Bulger Ranks

I usually don't put much stock into off season rankings, but the fact that they have Rivers rated ahead of Bulger kind of irks me. Sure, the Chargers went to the playoffs, but lets be honest with ourselves...can Rivers really be as "good" as he is with LT, as with say Michael Turner? According to football reference, Bulger had 1,000 more yards, more touchdowns, one less interception, and a higher completion percentage than did Rivers. The yards/percentage seem to be the telling stats for me, because throwing for 1,000 more yards while maintaining a higher completion percentage tells me that not only is Bulger better, but he is better with more consistency. Like I said before though, Rivers did get his team to the playoffs, which is what really counts, but he did have a Hall of Famer in the making helping him out in the backfield.

I'll give the McNabb the benefit of the doubt, because no one knows whether or not he's going to be the McNabb of old, or if this injury from last year will haunt him this season.

I live in Atlanta now, and ever since witnessing Vick tearing us up on the way to a 47-17 shalacking in the 2004 Divisional Round, I've never liked Michael Vick (as a player). After reading the article in the AJC this afternoon , I almost lost my lunch. I'll let everyone here draw their own conclusions, but I agree with Van Ram. This is so disgusting and damaging to not only the city of Atlanta and the Falcons, but to the NFL as a whole. This guy was once heralded as the 'face of the league'. What happened? Since then and has had arguably one of the largest falls from grace in sports (Ron Mexico, Miami Airport, Dogfighting, Flipping off the fans, etc) in recent memory. He won't ever be a quarterback that will perform on or off the field to the standards of the NFL. However this turns out, in one way or another, he's done.

I don't really think Rivers is feminine, it just rhymed.

I think it's a little early to get a sense of the Vick debacle, and yet, there is no question that this is bad.  Really bad.  It's bad for the Falcons as an organization, it's bad for the NFL, and of couse, it's really really bad for Michael.  I'm extremely interested in how Goodell is going play this.  This is a marquee player (in spite of his mediocre play) and the implications industry-wide are substantial.  Mark Kreidler has a short, but insightful article here on how this rolls over to the Selig-Bonds relationship.  As a side note, I absolutely hate Bud Selig and what he has done to baseball, so I'm completely biased against anything Selig does, says, eats, etc.  Goodell, on the other hand, will establish an early reputation based on how he handles this and this alone.  Pacman and Chris Henry are now completely overshadowed by Vick.  They are footnotes at the bottom of a Vick essay.  Most interesting is that the essay is still being written.

As for the rankings, one note.  I assume we're referencing the scout inc. rankings that ESPN has been putting up for almost two weeks.  I would remind everyone that these rankings (which I again assume are the ones in question, with has San Diego at 6 and Philly at 5) are ranking the strength of a quarterbacking group, not just the starter.  In spite of that caveat, any rankings around a position as singular as the QB position have to be based 90% on the starter, so criticism as to starter vs. starter is still valid.  Most surprising to me in the rankings are Brees/NO at 3rd (one super year), Rivers/SD at 6th (again, one super year), and most surprisingly to me is McNair/Baltimore at 8th.  That one shocks me.  McNair barely surpassed 3k passing yards, threw only four more touchdowns than interceptions, and amassed an 82.5 QB rating for the season.  That is hardly a top ten QB line.  I would rank many other QBs in front of Baltimore's: Dallas, the Jets, Seattle.  I would much rather face McNair with his targets than "slo-mo" Romo with TO and Glenn running down the sidelines.  And for those of you about to trash me for backing Chad "I throw a football like a weirdo" Pennington, he put up more than 3300 passing yards, almost a 65% completion rate, and both of those in spite of 16 int's with poor blocking.  Pennington took 30 sacks while McNair only had 14 which means two things: Chad was in much more pressure than McNair resulting in more picks, less accurate throws (lower completion%), and shorter routes (resulting in less yardage).  I still think if Pennington didn't play for the Jets, he would be a Brees-like passer.
I think VanRam mentioned this somewhere, but Jeff Chadiha had Bulger in his last 3 and Out installment.  Scariest prediction:

Don't be surprised if St. Louis Rams quarterback Marc Bulger produces his best season as a pro.

If Bulger throws for more than 4300 yds (he piled up 4301 last year) and beats his 24td/8int totals, it could be one of the best seasons ever for a qb.  It's hard to see that happening, but my admiration for Bulger and the offense we have put together makes it plausible.