The myth of Blake Bortles being better than Marcus Mariota

There is no one (in their right mind) saying that Marcus Mariota is not a good prospect already. He is on pace to break the rookie touchdown record and he is on pace to do that with less interceptions than anyone else.

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While Marcus Mariota is really good, some people still don’t give him the credit he deserves. For example, NFL.com has Mariota as the 18th ranked quarterback in the league right now in their QB index. The same ranking has Blake Bortles ranked 4 spots above as the 14th overall player.

I’m not picking on this article or anything because it is more of a group think thing right now. However, I think that argument hinges on one thing, Bortles and his big arm means he should put up more yards.

The key stat that I always bring up (and one that most people bring up) to describe how good a quarterback is, is yards per average. This is the best way of combining accuracy with the ability to either get the ball in the receiver’s hands in space or deep down the field on chunk plays.

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So, that should be the stat that everyone measures rather than total yards. As strange as it sounds, Vince Young could have thrown for 5,000 yards in the NFL if all the Titans did was throw on every down. So with that in mind just how good is total yards?

So in terms of YPA, the top 10 QBs in the NFL are:

1. Ben Roethlisberger 8.94

2. Carson Palmer 8.93

3. Tom Brady 8.22

4. Andy Dalton 8.19

5. Tyrod Taylor (only 176 attempts) 8.16

6. Drew Brees 8.03

7. Marcus Mariota 8.01

8. Russell Wilson 7.96

9. Phil Rivers 7.78

10. Derek Carr 7.58

In my opinion, those are the top pure quarterbacks in the NFL right now. The only other player I would include is Cam Newton, because he can take over a game with his legs.

Where is Blake Bortles? 28th in the league, which is terrible.

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Not only is he not making the most of his passes, but he has thrown 11 interception to just 19 touchdowns. Which comes out to a 1.7 TD to INT ratio, which is just not really enough to win in this league.

All in all, I get why people fall in love with a big arm, but his erratic decision making and inefficiency are the same problems that players like Ryan Mallet and Zach Mettenberger face.

I just think it is time to acknowledge that Marcus Mariota is probably the best QB in the division right now, especially with Andrew Luck scratched for the next few weeks.

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