I've written about SI.com's Peter King many a time in this little piece of the internet called Mondesi's House. In fact, if you click the little link beneath this post that says "
Peter King", you'll get every mention of his in site history. Some days, he's interesting. Most days, I totally disagree with him. Either way, I end up reading his stuff, and why, I still haven't figured out.
But this morning, Peter's already-shaky credibility with me took a major blow when he released his "
2007 QB Rankings". It's two pages from the mouth of SI's Football Grand Poobah devoted to nothing but QBs and QBs only.
If I've learned one thing from the internet, it's that people love lists. And if I've learned one thing from King today, it's to make your list as completely irrational as possible, because every website and sports talk show from coast to coast will mention it. As the saying goes, there's no such thing as bad publicity. Although I think Michael Vick may disagree with that particular saying.
Where should I start? How about King's proclamation of Ben Roethlisberger at #17 and going from there? Here are a few QBs that King has ranked higher than Big Ben, along with my thoughts on his choices:
7. Vince Young. As it's been proven time and time again, if you want to win a Super Bowl, you need a running quarterback.
8. Phil Rivers. Might be someday, but has a lot more to accomplish.
9. Jon Kitna. I think this was a misprint. Has to be.
10. Jay Cutler. How can you argue against his 2-3 career record?
11. Tony Romo. Waaay too much hype with this guy. He's a football version of any player on the Yankees or Red Sox.
12. Donovan McNabb. No Super Bowl wins, two seasons ended by injury, a team drafting for the future at the position...sounds like a recipe for the 12th-best QB in the league to me!
14. Brett Favre. No comment necessary.
15. Chad Pennington. 2006 was the first season of his seven-year career in which he's played all 16 games. And if you think it's impossible to play a full season without getting hurt, look at Mr. Consecutive Games Played at #14 and be reminded that yes, it is possible.
16. Jake Delhomme. He has such a lock on the QB position that the Panthers signed David Carr.
What, no room for Michael Vick ahead of Ben?
In fairness, let's allow Pete to defend his ranking of Roethlisberger, which he correctly calculated as one that would generate controversy:
• Ben Roethlisberger 17th? What gives? From Year 1 to Year 2 of his career, his completion percentage dropped 3.7 points; from year two to three it fell 3.0 points. His TD-to-interception ratio, plus-eight in 2005, dropped to minus-five last season. He is profoundly inconsistent. I say he's a C-plus player until I see six or eight straight weeks of the same guy.
Yeah, genius. He also had a motorcycle crash, an appendectomy, and a concussion, which you casually failed to mention. But I'm sure that had nothing to do with his interception ratio.
Here's the explanation for how King constructed this farce...I mean, list:
As for how I arrived at my picks, other than with a divining rod, I used a few measuring sticks. I value wins from my quarterback, and that helped Manning and Brady, the leaders in victories over the last two years. I value postseason success, and their seven combined wins over the past two years is significant. Completion percentage and yards-per-attempt are the two passing stats I value the most because they tell you how often a quarterback succeeds in efficiently moving the chains through the air. Finally, intangibles. Brady led all passers with a 10 on a 10-point scale, because he's a coach, an offseason facilitator, a free-agent recruiter -- and he does it while retaining respect from the guys he often has to lean on hard.
King, always a proponent of the "rings are all that matters" school, has apparently forgotten that the 25-year-old Roethlisberger led his team to the AFC Championship in his rookie season and won a ring in his second season. Of course, as I constantly point out, everyone else has already forgotten those minor career accomplishments, so the Steelers should probably start looking at his replacement in the 2008 draft.
Think about this: King will knock Roethlisberger for completion percentage, then he says he values postseason success. Here are the playoff resumes of everyone he listed ahead of Roethlisberger, who has 5 playoff wins and a ring:
1- Peyton Manning - 7 career playoff wins, 1 Super Bowl
2- Tom Brady - 12 career playoff wins, 3 Super Bowls
3- Drew Brees - 1 career playoff win
4- The Great Carson Palmer - 0 career playoff wins
5- Marc Bulger -1 career playoff win
6- Matt Hasselbeck - 3 career playoff wins
7- Young - never in the playoffs
8- Rivers - 0 career playoff wins
9- Kitna - 0 career playoff wins
10- Cutler - never in the playoffs
11- Romo - 0 career playoff wins, and botched the only playoff game he played in
13- McNair - 5 career playoff wins
15- Pennington - 2 career playoff wins
16- Delhomme - 5 career playoff wins
That's right. The only guys who've has more postseason success than the 25-year-old Roethlisberger are Manning (31 years old), Brady (29), and Favre (37). It's worth noting that he ranks the 3-ring Brady behind Manning, proving once again that football fans and writers have very short memories. Apparently the only postseason success King values is what happened in the 2006 season.
I guess he values postseason success, but not as much as completion percentage. Personally, I'd take a winner with less-sexy stats than a loser who puts up 400 yards a week 100 times out of 100. But that's enough on Ben. My blood pressure has already risen too much. Let's get to the next thing I'd like to talk about regarding this list. That would be the fact that King ranks intangibles on a scale of 1-10.
1. not tangible; incapable of being perceived by the sense of touch, as incorporeal or immaterial things; impalpable.
2. not definite or clear to the mind: intangible arguments.
3. (of an asset) existing only in connection with something else, as the goodwill of a business. –noun
4. something intangible, esp. an intangible asset: Intangibles are hard to value.
Again, here's his definition of an "intangible":
Finally, intangibles. Brady led all passers with a 10 on a 10-point scale, because he's a coach, an offseason facilitator, a free-agent recruiter -- and he does it while retaining respect from the guys he often has to lean on hard.
That's not an intangible. No, it's not a statistic either, but there's a better way to categorize it than "intangible". How about a 1-10 ranking of "buying into and exemplifying the team's philosophy"? No, we'll just dumb it down call them intangibles.
Before I conclude, I must add that I planned to make a brief mention of this, but I received so many irate emails from Steeler fans that I believed a commentary was necessary. We should start the nominations for a "National Football Writer Most Disliked by Steeler Fans" award. Right now, King and
Pete Prisco are neck-and-neck.
The resemblance? Uncanny.