Some Zorn Story...But It Hints at Campbell Getting Paid

Using the graph, the 13 most prolific passers from last year were:

Brees
Warner
Pennington
Schaub
Delhomme
Rivers
Peyton
Garcia
Cutler
Rodgers
Romo
Cassel
Edwards

Which sounds about right, or at least acceptable.

Campbell ranks 7th in accuracy, yeah that's nice. But the yards per attempt rank in the bottom half (below the median). This lends credence to the naysayers in this thread: Campbell was indeed accurate but he was not going downfield like other QBs.

Of course, this is reflective of the terrible O line, high drop rate by our WRs, and reflective of Zorn's mid-season adjustment to reign in the passing game getting more conservative to protect the football from a failing offensive line. It is not an indictment of Campbell.

It encapsulates more of the entire picture: Campbell is accurate, but we didn't get the yardage we needed. Question is, will we get the yardage if the line and WRs improve? I say we will, but we'll have to wait and see.Yeah, although it says less about what he was doing, and more about what he wasn't succeeding at.

Campbell's YPA declined sharply in the second half of the year, to 2008 Seattle type levels. This makes intuitive sense, since we run the same system, and Seattle was absolutely ravaged by injuries last year.

Would anyone call Hasselbeck or Wallace a dunker? Perhaps, but I think Hasselbeck has a track record that suggests they are capable of winning in this league. Campbell doesn't have the track record, but the evidence that he will get it some day is substancial.

It's interesting that Jet Favre is just a hair up the way on the same trendline from Campbell. Favre was a major dunker last year, which made him a surprise top five inclusion on the accuracy list.

The league MVP was just a little farther up on the same trendline.

Translation: this offense can work.

Yeah, although it says less about what he was doing, and more about what he wasn't succeeding at.

Campbell's YPA declined sharply in the second half of the year, to 2008 Seattle type levels. This makes intuitive sense, since we run the same system, and Seattle was absolutely ravaged by injuries last year.

Would anyone call Hasselbeck or Wallace a dunker? Perhaps, but I think they have a track record that suggests they are capable of winning in this league. Campbell doesn't have the track record, but the evidence that he will get it some day is substancial.

I would agree wholeheartedly.

If given a Seattle circa 2007 offensive line, Campbell would put up Hasselbeck circa 2007 numbers (91.4 QB rating, 3966 yds, 63% comp, 28 TD, 12 INT). There's empirical evidence to support that.

However, there's no empirical evidence to suggest our offensive line will be any better this year than last. We just have hopes of improvement by Heyer, or Bridges, or Mike Williams. And we have hopes that Randy Thomas can come back from injury. But it's still a big question mark.

I think we'd agree that with a Redskins line circa 2008, Campbell will not post numbers any better than Campbell circa 2008.

But Campbell's not the problem. We have to just hope Vinny and Danny can see that.

What I'm struggling with explaining is how the offense rebounded for two weeks in the middle of the second half.

Against Seattle, and against the Giants, their opponent adjusted numbers on offense are above their season average (which itself, is weighted up by the run in weeks 2-5). This was coming off their worst five games stretch of the season (Week 6-Week 11).

There was some adjustment that Zorn made that got the offense functioning again, despite the overall decline of the unit. It wasn't until the Baltimore game that we finally got overmatched in terms of injuries of personnel.

That's my project for this week. Find out what Zorn corrected in the middle of November that got the offense working again, and why they were a non-functional group for most of the middle of the season.

For those who are interested, I have week by week DVOA graphs for the 2008 season up on my blog.

2008 Redskins DVOA Graphs - Hog Heaven (http://redskinshogheaven.com/2009/07/2008-redskins-dvoa-graphs.html)

and b/c you don't like Campbell.

um he ranks in the bottom five of the league for yards per completion. the guy doesnt throw down the field so of course his accuracy is going to be better.

its not my opinion, its a fact

um he ranks in the bottom five of the league for yards per completion. the guy doesnt throw down the field so of course his accuracy is going to be better.

its not my opinion, its a fact

But it's not his fault he doesn't throw down the field. He can't throw down the field without protection.

But it's not his fault he doesn't throw down the field. He can't throw down the field without protection.

Or when his receivers are ranking high in drops. Specifically Santana, I assume that the majority of his drops were long balls that could have had a solid impact on his YPC avg.

This means CP, on average, caught his 28 receptions about one yard behind the line of scrimmage, ran 8.7 yards, and netted 7.8 on the play.

Makes sense. He was the target on dump offs and screens.

Oh yeah that would make sense. You're so smart