His rushing was pretty damn good and his passing not so much. Passing is what it’s all about. Rushing is just icing on the cake.
The entire package is what matters. The rushing yards (career 6.9 yards per carry) has to be made up. Mertz will have to be significantly better than AR as a passer to bridge the rushing gap.
Running moves the sticks. Our O put up a reasonable amount of points. Regardless you have to evaluate the total package. You can’t just ignore about 650 yards rushing on 100 carries with 9 TDs. That significant and opens up the offense for the RBs. Seems wild to me that we are talking about the value of rushing. His rushing stats are the best we’ve had at UF in a long time. He had an average/below average season passing, great season rushing, and finished about 30th. How is this controversial? Y’all making it seem like I’m saying he had an awesome year. He was good, not great.
Shows 30th on his card. Probably some qualification issue. Either way that doesn’t change he was a solid good but not great QB for us. He wasn’t terrible as many here seem to think he was Anthony Richardson Stats, News, Bio | ESPN
I certainly don't think he was terrible. I, like many others, just think it's disappointing that he didn't live up to his potential. We all saw the talent and had high expectations. I expect Mertz (or Miller) to lead a better passing game than what we saw this past season. That's not unreasonable at all IMO.
He wasn’t terrible. He was average and potentially very good. We just never got that from him. The nfl obviously sees that potential.
He was a first year starter in a system predicated on running backs running not qb throwing. He had no true tight end threats and still had a good year.
A "good" year that could have been a GREAT year if he could just put the ball where it needed to be. How many times did he throw a short pass 200mph at a receiver's feet, or way behind his target on a slant or crossing route? If it wasn't a vertical throw downfield, he struggled mightily. Couldn't throw with any touch in the short/intermediate game, couldn't anticipate and lead the receiver, couldn't consistently throw a guy open on anything horizontal. The bottom line is that AR left a TON of plays on the field. Blame the supporting cast, blame the playcalls, blah blah blah. The "system" has nothing to do with his accuracy issues. All we need is a QB that can execute the offense and we'll be in good shape. Hopefully Mertz can be that guy.
Not making excuses. He was the 30th best QB. I’m not the one saying he was better or worse than he was on the field
Mertz has historically been AR passing the ball and a negative running the ball. Hence why his overall numbers are well below AR and quite mediocre. I suspect the passing attack from Mertz will improve upon his history but he needs to make a HUGE leap passing to equal AR last year. im still amazed people forget rushing. If Mertz throws for 500 more and 5 more TDs than last year it would still be an overall worse year than AR. He’s going to need to improve his stat line by 1000 passing and 10 more passing TDs with no picks to be close to AR equal AR. That’s a 3100 29 and 10 line. He will finish in the 25-50th range (probably lower than AR) As a reference Stroud was 3700 41 and 6. Maye 4300 38 and 7. Those are top 10 guys. Yeah we probably see an uptick in passing but 1. People underestimate how much better passing Mertz must be to = AR. Like 1000, 10 and 0. It’s realistic but it’s the upside case. Odds are he definitely undershoots that. So when people act like Mertz performing = or better than AR is a given they are just dreaming. Not sure if it’s underestimating AR (30th best) or where Mertz has been (81 last year, 74 year before) 2. People underestimate the insane jump Mertz would neeed to be too 10. Like 2000 more yards, 20 more TDs, 0 picks on top of last year.
I swear you and Shane are the same person posting under two different accounts. You're focusing way too much on numbers that really don't matter, because you're comparing apples and elephants. There are wayyyyyy too many variables at hand. I understand the point you are trying to make, but you can't logically simplify it in these terms.
At this point people are going to believe whatever narrative about AR that their heart tells them to.