FanPost

A Different Perspective on Geno Smith

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via www1.pictures.zimbio.com



First, I'll admit that I'm not one of the people who think Geno Smith is the second coming of Joe Montana and willing to defend that stance to the bitter end. On the other hand, I'm not so anti-Geno that I want to streak through the neighborhood with a flaming West Virginia 12 jersey in hand, shouting, "Ge-NO! Ge-NO! Ge-NO!" Though, his body language and acts of deflation have turned me off at times, I think the Chiefs would be well served to have either Geno Smith or Tyler Wilson on their roster come Training Camp 2013.

However, Jay Binkley of 610 Sports brought up an interesting discussion on the air on Wednesday. He went over the stats of Dana Holgorsen quarterbacks. If you're not all that familiar with Coach Holgorsen, he's been the head football coach at West Virginia since 2011 and he's lead some pretty high flying, spread attack offenses like Texas Tech under Mike Leach, Houston under Kevin Sumlin, and Oklahoma State under Mike Gundy. Quarterbacks he's worked with as an offensive coordinator or head coach includes Graham Harrell, Case Keenum, Brandon Weeden, and of course, Geno Smith.

Since so many folks think stats tell the tale when it comes to which college quarterback to draft and where to draft them, let's take a look at some:

Dana Holgorsen was the Texas Tech OC/WR Coach from 2005-2007.

Quarterback - Graham Harrell

2005 Completions-37 Attempts-55 %-67.3 Yards-422 Yards/Attempt-7.7 TD-3 INT-0 QB Rating-149.7

2006 Completions-412 Attempts-616 %-66.9 Yards-4555 Yards/Attempt-7.4 TD-38 INT-11 QB Rating-145.8

2007 Completions-512 Attempts-713 %-71.8 Yards-5705 Yards/Attempt-8.0 TD-48 INT-14 QB Rating-157.3

Avg Completions-320.3 Attempts-461.3 %-69.4 Yards-3560.7 Yards/Attempt-7.7 TD-29.7 INT-8.3 QB Rating-150.9

Currently QB #2 for the Green Bay Packers backing up Aaron Rodgers.

Dana Holgorsen was the Houston OC/QB Coach from 2008-2009

Quarterback - Case Keenum

2008 Completions-397 Attempts-589 %-67.4 Yards-5020 Yards/Attempt-8.1 TD-44 INT-11 QB Rating-159.9

2009 Completions-492 Attempts-700 %-70.3 Yards-5671 Yards/Attempt-8.1 TD-44 INT-15 QB Rating-154.8

Avg Completions-444.5 Attempts-644.5 %-69.0 Yards-5345.5 Yards/Attempt-8.3 TD-44 INT-13 QB Rating-157.4

Currently a QB on the Houston Texans practice squad.

Dana Holgorsen was the Oklahoma State OC/QB Coach in 2010

Quarterback - Brandon Weeden

2010 Completions-342 Attempts-511 %-66.9 Yards-4277 Yards/Attempt-8.4 TD-34 INT-13 QB Rating-154.1

Currently the starting QB for the Cleveland Browns.

Dana Holgorsen has been the West Virginia Head Coach from 2011 to present

Quarterback - Geno Smith

2011 Completions-346 Attempts-526 %-65.8 Yards-4385 Yards/Attempt-8.3 TD-31 INT-7 QB Rating-152.6

2012 Completions-369 Attempts-518 %-71.2 Yards-4205 Yards/Attempt-8.1 TD-42 INT-6 QB Rating-163.9

Avg Completions-357.5 Attempts-522 %-68.5 Yards-4295 Yards/Attempt-8.2 TD-36.5 INT-6.5 QB Rating-158.25

The first thing that pops out is that quarterbacks under Holgorsen's system are stat machines. Personally, I think it's very hard to evaluate quarterbacks based solely on stats. They themselves have different levels of talent, their teams have different levels of talent, and they play in different systems against different defenses. It's difficult to accurately measure one's talent based on the many variances. Just in the numbers I've posted, it could be argued that Geno hasn't even been Holgorsen's best quarterback. Though, the jury is still out on how successful Brandon Weeden will be in the NFL, the others aren't proving to be much more than backups or camp fodder.

As I said earlier, I think the Chiefs would be well served to have Geno Smith on their roster. He could prove to be very successful under Reid's offense, but then again, he may not. The stats point to him being just another "system quarterback". So, as a group, let's stop falling victim to the numbers, they just don't speak the whole truth.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arrowhead Pride's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Arrowhead Pride writers or editors.