterbacks like Sanchez and even Matt Cassel should be in the conversation as well. Which brings me to my point, none of those four players are elite. The purpose of the Sanchez comparisons were not to push that he is an elite quarterback. At this stage in his career, Sanchez is an average quarterback whose strongest skill is being a game manager. Looking at the stats and playoff records, guys like Freeman and Flacco cannot be called elite if they have similar resumes to game managers and decent quarterbacks like Sanchez and Cassel.
In my eyes, being an “elite” quarterback puts you in the pantheon of NFL starters. They are the guys who when you see their team on the schedule, you cringe and think that they will beat you. Nobody looks at a game against the Ravens or Bucs and says, “Flacco/Freeman is going to beat us in that game”. The elite title should be reserved for quarterbacks who are the best players on their team, players who have been deep into the playoffs and remained the last man standing. Players who throughout their career have put up big numbers and big win totals. Not guys like Flacco, who one week could throw for 300+ yards and a few scores then the next week throw for 8 yards in an entire half (Jacksonville game). Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Ben Roethlisberger. Those guys have won games single handidly. They take their teams to the playoffs year in and year out and have been the last man standing in February. Phillip Rivers could become elite. Eli Manning is right there, too. But right now, as we sit in week 9 of the 2011 season, the “elite” quarterback list starts and ends with those five names. Maybe in two, three, four years Flacco and Freeman could leap into the conversation, but to call them elite at this stage and with their current career stats is defacing the title all together.
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