One Stat Proves How Much the Raiders Upgraded at Quarterback

The Las Vegas Raiders have spent the past few seasons with arguably the worst collection of quarterbacks in the National Football League. The Raiders have started five different quarterbacks over the past two seasons, but traded for veteran quarterback Geno Smith earlier this offseason.

The Raiders hope Smith can lead them out of mediocrity into a more competitive era of Raiders football. Smith should be a better starting quarterback than the Raiders had at any point last season. This can be seen by one specific stat.

Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis recently noted the quarterbacks who were the most to blame for their respective teams' incompletions on third down last season. Former Raiders starting quarterback Gardner Minshew had the worst percentage of any quarterback in the league.

Sharp noted that Minshew had the lowest percentage of 3rd down incompletions that were due to an error by the wide receiver. Only 2.9 percent of Minshew's third-down incompletions were due to a mistake by the Raiders' wide receivers. The next closest is Mac Jones with four percent.

About 7.3 percent of Smith's third-down incompletions were because of his former wide receivers. While he is only a few spots ahead of Minshew, it is still an upgrade. Smith will also likely be an upgrade in other areas.

Earlier this offseason, Raiders Offensive Coordinator Chip Kelly noted how much the game has changed over the years, but how simple it remains.

"Yeah. I mean, the game is cyclical. I go back, way back, with the first time the Dallas Cowboys and Tom Landry ran the shotgun. But that's the single-wing football that people had been running for all the time, and Dutch Meyer at TCU was doing it in the '50s with five wide receivers and running around, and everybody thinks, 'Well, they're got all these wide receivers on the field.' They did that before. The game goes on and on," Kelly said.

"If you're a historian of the game, and I enjoy that part of it, I still think it's still about fundamentals. It's still about who can block the best and who can keep their quarterback clean so that he can throw routes. Who can sink, plant, cut, and create separation, so that they can catch a football when it's thrown to him, who tackles better on defense. Can you make a guy miss in the open field, or is the guy able to make the play? It's still a fundamental game, but it takes ebbs and flows, and it's neat watching its evolution and how it goes from this, to this, to this.