Football Drills and Football Coaching News

This time again without big comments, well next week again. Just so much: Matt Hasselbeck wasn’t ranked the previous week because he did not qualify to NFL Standards because he didn’t threw enough passes because of his not-playing due to injury, to be compared…

Well here are the results: The Mannings are still leading the pack, despite Eli just playing one half, Matt Ryan moved five spots up, Drew Brees one down despite (or because) not playing, Matt Hasselbeck, as already explained above, is back in the equation, Matt Schaub dropped 2 spots, making room for Matt Ryan and Matt Hasselbeck; BTW plenty of Matts playing QB in the NFL, don’ t you think? ) Ben Roetlisberger could keep himself at #7, Kyle Orton despite being still unbeaten and orchestrating two 90+ yards TD drives vs the Patriots to beat them in OT, fell down from #5 to now share #8 with Brett Favre, who’s also unbeaten so far. Finallay Aaron Rodgers also managed to remain under the Top 10 QBs after Week 5 of the 2009 NFL Season.

The first Quarter of the season for most teams (except those who had their early bye-week) is in the books. And the 2009 NFL Quarterback rankings for the first week show Peyton Manning currently playing in other spheres…

Rank (Last Week)	Quarterback	Ranking Score	Comment
1 (1)	Peyton Manning	7808	The Outstanding QB of the NFL so far, leading almost all categories (except rushing which really isn’t his strength )
2 (5)	Eli Manning	6158	Another strong performance brought him into second place just behind his brother who’s currently playing almost in other spheres…
3 (2)	Drew Brees	6083	Despite his second game in a row without a TD-Pass he’s over all still #3 mainly due to his outstanding performance in the first 2 weeks, but he keeps on winning, even though this time vs the Jets his Defense bailed him out by scoring two defensive TD which alone would already been enough to beat the Jets who in turn just scored 10 Points in total.
4 (4)	Matt Schaub	6067	Matt Schaub manifested his #4 spot among the top NFL QBs for 2009.
5 (6)	Kyle Orton	5783	After beating Dallas it obviously he’s for real, even though it seems he waits til late in the fourth Quarter to win his games, always supported by a strong defense, not allowing the opponent to get out of reach…
6 (3)	Joe Flacco	5767	vs the Patriots Defense it wasn’t his best day, so that let him drop from #3 to #6, but not all defenses are that difficult to play as Belichicks Patriots
7 (9)	Ben Roethlisberger	5742	Moving slowly up the rankings, now from #9 up to #7 by beating the Chargers 38-28…
8 (7)	Matt Ryan	5708	Inactive in week four he dropped 1 spot…
9 ()	Brett Favre	5683	Great performance vs his former team, 3 TD no interceptions, no fumbles…
10 (10)	Aaron Rodgers	5342	Also a great throwing performance vs the Vikings throwing for a career high 384 yards, but also got sacked 8 times, intercepted once and also fumbled once

Other comments about teams around the league:

AFC East: Jets and Patriots are leading the AFC East as expected, the Jets starting 3-0 into the season with great playing rookie QB Mark Sanches, just in four week his rookie-ness was painfully exposed by the Saints Defense, let’s see how fast he can overcome that and learn/improve from that game… Tom Brady on the other hand still seems to move a bit gingerly int the pocket, overprotected by the Referees (which kind of help the Patriots to beat the Ravens)…

Two surprises in the AFC North: The Steelers – reigning Super Bowl Champions – are just 2-2 while the Bengals are 3-1 and could even be 4-0 wouldn’t there be that one “holy deflection” TD for the Broncos handing the Bengals their only loss so far…

AFC South: the Tennessee Titans are an unbelievable 0-4 – Last season they were the last team to lose, this season they still have the chance to be the last team to win… C’mon Man!

AFC West: Broncos 4-0 with a great defense (allowing just 26 Points in 4 games – next best with 53 (that’s more than double) are the 49ers and the Falcons (but with only 3 games played so far). But let’s not forget, it’s not the first time the Broncos started that strong (especially defensively) into a season, just ending the season watching the Playoff on TV…

NFC East: WHAT? Cowboys 2-2 just like the Redskins? The Redskins undoubtly the worst team with a non-losing record! But look who they beat so far: the Rams and the Buccaneers who are a combined 0-8 and 78-215, and losing to the Lions helping them to win their first and so far only game since late in the 2007 season!

NFC North: Vikings on top as – I think – mostly expected… But the Bears winning 3 games without Urlacher (without whom they haven’t won a game since he’s joined them) now being 3-1.

NFC South: Saints are 4-0 which is just a bit surprising, more surprising is in my opinion that the Panthers are still winless (0-3)…

NFC West: Nothing extraordinary here, Superbowl – Runner-Up Cardinals are 1-2, which just obeys the tradition of the last decade that the Loser of the Superbowl won’t make the playoffs the next year…

Well, lets see what the next games will bring, the NFL is always full of surprises…

Well and here are the 2009 NFL Quarterback Rankings through Week 3:

Peyton Manning dominating almost all categories (absolutely outstanding!)

see for yourself – and please let me know your opinion in the comments:

Rank Week 3	Quarterback	Team	Points	Comment
1 (1)	Peyton Manning	Indianapolis Colts	7408	Peyton Manning just extended his lead, outstanding in almost all categories, just his already two interceptions in 3 games are “just” average and his rushing abilities are traditionally rather below average (but rushing is only weighted 1/4 compared to most other categories…)
2 (2)	Drew Brees	New Orleans Saints	6083	Even a game without a TD couldn’t drop Drew Brees off #2 his performances in the first two games helped him over this. His three fumbles (even though just one lost) are even below average.
3 (-)	Joe Flacco	Baltimore Ravens	5933	Joe Flacco turned it up in week 3 and promptly made it all the way up to #3
4 (6)	Matt Schaub	Houston Texans	5925	Matt Schaub moved up two ranking spots despite losing and the two he passed continued to win. But so far he has taken good care of the football, not fumbling at all and throwing below average 2 interceptions. That together with only Drew Brees throwing more TD (9) than Schaub (7) puts him also into the top 3 of this category.
5 (3)	Eli Manning	New York Giants	5758	3 games 3 wins, well he’s not alone with that, and everything else he’s above average but nothing outstanding, maybe his just one pick, puts him close to the top, but his two fumbles – one lost – is below average.
6 (5)	Kyle Orton	Denver Broncos	5708	Another winning it all so far QB, well week one he needed quite some help from the Bengals, well fortune favors the bold and no interceptions and no fumbles at all puts him already on top of two categories…
7 (7)	Matt Ryan	Atlanta Falcons	5608	Ryan also takes very good care of the football – just one interception and – like Orton – no fumbles at all, helps him keep his #7 spot, despite not winning them all…
8 (4)	Tony Romo	Dallas Cowboys	5558	Romo winning his 2nd game and still dropping 4 spots. His completion percentage is below average and as is his number of interceptions – just in the fumbling category he’s absolutely top: none. But he’s not alone with that (see above)
9 (-)	Ben Roethlisberger	Pittsburgh Steelers	5275	Top completion percentage (71.6 – nobody else is above 70!) and also no fumbles are his best categories, but just winning one out of the first 3 and his already 4 interceptions are too many and prevent him from ranking higher.
10 (-)	Aaron Rodgers	Green Bay Packers	5108	Winning all 3, throwing no interceptions are his best categories, but his 12 sacks put him at the absolute bottom of that category, and with his just 56.7 completion percentage he’s not ranking at the top either.

See also the Quarterback Rankings after Week 1 and Week 2 of the 2009 NFL Season