Pro Football Focus has Josh Dobbs as the HIGHEST RATED QB the last 2 preseason games...

You remember. He's the guy that COWER kissed on the sidelines!

 

Chuck Knoll would have been disgusted with that player/coach relationship.

 

PFF has been criticized by the analytics community regarding the accuracy and veracity of its ratings.[9] In contrast to the purely quantitative ratings released by sources like Football Outsiders, TeamRankings, and numberFire, PFF uses qualitative and opinion-based grading as the root of its 0-100 Player Grades -- not its advanced statistics. As such, the 0-100 Player Grades are not truly quantitative and could be seen as being prone to bias, poor sample sizing, or other issues.

Wikipedia

 

Technically I’m disagreeing with them. And if in fact there is a single former coach working for PFF, there may be a reason the word “former” is used.

 

That’s basically a quants/quals debate though. Hardcore quants people refuse to see anything else as poor research.

The problem for them is that football is a qualitative game as well as a quantitative. Certain aspects of play just can’t be reduced to stats.

The problem with PFF is that they sometimes try and pass off quals as quants (just as other analysts do the other way).

I think their findings are interesting, but certainly not the final word.

 

Not even close. Peyton Manning had a very strong arm coming out of college. Mason Rudolph's lack of arm strength is one of the reasons he has such a low ceiling.

Physically Dobbs is as talented as Watson (if not moreso). Dobbs is slightly taller than Deshaun. He's also slightly faster given their respective 40 times from the combine. And he has the slightly stronger arm. The only difference between the two is Deshaun is more consistent.

 

Sometimes those PFF stats seem a little flawed. I like Dobbs as our #3 QB. I believe he’s done enough to earn that spot.
Of course I’m just basing that off of what I’ve seen watching the games on TV which is a very small part of what goes into it.
Now if duck boy it’s going to be an upgrade I’m good with that too.

 

You don't win games between the twenties. You must score when reaching the redzone. Dobbs hasn't shown that ability this year in 3 games. Quite the opposite. Deshaun, de plane, de score is all that matters.

 

dobbs can make it to the 20 but cant score, mason struggles to make it to the 20 but can score. can we combine all 3 our backups to make the ultimate qb lol

 

Not even close.

 

I like it. Do a kind of Staubach/Morton thing Tom Landry did on the 70s, and keep subbing them in and out.

 

I watched Dobbs play extensively at Tennessee. You are correct that his passing inside the 20 is not very good. However, he is an incredible runner in the redzone.

In regular season games I'm sure the Steelers will run more designed runs with him in the redzone to maximize his abilities. Dobbs is not only a fast runner but he's also pretty powerful between the tackles. At Tennessee he ran QB power a lot between the tackles in the redzone and scored many TDs that way. I believe he could do the same in the NFL during the regular season. Right now in the preseason its probably not wise to run QB power with your QB when he gets in the redzone.

 

Yeah I don’t think our playbook helps him out much

 

After tonight it is crystal clear that Rudolph should be the #2 QB.

 

If you go by the preseason stats then sure. However, I have zero faith in Rudolph during the regular season if Big Ben goes down. He has had a blessed preseason. Lotta breaks have gone his way. In the regular season against defenses that will game plan for him, I think he will struggle mightily. His arm strength is still a huge concern. His ball just seems to hang up there. The type of ball regular season defenses will pick off with regularity.

 

Final preseason numbers:

Rudolph: 28/43 passing (65.1 pct), 368 yards, 4 touchdowns, 1 interception

Dobbs: 18/33 passing (54.5 pct), 280 yards, 0 touchdowns and 2 interceptions

And what do these stats tell us?

That Dirty Red is the GOAT!

In all seriousness, Dobbs isn't special and never will be. Hodges hasn't yet proven that he'll be special either. But he hasn't proven that he can't be. Get rid of Dobbs. If we get to the 3rd QB, the season is most likely screwed anyway. Keep the upside.

 

How’s that?

 

Blast my friend I'm going to have to disagree. After last season I have zero clue what Tomlin will do, lots of tough choices out there. However he did give Dobbs the job last season after playing very well against 2's and 3's as well. Is Mason's showing less worthy than Dobbs was last year. If we want to be picky maybe. At this point who knows what they are thinking. I know I want someone that can move the ball, don't care who at this point.

 

Absolutely nothing.

Stats are just as much a byproduct of what your teammates do or don't do as well as what the opposition does and doesn't do as much as it is a reflection of your ability. Just look at tonight's game. Dobbs barely got any snaps because the Panthers held onto the ball for almost the entire first half when he was in at QB because the defense couldn't get off the field. That was bad luck for Josh. Then when Rudolph is in, the defense gives him a turnover inside the Panthers territory which he converts into his only TD of the night. Good luck for Mason.

Rudolph has gotten a lot of breaks this preseason that Dobbs hasn't gotten. He's had passes dropped by the defense rather than becoming INTs (as we saw during the Chiefs game). Dobbs has had passes that were on target get tipped by his own receiver getting picked off by the defense. Rudolph has not had TD passes called back because of penalties or receivers not keeping their feet inbounds like Dobbs has had happen to him. He's also gotten more playing time and thus more opportunities. Change the dynamics that neither had control over like dropped passes, tipped INTs, and TDs getting called back because of penalties and those stats would be very different.

My eye test tells me Dobbs is the better QB and would give the Steelers a better chance to win during the regular season if Big Ben goes down.