Oakland Raiders: Why Derek Carr is better than Bortles
Check the Stats
To directly quote ESPN’s Michael Smith, numbers never* lie. A good starting NFL quarterback will put up good starting NFL quarterback numbers, especially in the contemporary QB-driven passing game. And since both quarterbacks now have two seasons’ worth of statistical work to draw from, it’s only fair to look at them head-to-head, by the numbers:
Carr:
Games Played/Games Started: 32/32
Record as starter: 10-22
Passing Yards: 7,257
Comp/Att/Comp Pct: 698/1172/59.6%
TD/INT: 53/25
Passer rating: 83.7
Sacks taken: 55
Bortles:
Games Played/Games Started: 30/29
Record as starter: 8-21
Passing yards: 7,336
Comp/Att/Comp Pct: 635/1081/58.7%
TD/INT: 46/35
Passer rating: 80.0
Sacks Taken: 106
While Bortles has managed to eclipse Carr’s passing yardage mark (by 79 yards) in three fewer games and 91 fewer attempts, the stats clearly show that Carr has been a much more productive passer. Carr has thrown seven more touchdowns and ten fewer picks, and taken almost half as many sacks.
As mentioned above, the problem with the slower, bigger QB’s is that they tend to get sacked a lot, and Bortles’ stats would tend to support that theory: as a rookie he was sacked as many times in 14 game appearances than Carr has been his two years combined. Sure, you could blame the Jaguars’ scheme and o-line and praise Bill Musgrave and Mike Tice and Donald Penn for the discrepancy, but an almost 2-1 sack ratio has a lot to do with QB play as well.
And Bortles also throws a ton of picks. While Carr is certainly capable of putting the ball in harms’ way himself, Bortles managed to league the league in interceptions thrown last season and is sitting well below the magical 2-1 TD-INT ratio that is considered the standard of acceptability for an NFL starting passer. Eighteen picks in 16 games – and 35 in 30 games – means that Bortles on average throws at least one, if not more than one interception per game. In fact, he’s only played seven games in which he did not throw an interception. Carr has 15 such games.
So for all of Bortles’ superior size and assumed superior vision and higher release point, he is 40% more likely to throw an interception and almost twice as likely to take a sack than Derek Carr is, both of which can kill a teams’ chances to win games.