Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers tried to pay his backup, Matt Flynn, a compliment this week, saying he’s a top-15 quarterback.
Flynn will be one of the most sought-after free agents this offseason and he’ll likely get the starting job he covets. What, exactly, is a top-15 quarterback though? First, let’s put Rodgers’ comment in context. Here’s the whole thing.
“The team that gets Matt is going to be very happy, I can promise you. They’ll be getting a top-15 quarterback.”
Obviously, Rodgers is saying Flynn is a good quarterback. He’s not saying he’s a great quarterback, but some people have interpreted the comment to mean Flynn is an average or mediocre quarterback. Do we agree with that assessment or interpretation?
Certainly not with the interpretation.
Throwing Flynn in with middle-of-the-road quarterbacks would put him in the company of Mark Sanchez, Matt Hasselbeck, Andy Dalton, Josh Freeman, Rex Grossman and Alex Smith. We’d say Flynn is better than at least three of those guys, based on our limited sample of his play.
Here’s a look at who ranked 15th in various passing categories in 2011.
Yards: Sanchez — 3,474
Touchdowns: Hasselbeck and Michael Vick — 18
Rating: Cam Newton — 84.5
None of those numbers are terribly impressive and they’re all seemingly attainable for a guy like Flynn. It will be interesting to finally see what he can do with a full season of work.
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Oh please, it’ll be his first year as a starter and hes started only a few games.
I think it’s actually pointless to gauge the guy that way. Everything now is just an educated prediction. We wont know until he gets a full season or more under his belt.
I think it’s fair to say that he has the tools to BE an upper status QB, but he has to step up to that challenge.
To start at top 15 is a good complement. I think any team would be happy to have their qb start at top 15 level.
If people think calling a guy with two career starts is bad and means hes mediocre they are retarded, he has two starts and rodgers is saying hes already better than 17 other qbs, hows that amediocre
Nobody really knows what he is; (See: mark sanchez; tim tebow)
I’m sure when Rogers said top 15 he really spent the entire previous night looking at every QB on each team in the NFL.
He’s just saying Flynn is going to be a good QB for the team that signs him. I think he knows a thing or two about the guy. And he wants him to do well.
Hell, the Panthers went 6-10 with Cam Newton and I knew there’s plenty of teams that would take him over their current QB.
If Matt Flynn is smart he will sign with the best team looking at him, even if it’s for less money. I think that he probably learned at both LSU and Green Bay that it’s a whole lot easier to be an effective QB when you are surrounded by great players.