Worst of the Worst: Bad QBs Leading Their Teams To NFL Oblivion

(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Six weeks into the NFL season, we’re starting to figure some things out. We don’t yet have fully clear pictures of who is who and what is what, but some valuable lessons have been learned.

We’ve learned that Josh McDaniels knew exactly what the hell he was doing, and that Jim Zorn has absolutely no clue.

We’ve learned that Kerry Collins couldn’t repeat his ageless renaissance, but Brett Favre has—for now.

We’ve learned that quarterbacks still make the NFL world go ‘round, with Peyton Manning and Drew Brees authors of the two best offenses on the two best teams—and both the favorites in their respective conferences to meet in Miami (with all due respect to the Broncos and Vikings).

And we’ve learned that the disparity between the top and bottom of the NFL is as wide as perhaps it’s ever been.

Going into week seven, there are three teams still winless—St. Louis, Tampa Bay, and Tennessee. There are three others with just one victory—Kansas City, Detroit, and Cleveland.

Add up the records for those six teams and you’re a combined 3-33.

And that’s not it as far as bad football goes:

Two of the one-win teams, Kansas City and Detroit, have their only victory over the 2-4 Redskins, whose only victories are over the winless Rams by two and winless Bucs by three. No wonder Zorn is checking out coaching vacancies in the Seattle high school ranks.

Carolina is 2-3 with wins over the Redskins and Bucs. Their quarterback play with Jake Delhomme is so putrid, he threw for just 65 yards against the winless Bucs in Week Six.

And then there’s Oakland and quarterback JaMarcus Russell, whose quarterback rating of 51.0 this season is actually worse than what Ryan Leaf put up his final two miserable years in the league (56.2 and 57.7) and is on pace for a 45-percent completion, five-touchdown, 16-interception deuce of a season.

Even the middle of the league, with teams like 2-3 Miami, 3-3 Jacksonville, 2-4 Buffalo, 2-3 San Diego, 3-2 Dallas, and 3-3 Jets, still seem worse than the middle of previous years.

So what is it? Why does it seem like the bottom of the league is so much worse than normal.

The answer: Bad offense. Horrrrrrrible offense.

When you’re watching football, nothing will ruin a game like bad offense. And when you look at the teams at the bottom of the NFL, you’re looking at some historically bad offenses.

I mentioned Russell’s downright Leafean stats. But how about a Rams team that’s on pace for 144 points, more than 120 less than the winless 2008 Lions. No team has scored fewer since the 2-14 Seahawks put up just 140 in 1992 behind quarterbacks Stan Gelbaugh and Kelly Stouffer.

Right now, there are six teams averaging fewer than 15 points per game. The average over the past five seasons is just 2.4.

And you don’t have to look much farther than the quarterbacks to find out why. The bottom 10 QBs right now in quarterback rating:

Trent Edwards  (BUF): 73

Byron Leftwich (TAM): 71.2

Kyle Boller (STL): 66.1

Matthew Stafford (DET): 65.5

Kerry Collins (TEN): 62

Josh Johnson (TAM): 58.9

Jake Delhomme (CAR): 56.8

Mark Sanchez (NYJ): 56.7

JaMarcus Russell (OAK): 51

Derek Anderson (CLE): 41.7

Combined record of the nine teams (since Tampa is represented twice): 11-42 with only one team, the Jets, even at .500.

(For the record, Jason Campbell is at 84.3, Matt Cassel at 82.3, and Marc Bulger at 80.3.)

Now you can understand Sanchez and Stafford being on that list. They are both rookies and Sanchez in particular has fallen on some hard rookie times of late. You can forgive them for that.

Maybe Johnson turns into something, and Collins has been as much a victim of his terrible receivers as his own lack of play-making ability. But the other guys?

Edwards has peaked at J.P. Losman level, Leftwich can’t catch a break and would probably blow it if he did, Boller is over-matched, Delhomme is a human train wreck, Russell is a few outbursts away from being dubbed Black Leaf, and Anderson’s best trait is that he keeps Brady Quinn from completely killing his trade value this offseason.

The NFL is a passing league. And when you get historically bad quarterback play, you get historically bad offensive performances. And that will kill just about any defense along with it.

Don’t believe me? Check out the Colts-Rams and Bucs-Pats games this weekend. I’m putting the combined spread for Colts/Pats over Rams/Bucs at 60. Anybody want to take me on?

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