First I want to say that AP is one of the best sites on the internet.  I have been commenting on here for awhile but this is my first fanposts.  I wrote this a couple of months ago but never posted it and I will apologize in advance cuz yes it is yet another Matt Cassel post.  Ive been reading so many negative posts lately about Cassel and people saying that he cant be our franchise QB, so I decided to do an in depth look at a comparison between Cassel and other franchise QBs.

Some people say that Cassel can not be our franchise QB cuz he has never been anything more than a backup.  Well let me give you some names of some other guys that were also backups cuz they were unable to beat out the guy ahead of them to become the starter, Steve Young, Kurt Warner, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers.  None of those guys could win the starting job either.  It took something beyond their control to allow them to have a chance at starting, just like Cassel.  You see sometimes there just happens to be a better player ahead of you that doesnt allow you to have an opportunity to start, but that doesnt mean you arent a good player.

Next for some reason people want to compare Matt Cassel, a 2 year starter, to other franchise QBs that have been starting for more than 5 years and then say he doesn't compare with any of them.  Well its not really a fair comparison to compare a guy that has only been starting for 2 years with guys that have been starting for more than 5.  If you are gunna compare him to guys like Peyton, Brady, Brees, Eli, Roethlisberger, etc then you have to compare Cassel's first 2 years as a starter with these guys first 2 years as a starter.  Otherwise you should be comparing him to guys like Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Aaron Rodgers.

Well that is what I have done. The following numbers are the stats from all of these QBs first 2 seasons as starting QBs for their teams.

                                   record   comp%   tds   int    yards    sacks

Matt Cassel——— 15-16 59.2% 37 TDS 27 Int 6617 yds 89 sacks

Peyton Manning—- 16-16 59.4% 52 TDS 43 Int 7874 yds 36 sacks

Eli Manning———- 12-13 50.5% 30 TDS 26 Int 4805 yds 41 sacks

Drew Brees——— 10-17 59.2% 28 TDS 31 Int 5392 yds 45 sacks

Roethlisberger—— 22-4 64.55% 34 TDS 20 Int 5006 yds 53 sacks

Tom Brady———- 20-12 63% 46 TDS 26 Int 6607 yds 72 sacks

This next list is comparing Cassel to these other guys with only 2 years of starting.

                                   record   comp%   tds   int    yards     sacks

Matt Cassel——— 15-16 59.2% 37 TDS 27 Int 6617 yds 89 sacks

Matt Ryan------------20-12 59.7% 38 TDS 25 Int 6356 yds 36 sacks

Joe Flacco-----------20-12 61.5% 35 TDS 24 Int 6584 yds 68 sacks

Aaron Rodgers------17-15 64.1% 58 TDS 20 Int 8472 yds 84 sacks

I would say he compares pretty similar to most of these guys in their first 2 years as a starting qb and none of these other guys had to switch teams and actually go to a worse team for their second year. A couple of these guys have better records their first 2 years but none of them had to play on teams as bad as Cassel did last year either

Next people say that Cassel played terrible last year, I disagree. If you are looking strictly at his numbers then yes you could say he did not have a good year.  But if you look beneath the surface you will see something different, unfortunately some people are either unable or unwilling to do this.  I'm not gunna bother with going into detail the factors that helped lead to Cassel's numbers, such as dropped passes, revolving door of receivers, o line play, no running game the first half of the season cuz that stuff has been argued way too much already.  So Im gunna go a different route.  Even with the numbers that Cassel had last year he still had us in position to win 9 games and probly fighting for a playoff spot.  And here is what Im using to back that statement up with.

