If you are unaware of the ANY/A metric “An advanced statistic in football that quantifies the contributions of a quarterback’s passing game by including five key passing statistics; passing yards, passing touchdowns, interceptions thrown, times sacked and yards lost to being sacked. This measure rewards passers for scoring with a multiplier on touchdowns and punishes a passer on throwing interceptions. This is all combined into a value on a per pass attempt basis.
Here are the top 15 performances from week 1 of the CFB season out of 129 qualifying performances.
*Note – The total on the bottom is the tally of all QBs that attempted at least 10 passes this past weekend.
Note article was written before the Clemson and Georgia Tech game.
Stetson Bennett and the defending National Champions blew through WK1 with ease. Bennett’s near 12 YPA lifted him to be the 2nd most valuable passing performance on the weekend. Donovan Smith came in relief of injured starting QB Tyler Shough and lit up Murray State. His 14 YPA and 4 TDs were uber efficient. Smith will get his chance to steal the QB1 role as Shough is expected to miss a handful of games with a shoulder injury. UNCs freshman sensation, Drake Maye, has been phenomenal after two weeks. I want to see how Maye handles a P5 defense before I start claiming him to be the QB1 of the 2023 class. Michael Penix Jr. had quite the bounce back in his first game as a Husky. Reunited with his former OC, Penix Jr. cooked up some magic against Kent State. I’ll need to see this against a more legit defense before I get excited for Penix. Caleb Williams’ debut as a Trojan was very efficient against Rice. Completing 19 of his 22 passing attempts, Williams did what he had to do.
While Anthony Richardson didn’t grade out very well in ANY/A (only 7 YPA), he completed 8 of his 11 passes of more than 10 yards downfield was very impressive. CJ Stroud really struggled against the ND prevent defense and the loss of Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Stroud was one of the best in the nation in 2021 at completing passes 10+ yards downfield but on Saturday he struggled going 7/15. Stroud did manage 4 “Big Time Throws” according to PFF on those 15 attempts. Quinn Ewers debut against UL-Monroe didn’t quite go as expected. His numbers were pretty average and included an interception. He struggled to complete only 4 of his 10 balls downfield, including 2 “Turnover Worthy Passes.” I tried warning people over 18 months ago that Tyler Buchner was a project as a QB, but they just couldn’t look past his gaudy junior season of HS stats and see that. Buchner started a hot 8-8, but when he was needed the most, he went 2-10 down the stretch. Buchner has a really long way to go as a passer. Dorian Thompson-Robinson had quite an interesting day. He’s a now 5th-year starting QB in the same offensive scheme, and the staff still doesn’t trust him to pass the ball downfield. He had 38 attempts on the day, with 34 of those passes traveling less than 10 yards in the air. He had a mind-boggling 2.86 aDOT.
Others on 10+ Yards Passes:
Taulia Tagovailoa: 5-11 with an INT. Taulia has struggled over the prior two years when he’s not dumping off a screen pass.
Jaxson Dart: 3-10, 1TD, 1INT. Man, this really isn’t how I thought the Dart tenure would start at Ole Miss. As a Dart OG this hurts.
Sean Clifford: 4-14, 1TD, 1INT. Not great but Drew Allar is the GOAT after just 4 attempts.
Aidan O’Connell: 10-24 with a TD. Was hoping for a big jump for O’Connell in 2022 but this isn’t a great start.
Haynes King: 8-14, 3 TDs, 2 INTs. It was all or nothing from King against Sam Houston State. He had 3 “Big Time Throws” to go along with 4 “Turnover Worthy Passes” according to PFF.
Gavin Hardison: 16-39, 1TD, 7 Drops, 10 “Big Time Throws”. After two games Hardison has been all over the place. Leads the nation on 10+ YDs on Drops and BTT. Hardison has arm talent but the accuracy portion is still lacking.
Bryce Young: 6-15, 1TD. Young only completed 50% of his downfield throws in 2021 compared to CJ Stroud who completed 60% in 2021. This is why I prefer Stroud over Young to this point.
