During Sunday's broadcast of the Kansas City Chiefs 13-10 loss to the Oakland Raiders Solomon Wilcots had an interesting nugget:
Matt Cassel has watched every game Kurt Warner has played in under Todd Haley in Arizona.
These Chiefs put in a lot of time in the film room so it shouldn't be much of a surprise. Still, though, it gives us an idea of who he is trying to emulate. Considering Warner's success under Haley last year, it's a good goal.
Warner completed a whopping 67.1% of his passes in his first full season with Haley as a playcaller. He also threw for over 4,500 yards and 30 touchdowns. It was his second best season in his twelve year pro career - yeah, at age 37. He threw for more yards and less interceptions than the previous year when Haley was not the full-time playcaller. Correlation? We have no idea.
For the Chiefs, Cassel's 241 yards came on 24 passes (10 yards per completion). With the help of a strong Larry Johnson (at times), Cassel completed almost 62% of his passes. For those not in the know, that's a pretty good number.
I specifically note completion percentage because....
Kurt Warner set the NFL record for completion percentage yesterday hitting 24/26 passes. 92%!
Yep, the guy Cassel's scouting in the film room. Warner had as many completions as Cassel but with 13 less pass attempts. He also had two touchdowns and 243 yards.
Warner's a good player to emulate because completion percentage might be the most important statistic for a quarterback. He's played well for three different teams so he's not just a system player, which has been a knock on Cassel in the past.