The lists and rankings portion of the NFL calendar year is now well underway with deadest part of the offseason drawing closer. On Friday, ESPN posted rankings of backup quarterbacks around the league on their Instagram account and it’s clear whoever made the list doesn’t think too fondly of the Pittsburgh Steelers current No. 2 signal caller.
Of the 16 backup quarterbacks listed by ESPN, Landry Jones is listed 14th overall with only Geno Smith and Ryan Mallett ranked behind him.
I have pulled the career stats of all 16 quarterbacks included in ESPN’s recent rankings and as you can see below, Jones completion percentage ranks him seventh overall compared to the other 15. You might also be surprised to know that Jones’ career yards per attempt number of 7.6 is tops of the 16 quarterbacks listed as is his yards per completion number of 12.6.
Jones obviously hasn’t had as much playing time as several of the other quarterbacks listed in ESPN’s rankings, so that’s worth noting as well.
While I would be foolish to argue that Jones deserves to be listed in the top five on this list, I personally believe he deserves to be ranked higher than 14th overall. Yes, he’s not great, but isn’t he better than several others on this list?
Let me know in the comments below where you would rank Jones on this list of 16 backup quarterbacks.
If you would like to see another recent set of backup quarterback rankings, Neil Greenberg of The Washington Post made his public on Thursday.
| QB | G | GS | QBrec | Cmp | Att | Cmp% | Yds | TD | Int | Y/A | AY/A | Y/C | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jimmy Garoppolo | 17 | 2 | 2-0-0 | 63 | 94 | 67.0 | 690 | 5 | 0 | 7.3 | 8.4 | 11 | 106.2 |
| Matt Moore | 45 | 28 | 15-13-0 | 508 | 856 | 59.3 | 6077 | 41 | 31 | 7.1 | 6.4 | 12 | 82 |
| A.J. McCarron | 8 | 3 | 2-1-0 | 79 | 119 | 66.4 | 854 | 6 | 2 | 7.2 | 7.4 | 10.8 | 97.1 |
| Chase Daniel | 56 | 2 | 1-1-0 | 51 | 78 | 65.4 | 480 | 1 | 1 | 6.2 | 5.8 | 9.4 | 81.1 |
| Colt McCoy | 34 | 25 | 7-18-0 | 508 | 842 | 60.3 | 5586 | 26 | 23 | 6.6 | 6 | 11 | 78.9 |
| Nick Foles | 42 | 36 | 20-16-0 | 776 | 1285 | 60.4 | 9215 | 56 | 27 | 7.2 | 7.1 | 11.9 | 88.1 |
| Cody Kessler | 9 | 8 | 0-8-0 | 128 | 195 | 65.6 | 1380 | 6 | 2 | 7.1 | 7.2 | 10.8 | 92.3 |
| Brock Osweiler | 36 | 21 | 13-8-0 | 488 | 815 | 59.9 | 5083 | 26 | 22 | 6.2 | 5.7 | 10.4 | 77.4 |
| Matt Cassel | 104 | 80 | 36-44-0 | 1546 | 2624 | 58.9 | 17287 | 103 | 79 | 6.6 | 6 | 11.2 | 79.2 |
| Derek Anderson | 73 | 47 | 20-27-0 | 865 | 1596 | 54.2 | 10396 | 60 | 60 | 6.5 | 5.6 | 12 | 71.3 |
| Matt Barkley | 11 | 6 | 1-5-0 | 159 | 266 | 59.8 | 1911 | 8 | 18 | 7.2 | 4.7 | 12 | 63.7 |
| Drew Stanton | 33 | 13 | 8-5-0 | 266 | 500 | 53.2 | 3165 | 14 | 19 | 6.3 | 5.2 | 11.9 | 66.3 |
| Chad Henne | 65 | 53 | 18-35-0 | 1159 | 1954 | 59.3 | 12931 | 58 | 63 | 6.6 | 5.8 | 11.2 | 75.5 |
| Landry Jones | 16 | 4 | 2-2-0 | 85 | 141 | 60.3 | 1071 | 7 | 6 | 7.6 | 6.7 | 12.6 | 82.8 |
| Geno Smith | 33 | 30 | 12-18-0 | 501 | 866 | 57.9 | 5962 | 28 | 36 | 6.9 | 5.7 | 11.9 | 72.4 |
| Ryan Mallett | 19 | 8 | 3-5-0 | 181 | 329 | 55.0 | 1779 | 7 | 10 | 5.4 | 4.5 | 9.8 | 64.9 |