7 games Cassel led us in the 4th quarter to a game tieing or go ahead score

5 of those games Cassel threw the game tieing or go ahead TD pass

2 of those games we won

4 of those games the defense turned right around and lost the game for us and 1 game Chambers drops what could have been the game winning score

Oakland game

Trailing 6-3 with about 7 mins left in the 4th quarter Cassel leads us on a 9 play 72 yd 4:23 drive and hits a 29 yd td pass to DBowe to put us ahead 10-6 with just over 2 mins remaining in the game only to have the defense lose us the game by allowing Oakland to march down the field and score the game winning td.  Loss

Cowboys game

Winning 13-10 in the 4th quarter the defense allows Dallas to get a fg and then a td to take the lead with 2:16 remaining in the game.  Cassel leads us on a 10 play 74 yd 1:52 drive and hits a 16 yd td pass to DBowe to score the tieing td with 0:24 remaining only to have the defense give up a 60 yd game winning td pass in overtime.  Loss

Redskins game

With the game tied in the 4th quarter and under 4 mins remaining Cassel leads us down for 2 fgs, the defense holds this time and we win the game.  Win

Steelers game

Trailing 24-17 with about 8 mins left in the 4th quarter Cassel leads us on a 8 play 91 yd 3:41 drive and hits a 2 yd td pass to Charles to tie the game and send it into overtime.  Then in overtime he leads us on a 5 play 76 yd 1:32 drive for the game winning fg.  Win

Buffalo game

Trailing 16-10 with around 7 mins remaining Cassel once again leads us down the field on a 60+ yd drive only to have Chambers drop the pass that could have been the game winning score.  Loss

Cleveland game

Trailing 34-24 with around 8 mins remaining Cassel leads us down for a fg and then with around 4 mins remaining leads us on a 8 play 58 yd 2:06 drive and hits a 12 yd td pass to Bradley to tie the game with around 2 min remaining only to have the defense give up a 70 yd game winning td drive in the final two mins of the game.  Loss

Bengals game

Trailing 10-3 in the 4th quarter Cassel leads us on a 8 play 49 yd drive and hits a 20 yd td pass to Castille to tie the game and then the defense gives up a 14 play 98 yd 7:18 game winning td drive.  Loss

Those 7 games right there tell me that he has what it takes to be our franchise QB, if only he could have gotten some help along the way we could have easily been fighting for a playoff spot last year.

Matt Cassel vs Aaron Rodgers

The last thing I would like to do is talk about these 2 QBs.  The reason is because these 2 have had similar careers so far, but Rodgers is considered an elite QB and Cassel is considered as nothing more than a backup and I dont really understand why.  Here are the numbers comparing these 2 for their first 2 years.

                                  record   comp%   tds   int    yards     sacks

Matt Cassel——— 15-16 59.2% 37 TDS 27 Int 6617 yds 89 sacks

Aaron Rodgers------17-15 64.1% 58 TDS 20 Int 8472 yds 84 sacks

Both of them were drafted onto really good teams.  Both of them had HOF QBs starting in front of them so each of them had to wait a few years before having a chance at starting.  When they finally got the chance to start both of them had really good teams around them.  Cassel took over a team that went 18-1 and lost in the SB and went on to lead that team to an 11-5 record.  Rodgers took over a team that went 14-3 and lost in the NFC championship game and he went on to lead that team to a 6-10 record.  Also Cassel in his first year starting with the Chiefs went 4-11 with a really bad team around him, Rodgers in his first year starting with the Packers went 6-10 with a really good team around him.  Rodgers has thrown for more yards and more TDs but other than that both of these guys have had pretty similar first 2 years as starters even tho Rodgers has played on a good team for both years and Cassel played on a good team and a really bad team.  I personally think both of these guys are good starting QBs, not great and not terrible.  So a question I have is why is Aaron Rodgers considered an elite QB and Matt Cassel is considered a backup?

I for one believe that Matt Cassel can be the QB that we need him to be.  Sometimes I think that people have been playing Madden and fantasy football for too long and thats what they use to judge a QB on.  Will Cassel be a HOF QB, probly not.  Will he ever throw for 4500 yards and 30 TDs in a season, probly not, but with the offense we will be running we wont need him to.