When
the college football season ended, the talk was that there are 2 quarterbacks
in the draft that are “franchise quarterbacks”, JaMarcus Russell and Brady Quinn.
 The
argument was never which QB is better, but the argument focused mainly on Brady
Quinn. Is he really a “franchise quarterback”? The argument is hard to understand,
because all of his games were on national television (thanks NBC), and the results
were so wide open for everyone to see. If you listen the “Golden Domers”, then
your vote would go along with Charlie Weis' quote on Sirius that Quinn is “a combination
of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning ”, if that was the case, then there wouldn't be
a debate about the talents of Brady. Before we let the numbers speak, let's give
parameters of the term “franchise quarterback”. For the sake
of this conversation, let's say there are three areas in which qb's have to excel
in order to be “franchise quarterbacks”. The areas are:
a) play against inferior
competition (below .500)
b) play against good competition (above .500)
c) play in “big” games (for Notre Dame; bowl games and USC) In
18 games vs. below .500 teams Comp. | Att. | Yards | TDs | INT | Wins | Losses | 366 | 589 | 5066 | 49 | 14 | 16 | 2 |
In
these games, Brady Quinn did everything a “franchise quarterback” should do. The
completion percentage of 62% is very impressive as the 281 yards per game. The
stat that deserves the most attention is the 89% winning percentage. Brady did
play in a couple of games against .500 teams with mixed results as the stats below
show: In 2 games vs. .500 teams Comp. | Att. | Yards | TDs | INT | Wins | Losses | 50 | 75 | 666 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Again
the completion percentage is impressive, coming in at 66%, and the 333 yards a
game, shows that Brady can light it up against this level of competition. The
winning percentage leaves a little to be desired, but we can't blame Brady in
this situation, he played well. The situation begins to change
as the competition stiffens for Brady and the Irish. As the completion rises,
Brady's production seemed to go downward. In 28 games vs.
over .500 teams Comp. | Att. | Yards | TDs | INT | Wins | Losses | 544 | 941 | 6044 | 42 | 26 | 12 | 16 |
Brady's
completion percentage slipped to 58%, as well as his yards per game dipping down
to 216. The alarming stat is the winning percentage which fell to a meager 43%.
We must remember the 12 wins came against Navy 4 wins, Michigan 2 wins, and 1
win coming from Purdue, Pitt , Tennessee , Georgia Tech, Penn St. and UCLA. The
most important trait a “franchise quarterback must have is his ability to come
through in the “big” games. Let's look at the production in those games (3 bowl
games and 4 games vs. USC): In 7 Big Games Comp. | Att. | Yards | TDs | INT | Wins | Losses | 132 | 232 | 1459 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 7 |
While
the  completion
percentage was a solid 52%, the yards per game average dipped even more to 208
yards per game. It can be argued that he should get a pass on the winning percentage,
because in those games Notre Dame were simple overmatched talent wise, but “franchise
quarterbacks should overcome that at least a few times in his career. As
the draft unfolded, the NFL personnel people made their opinion clear; Brady Quinn
wasn't an automatic 1st rounder. That forces one to wonder, what was all of the
debating about? It is too early to tell if Brady Quinn is or isn't a “franchise
quarterback”, but the numbers do point a certain way, let's hope for Cleveland's
sake Brady can turn his past performances around and become that “franchise quarterback”
that they caused them to trade away next year's 1 st round pick. | 
