Philip Rivers: King of the Long Ball

Every time I watched the Chargers play, it always amazed me how often Philip Rivers hooked up with one of his receivers for a deep pass. Lots of QBs pile up big numbers because their receivers gain YAC but it always seems that with the Chargers, most of their yardage comes from when the ball is in the air (Sproles not withstanding). Thus, I tracked down the stats of all of the playoff QBs' numbers when they throw a pass 30 or more yards.

It's important to note that these are not 30+ yard pass plays but rather only plays in which the ball was in the air for 30 or more yards. Here are the yardage results on these plays as well as the number of 30+ yard pass completions for each QB:


Rivers' efficiency in throwing the deep ball is unparalleled; in fact, McNabb and Romo were the only QBs who had more 30+ yard completions than Rivers had 40+ yard completions (7). It certainly helps to have a pair of 6'5" receivers who can go up and pull down the pass but you still have to be accurate enough to put the receiver in such a position. Much was made of Rivers' funky throwing motion when coming out of NC State, but none of that should matter for any QB as long as he can put the ball where it needs to be.

Random Notes from 2009 NFL Season

• What do Matt Schaub and JaMarcus Russell have in common? Not much besides being QBs but they were also the only starting quarterbacks that did not commit a penalty all year. Now whether Russell can be considered a starting QB (or a legit NFL player in general), that's debatable. Schaub was penalty-free in 1066 snaps and Russell was the same in 560 snaps.
  
• Despite being 3rd in the NFL in passer rating, Aaron Rodgers had more dropped passes (45) by his receivers than any other QB had. But JaMarcus Russell had the highest percentage of his pass attempts dropped (10.5%) than any other player. Not surprisingly, Darrius Heyward-Bey led the NFL in lowest catch % as he caught only 23.7% of passes thrown to him.
• Robert Meachem, Greg Camarillo, and Jason Avant, and Reggie Bush were the only players to catch at least 40 passes without having a single drop.
  
• If you only counted rushing yards after contact then Chris Johnson would still be a 1,000 yard rusher. CJ had 1071 yards after contact to lead the NFL but Jamaal Charles' 3.6 yards after contact per rushing attempt was the highest average.
• Who was the worst at gaining yards after contact? BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Mewelde Moore, Lousaka Polite, and Brandon Jackson were the only players who had at least 25 carries but failed to break a single tackle.
• How does Josh Cribbs score so often on punt returns? He takes the most chances as indicated by his league-low 3 fair catches (on 40 punts in play). By comparison Antwaan Randle El had 36 punts in play and returned only 17 while fair catching 19 times.
• Donovan McNabb had 18 passes batted at the line of scrimmage which was the most in the NFL. Who had the fewest? Surprisingly it was Philip Rivers who only had 2 passes batted at the LOS despite his funky, three-quarters delivery.

Thanks to Neil Hornsby and the entire ProFootballFocus.com team for tracking these stats. I enjoyed working with you all last year.