The Top 10 Senior Quarterback Prospects in the Red Zone

No matter what system you play in, the great equalizer is the red zone. Once you hit the 20, you stop caring so much about field position, and the focus goes to putting yourself into position to score within about three or so plays. I always find red zone numbers interesting, and I decided to compile the situational stats on the ten draftable quarterbacks in the 2014 class. The charts are listed game by game, then compiled in the last row.

Tajh Boyd [Clemson]

Derek Carr [Fresno St]

David Fales [San Jose St]

Jeff Mathews [Cornell]

(missing Bucknell/Columbia)

A.J. McCarron [Alabama]

Zach Mettenberger [LSU]

Stephen Morris [Miami]

Aaron Murray [Georgia]

Bryn Renner [North Carolina]

Logan Thomas [Virginia Tech]

Taking a deeper look, instead of looking at volume numbers, I broke down everyone's numbers by efficiency. The numbers I used were completion percentage (completions/pass attempts), interception percentage (interceptions/pass attempts), sack percentage (sacks/(pass attempts+sacks)), touchdown percentage (touchdowns/pass attempts), yards per attempt (passing yards/pass attempts), and yards per completion (passing yards/completions).

Interception Percentage

Sack Percentage

Touchdown Percentage

Yards Per Attempt

Yards Per Completion

Completion Percentage

Compiling the results of the efficiency stats, and giving all of them equal weight, this could be used as the rankings of the quarterbacks in the red zone:

The Mettenberger and Thomas numbers are disappointing, but the Mathews numbers were almost shocking to me. If I had to bet on why his numbers (sans YPC) are so low, I'd put a fair amount on his receiving corp. When watching him, his guys drop more balls than any non-Ebron player I've play for any of these quarterbacks. His yards per completion is good, showing that when his receivers actually catch the ball, they put up solid numbers.

Boyd's efficiency in the red zone is really astounding. Not only was he first in half the categories, and second in yards per attempt, but he was the best runner in the red zone, putting up 142 rushing yards and nine touchdowns on the ground.