KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI – JANUARY 20: Patrick Mahomes #15 of the Kansas City Chiefs looks on prior to the AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots at Arrowhead Stadium on January 20, 2019 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Some stats can surprise fans who have a different perception of the players they follow.
On Wednesday, FOX Sports NFL’s Twitter account shared a list titled “Warren Sharp’s Most Accurate QBs.” Without offering any additional context, anyone encountering the tweet would assume these were Sharp’s subjective rankings.
And if that was the case, it would certainly seem crazy to create any top quarterback list that leaves out Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, and Aaron Rodgers.
Meanwhile, Jared Goff made the cut. As a result, many fans thought they were being trolled by the seemingly bizarre rankings.
Yet as Sharp explained, this was merely last year’s leaderboard for on-target percentage, an advanced metric measuring quarterback accuracy.
There aren’t many clear standout performers above the pack; Rodgers finished 12th at 78 percent while Derek Carr’s 79 percent placed fourth.
“Facts, not opinions: the most accurate QBs of 2021,” Sharp wrote. “Sorry if your QB wasn’t accurate enough last year to rank top-10. Hopefully he is more accurate in 2022.”
The data shows some interesting trends. Rodgers feasted when able to plant his feet but struggled on the run. Brady was at his worst completing medium throws, and Mahomes was better at exploiting zone coverage than man.
Yet that all got lost in an easily digestible graphic presented as the equivalent of power rankings.
It’s also surprising to realize some of the middle quarterbacks high on this chart (Goff, Ryan Tannehill, Tua Tagovailoa) padded their accuracy rate on short strikes without making defenses pay downfield.
Of course these aren’t the league’s top-10 quarterbacks. If anything, this situation shows that accuracy is only one piece of the puzzle.
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