Rams Chris Long among the better pass rushers from last two drafts

by Ryan Van Bibber on Dec 7, 2009 9:10 AM CST in 2009 St. Louis Rams regular season

One of the few highlight for the St. Louis Rams to come out of their loss to the Chicago Bears this weekend was Chris Long's sack of Bears' QB Jay Cutler. That sack was Long's fourth of the season, and with that the second overall pick from the 2008 draft has now matched his rookie season sack total. If you can cut through all the things that infuriate you about the Rams, it does genuniely seem as though Chris Long is improving.

I bring up Long because I came across a pretty interesting stat from Peter King this morning (yeah, I know).

In the past two NFL drafts, teams have used 20 picks in the first two rounds trying to find, at least in part, players to bring the heat on the quarterback. Early results -- which can be dangerous because of the adjustment from college to the pros -- say the crop has been an immense failure.

Immediately Chris Long came to mind. Long leads that group of 20 with his 8 career sacks, but Washington's Brian Orakpo is climbing up the leader board with the seven sacks he's collected this year, his rookie season. King's statement doesn't give you the full picture as some of those guys are playing well, Brian Cushing and Clay Matthews for example. However, his point - that these guys were drafted to disrupt QBs - can't be ignored.

The five quarterbacks taken in the first round of the last two drafts: all are starting.

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They're all starting...

…and the average QB rating between them is 71.8, largely due to Joe Flacco’s 90.2 rating. Subtracting him, Ryan (who has struggled this year), Stafford, Freeman, and Sanchez average a 67.2 rating.

Also, neither of these guys rank in the top 10 in Passing Yardage, QB rating, or Passing TDs. Only Flacco ranks in the top 10 (barely, at #10) in Completion percentage.

Stafford, Sanchez, Ryan, and Jason Campbell (since his name has been thrown around) all rank in the top 5 in INTs thrown with Freeman at #12 in his limited games.

I’d say our boy Long is doing fine when you look at the numbers for those starting QBs. It’s not just the sacks, he’s started to get pressure a little bit more consistently over the last few weeks. A DT would help him develop further, commanding double teams and freeing our linebackers to make plays. It’s been a while since we’ve had a dominant D, hopefully Spags can build one. Go Rams!

"I was just letting the shots fly. You know, I don't leave any bullets in the chamber."

"Everything negative- pressure, challenges- is all an opportunity for me to rise."

-Kobe Bryant

A mantra for all athletes.

by TrojanRam on Dec 7, 2009 11:04 AM CST reply actions 1 recs

The total average rating between the 5 drops to 70.75...

…after Joe Flacco’s marvelous 12/30, 3 interception performance tonight. He now sits at an 84 QB rating this year. He and Ryan have struggled to make strides, even with more weapons this year than last year (emerging Ray Rice, Tony Gonzalez).

"I was just letting the shots fly. You know, I don't leave any bullets in the chamber."

"Everything negative- pressure, challenges- is all an opportunity for me to rise."

-Kobe Bryant

A mantra for all athletes.

by TrojanRam on Dec 7, 2009 10:52 PM CST reply actions

Thanks.

First, I will admit I am a Long Fan. And I appreciate the stats in his favor, but this is football…not basball….keep the stats to a minimun. Thanks.

by JL67 on Dec 8, 2009 7:06 AM CST reply actions

Crazy

Long has not produced anything like he was projected to, or counted on to. If he compares favorably to the last 2 years, then its an indictment of the last 2 years. The man gets blocked by tight ends regularly. As much as I want him to be playing well, he isn’t. I’m a fan of his too, but for all my wishing…its not reality.

QB’s take a good 4 or 5 years to mature, looking at their stats now is misleading and just for fun, not really relavant to much. So, they’re starting. I think that’s as much a condition of the desperate teams drafting them as anything. The correlation between terrible team drafting a QB highly and that QB needing to start doesn’t really need the QB to be talented to work.

Remember when Steve Young was merely Joe Montana’s backup? Favre was a backup. Bradshaw was a backup. On and on….and we could list plenty of guys who started as rookies over the years and see an equally impressive list of nobodies. My point isjust that “rookie starting for horrendous team” is a stat that doesn’t go very far in the big analysis.

And finally – we are really going to compare Long’s play with other team’s rookie QB numbers? This is akin to getting scouting info from Madden. 3 or 4 year’s ago Madden. Its crazy.

by CoachConnors on Dec 8, 2009 3:49 PM CST reply actions