The 2020 NFL season features a wildly different landscape from where we left 2019. Not only are there a handful of highly touted rookie quarterbacks leading franchises, but a large number of older quarterbacks have also found new homes. Tom Brady, Philip Rivers, Kyle Allen, Cam Newton, and Teddy Bridgewater were all once the face of a franchise or a highly drafted prospect who is now with a new team. Each quarterback also carries a career’s worth of baggage from their previous homes that will make judging their new efforts difficult.
With that in mind, we are going to do a totally anonymous, week-to-week comparison between two transplant quarterbacks. These quarterbacks will be known as Quarterback A and B throughout the season and will be completely randomly selected this week. If you manage to suss out who one of our anonymous subjects is then please don’t go shouting it out in the comments. Let the mystery ride for the rest of our audience. Also, pay no mind to the picture at the top of the article, that will also be randomly, but independently, selected each week.
Now, for our quarterbacks:
Quarterback A completed 15/19 passes, or 79 percent, for 155 yards, zero touchdowns, and zero interceptions. He also took two sacks for a loss of 15 yards while rushing for 75 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries. They won their game.
Quarterback B completed 22/34 passes, or 65 percent, for 270 yards, one touchdown, and zero interceptions. He also took one sack for a loss of ten yards while rushing for 26 yards and zero touchdowns on four carries. They lost their game.
There isn’t a lot to compare here yet. There is only one game of data and situational decision making can account for the differences in touchdowns and passing vs rushing yards. Both quarterbacks do seem to be relatively efficient passers who take care of the football. I wonder if that gives you any clues as to who they might be? Stay tuned until the end of the season where we will analyze their big changes and, ultimately, reveal who these two are!