Washington 14, Cleveland 11
I bet Phil wishes he had those two future 1st round picks instead of Derek Anderson.
I’ve written about Anderson once before and if I recall, was concerned about his accuracy problems even last year during his so called good run.
Some facts:
There is no QB in the NFL this year that has a completion percentage below 60 that would be considered middle of the pack as far as their overall ratings go.
In the handful of times where it has been done over the last 5 years, it has coincided with a lopsided TD/Turnover ratio, which was at 2:1 and sometimes closer to 3:1.
Here are Derek Anderson’s career completion rate numbers along with his overall quarterback rating.
Year Comp QBR
2006 56.4 63.1
2007 56.5 82.5
2008 49.2 62.9
So not once as an NFL quarterback has Derek Anderson accomplished a 60% or higher completion percentage. And as noted above, it takes at least that, the overwhelming majority of the time, just to get in the middle of the pack as far as overall qb ratings go.
Why is completion percentage important?
It is a good measure of a qb’s accuracy as a passer, the most fundamental skill of their job.
Derek Anderson is not accurate. In fact he is below average at it. Below average accuracy corresponds with a below average QB. He’s been this way from day one and this is not likely to change.
Here are some career average completion numbers of NFL quarterbacks:
Kurt Warner 65.4
Chad Pennington 65.9
Ben Roethlisberger 63.2
Tom Brady 63
Jon Kitna 59.8
Joey Harrington 56.1
Kyle Boller 56.9
Rex Grossman 54.3
Notice who Derek Anderson has the most in common with 
Even last year’s fluke 82.5 overall rating, Anderson still only finished just below dead center amongst all NFL quartbacks. It was because of that poor completion rate. Anderson may have a rifle for an arm but he’s not sure where it is going and in fact, misses his target half the time or more.
Phil should have sold high.