Which QB is better: Dak Prescott or Lamar Jackson?

[Deberg_1990]

Was just talking about this with coworkers.

Most agreed Dak overall was better. Both will be looking to get paid soon.

Who’s the better QB?

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by O.city

Mahomes runs to pick up the occasional first down or to escape. It's not a big part of his game.

You win throwing the football in the NFL. Always.

But it’s 2020!!!

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

He's not the improvisational gunslinger that I associate with playground passers. He's really a game-managing system quarterback.

He's a playground player that they've built a playground offense around.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Ahem.

Sure.

But I said it better. You can just go hang out with O.City and keep on making watered down and poorly supported versions of the posts that I brilliantly build upon...

[O.city]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Sure.

But I said it better. You can just go hang out with O.City and keep on making watered down and poorly supported versions of the posts that I brilliantly build upon...

via GIPHY

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Sure.

But I said it better. You can just go hang out with O.City and keep on making watered down and poorly supported versions of the posts that I brilliantly build upon...

[MahiMike]

Minshew.

[MahiMike]

Neither one of these guys will ever live up to their contract. They have as much chance of winning a Superbowl as Kirk Cousins. They will be exciting to watch but will never get over the hump - taking 40% of their teams cap for years to come.

[dj56dt58]

I think a lot of people here haven't watched Lamar much outside of this game. Lamar all day over dak

[DRM08]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

By my definition of playground football, Mahomes actually does it MORE than Jackson.

Playground ball means doing things out of structure. Mahomes does that a LOT but he's incredible at it.

Jackson succeeds mostly within the structure of Roman's offense. Oh sure, occasionally he pulls it down and runs, but even that's not really 'run around, point at stuff and hope someone gets open..." - it's more reaction than it is what I would call playground ball.

If I'm putting conventional tags on an unconventional quarterback, I'd say that Jackson is a game managing, system QB. He's not a perfect fit for either of those labels, but when you start to look at what needs to happen in a game for him to get the W, he both needs to be working from ahead or very close behind (typical game manager stuff) and he needs to be operating in a system specifically designed to get him shorter throws right in front of him while taking advantage of his legs.

He's not the improvisational gunslinger that I associate with playground passers. He's really a game-managing system quarterback.

2018 Denver game on MNF. Mahomes set the record for most passing yards outside structure. He's definitely got a playground element to his game, and he's phenomenal with it.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by staylor26

But it’s 2020!!!

You've gotta be able to move for sure. But move to throw.

[ThyKingdomCome15]

I'd take Lamar Jackson. Put him a couple burners on the outside to back those safeties up.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by ThyKingdomCome15

I'd take Lamar Jackson. Put him a couple burners on the outside to back those safeties up.

So he can overthrow them. At least you opened up the running game.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

So he can overthrow them. At least you opened up the running game.

Yeah, I'd be more inclined to do exactly what the Ravens have done.

Gimme 2 strong TE options, a possession WR and a single downfield threat that can just force the opponent to be honest here and there.

Think of it this way - how long has it been since Tom Brady was a credible threat outside the hashes? He's played underneath and over the middle for probably 6-8 years.

So build your passing similar to how you'd build one for Brady. Then you have the added element of Jackson's legs making all of that more manageable.

What I REALLY don't understand is why the Ravens don't get their backs involved more. Near as I can figure it's due to their commitment to play action and how a play-fake typically keeps the RB from getting out into the pattern as well, but they really can't get their backs more than 50-60 targets combined?

[RealSNR]

Somebody needs bitch slap Marcellus Wiley, and anytime he starts talking about Lamar's great stats, just ask him, "Dude, do you even WATCH the games?!"

Anybody with eyes can plainly see that Lamar isn't a bad passer, but he IS limited. If he had the arm talent that Wiley insists he does, he'd do a lot better than 3100 yards passing.

"It's because he runs so much!!" Again, if he trusted his arm to the level of the NFL's top passers, he'd probably cut his carries in half and crack 4000 yards passing like Michael Vick did for Andy Reid in Philly.

[Rain Man]

Here's a graph of quarterbacks with more than 32 win/loss decisions since the year 2000, in comparison to their average rushing yards per game. Quarterbacks who have won a Super Bowl are in red. (Forgive me if I missed someone - I just visually looked at them.)

What we see with a simple trend line (weighting all QBs equally) is that there's an additional 0.1 percent winning percentage for every rushing yard per game. So there is a slight positive correlation. However, the Super Bowls are dominated by guys who are statues in the pocket. Patrick Mahomes II, Aaron Rodgers, and Russell Wilson are somewhat anomalous in their running. However, I think we can argue that all three are more the type who run when they need to, as opposed to being run-first guys. They run to live, they don't live to run. The true run-first guys are rare and don't win Super Bowls.

There also appears to be a strong correlation between winning Super Bowls and winning a lot of games (grin).

Lamar Jackson isn't on this graph since he has less than 32 win decisions. But he's got 25 and he's got a win% of 84 with 61 rushing yards per game. He's an extreme outlier on both the X and Y axis.