Graham Mertz, Game Manager Appreciation Thread - (updated to 2024 season)

Aaannnnddd, how many of those qbs ahead of him played against 2 top ten teams so far (out of 3 games)? The other guys ‘ numbers are all fluff jobs.
I really like this kid.
I really hope he stays away from gnc, stays off twitch, away from credit card schemes, and gets his own laptop. I can’t take another mid season bomb drop.

 

Now its on you if any of that happens. Damn.

 

Tagging Mertz as a "game manager" is a disservice to him!

As others have stated, he is what we needed. His leadership is allowing the team to rally around him. He won't make a play to cost us the game (Ala Richardson's various gimmie interceptions) butninnturn makes plays that continue drives (pump fake) or show grit to get team pumped up (losing helmet on qb sneak for TD)

As OP said, I will take Mertz over whatever the non game manager qb is out there. A Game Manager seems to be the ultimate team player, and now in these NIL days it is becoming all about "me" and "my stats".

Napier has done a great job bringing in team first players, and Mertz was the icing on the cake for what this team needed, and Lagaway is a perfect fit to learn from Mertz next year without having to be thrown into the fire.

Just throwing this out there, Mertz seems to be inclined with the likes of Wuerrfel, Leak, and Trask as far as team intangibles go and being more a "game manager" QB than an "Athletic. QB"

 

Drew Brees and Brady had a very strong arm. Both of them were mobile enough to extend plays. They were both elite OBs and could take over games.

A good manager of any type is known for making good decisions and putting his workers (players) in a position to succeed. Mertz has done that but he's got a little wiggle on top that makes opposing players fail.

 

He is fulfilling a crucial role doing our rebuild.

I can only hope that the co-eds at UF are being good to Mertz, and he doesn’t have any regrets about his decision

 

Trent Dilfer was the ultimate game manager. Probably a label that gets added to a qb that has a great defense, and you’re not required to score a ton of points to win. Just don’t throw a pick 6, run the ball, get some points, eat the clock. Game manager.

 

I think the term “game manager” is generally applied to a non-elite QB who isn’t going to sling 5TD’s or put the offense on his shoulders - maybe that doesn’t have the big arm to make all the throws. Basically when you have an elite team and tell your QB “don’t screw this up”. Think Trent Dilfer who won a Super Bowl as an NFL level “game manager”. Nobody ever called Joe Montana a game manager lol.

Aside from the fact “game manager” is usually a backhanded insult a against the QB - that the QB is the weak link, that game manager tag can’t apply here because Mertz is not surrounded by championship contender talent, and he actually is needed to make plays (if we want to reach 8 or 9+ wins) rather than merely telling him “don’t screw this thing up”.

 

There's nothing really that says Mertz is limited to being a game manager. It's more that UF doesn't have a passing game schematically past 10 yards down the field.

 

Really hope he enjoys UF enough to stay for his last year of eligibility.

 

Danny Wuerffel not a game manager? Hell he’s probably the perfect example of a game manager. He ran that offense

 

If anyone wants to go down a stupid rabbit hole, I don't at all consider Trent Dilfer a game manager. He had a huge arm and over his career was very erratic. He had a fairly low completion % and threw a lot more INT's than TD's. He was a welfare Brett Favre. He was the #6 pick inthe draft for a reason. He had all the physical tools. A much more classic game manager who won a Super Bowl would have been Brad Johnson.

 

Wuerffel was a playmaker. The game manager of that era was Jesse Palmer.

 

Oh geez now you’ve done it!

 

I think our billion dollar blowhard is choking on Mertz’s “data” from this game. Frustrated and trying to separate the data points he wants to use from the bucketful of data he wants to ignore

 

Well said

 

Clear definition of a Game manger. I don’t won’t you throwing a pick because you’re erratic. Brad Johnson, good pick, I agree. You can’t argue Tilfer led that team to a Super Bowl. They basically just asked him not to screw anything up.

 

My take is that he is taking the safe passes out to the flats or just past the los and letting out backs and receivers go get the yards. I remember zooks offsense kind of like that (and being frustrated because it was coming off the heels of a decade of gluttonous fun n gun). If he was completing a couple more fades and crossing routes 10 yards out, we would be using loftier terms than game manager. .

 

Yeah it's just a "lazy-man" reporting phrase that sports types like to pigeonhole QB's with.

Just another example of the media not doing it's homework.
My favorite "dumb-ass" media standard: Who do you "model" or compare your game to?

My answer if I played: MYSELF - What a DUMB ASS thing to ask.

 

Greg McElroy

 

Thus far our QB play proves that looking good in gym shorts and excelling in a bunch of KPIs (frequently a fad to measure a bunch of near meaningless parameters just because you can measure them) doesn't make a good QB. Mertz is an upgrade over the past couple of years if his play with the team stays steady.