Comparing Jay Cutler and Jason Campbell

By Todd L. Frank  |   Tuesday, September 15, 2009  |  Comments( 2 )

Washington Redskins
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Perception is a funny thing. We’ve all been convinced that Jay Cutler is a superstar franchise quarterback. He’s supposedly right up there in the conversation with the up-and-coming elite QB’s knocking on that door right outside the offices of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. And we’ve also been told that Washington’s Jason Campbell is a mediocre nobody on the verge of “bust” status.

This was illustrated over the summer when Washington looked into dumping Campbell in hopes of trading for Cutler, then still a malcontent whining his way out of Denver. Of course, the baby-diva Cutler eventually got his way and is now being hailed as the savior in Chi-town.

I remember in the spring, listening to some of the draft talk.... they kept saying that Washington has soured on Campbell because he "hasn't asserted himself as a leader." Really? He's a humble/quiet guy, that's his nature. He’s not a rah-rah chest-beater. Everything I've read is that the GUYS ON THE TEAM actually love Campbell, or J-Soup as I like to call him. He's shown he's got the physical tools (and the talking heads always admit this), so please let’s give him more than 5 minutes to progress under a coaching staff. Campbell has had a different offensive coordinator every year in college and every year in the pros until this off season.

Last year was the first full offseason/season as a starter and, while they missed the playoffs and he didn't light it up, he was mostly very solid.

What more do you want? So after the failed attempts to get Cutler, Washington then tried to trade up in the draft for Mark Sanchez because he's "engaging" and has "star potential." It's ridiculous. I think these analysts don’t want to come out and say "well Dan Snyder is just an impatient moron who's always in love with anyone with name recognition and prefers quick-fix fantasy football over smart, slow team building." Sure, they occasionally imply it (and reality exposes it), but instead it seems that Campbell bears the brunt of it. Like he must be a bust just because a foolish franchise like Washington is ready to toss him overboard for the latest flavor of the month.

But let’s take a closer look. Jay Cutler and Jason Campbell are both QB’s with the initials JC. Campbell is 6-5, 230, and 27 years old. Cutler is 6-2, 233, and 26 years old. Both took over as starters for the last several games of 2006.

Guess what? Cutler, while his 4500 yards and 25 TD’s in 2008 was statistically impressive, is just 17-21 as a starter. Campbell is 16-21 as a starter. Sure, Cutler has thrown for about 1800 more yards, but his TD-INT ratio is 1.3 to 1 while Campbell’s is 1.5 to 1. Between that and the almost same exact win-loss record, there’s not much of a difference. Campbell played in a conservative run-oriented attack with Clinton Portis and a suspect offensive line while Cutler was behind a good line with Mike Shanahan drawing up bombs to Brandon Marshall. So you can see how they arrived at different stats.

But “you play to win the game,” as Herm Edwards famously said. That’s why Ben Roethlisberger is one of the best in the game despite not having the gaudy stats of someone like Drew Brees. And the fact is that Cutler has a very similar losing record as Campbell, and neither has started a playoff game.

The difference: when Denver listened to phone calls about possibly acquiring then-Patriot Matt Cassel and/or trading Cutler, little baby Jay pouted and ignored communication attempts from his new coach and Broncos owner Pat Bowlen. When Washington looked into replacing Campbell this off-season, all he did was keep working out and working hard and saying all the right things about improving his game and understanding that there are business sides of the NFL that were out of his control. In other words, Campbell was and is mature, while Cutler acted like an immature selfish kid. (ESPN’s Sports Guy Bill Simmons wrote that Cutler “looks like a pissed-off trust-fund kid who can't believe the valet scratched his Escalade hybrid.”) And yet Cutler is celebrated as The Franchise Quarterback on the Cusp of Greatness, while Campbell is ignored as a lame bust who can’t get the job done.

So this Sunday, Cutler debuted for the Bears. He and Campbell both played tough divisional opponents on the road (Packers and Giants, respectively) and both lost by 6 points. Campbell completed 73% of his passes for 211 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 1 lost fumble, and a QB rating of 93.6. And how did the superstar franchise QB Jay Cutler do? He completed 47% of his passes for 277 yards, 1 TD, 4 INT, and a QB rating of 43.2.

Hmm…

By the way, the guy who replaced Cutler in Denver? The allegedly mediocre Kyle Orton got a win on the road is now 22-12 as a starter.
Perception is a funny thing.
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