Exploding Another McNabb Myth

I'm sorry, I just can't help myself.  I'm like a kid in a candy store on Christmas morning with my brand new pony ... or something.

Anyway, here's another awesome stat from the PFP 2007 -- guess which quarterback led the league last year in YAC (yards-after-catch)?

That's right, our own #5, at 7.4.

But wait, I thought McNabb was so inaccurate that guys had to jump/dive/contort themselves all over the place just to catch his balls?  Leaving them no chance of actually running after they did?  Surely there must be some mistake -- maybe just a one-year wonder kind of thing?

Nope, in 2005 his YAC was 5.9, good enough for second in the league, despite all the team's struggles.

This has been one of the most persistent criticisms of McNabb ever since he came into the league.  Sure, he was a good quarterback with great mobility, but he was just never going to be accurate enough to run a "true" West Coast Offense. 

Maybe this is one of those cases where our eyes have deceived us a bit.  Because we can all remember any number of plays where McNabb fired a ball at a guy's feet when it looked like he could easily have hit him in stride.  But every quarterback misses receivers at times, it's just when you do it like that, it tends to stick out a bit more.

It is too bad we can't get situational YAC stats, however.  I'd love to see how McNabb's YAC matches up against other guys on shorter routes, because part of the reason his number is so good is probably his skill with the deep ball.  All those 80-yard bombs start to add up after awhile. 

Also, he has Brian Westbrook.

Of course, so did Jeff Garcia.  But his number last year?  4.1 -- or 36th in the league.

Guess all that nice touch on five-yard crossing patterns only goes so far.

Comments

[Mike]

Great points.

This is something that we have to keep in mind:

When McNabb misses (like all QBs do), we remember him for missing at someone's feet. We DON'T remember him for missing five feet over the receiver's head like Favre (a quarterback who makes more than enough great throws to make up for it) and Eli Manning (who doesn't).

I'd rather have him skip a few and live to throw again. After the past few years, none of us want to see #5 trying to chase down a defensive back.

Mike