The #1 Ravens Myth

[Dade]

Boller hasn't been a Raven for 3 years...it's time to move on and focus on the players that are here.

[LukeDaniel]

Can anybody name a 1st round QB that was given less than 3 years to prove himself, cuz i can't think of one.

Just off the top of my head, I thought of the following:

Akili Smith- #3 pick of 99 draft- Started 17 games over 3 seasons. Completed less than 47% of his passes with 5 TDs and 13 INTs. Yes, that's 5 TDs in 17 starts. Had a career passer rating of 52.8. Was out of the NFL by age 27

Heath Shuler (mentioned already)- Also a #3 pick in the 94 draft. Was out of football by age 26 after throwing 15 TDs/33 INTs in 29 games (23 starts). Career passer rating was 54.3. He got 17 starts with the Redskins before they let him go.

Andre Ware- #7 pick of 1990 draft- Threw 161 passes in his entire career, which spanned a whole 14 games (only 6 starts). Threw 5 career TDs. Out of football by age 25.

Ryan Leaf- #2 pick in 98 draft- Played 25 career games. Only started 21 games for the team that drafted him. For his career, he completed 48.8% of his passes with 14 TD/36 INTs and a 50.0 QB Rating. Out of football by age 25. His 1998 season was the worst season by a QB in NFL history. That year, he completed just 45.3% of his passes with 2 TDs/15 INTs. His QB rating was 39.0. He had just 1289 passing yards despite 245 attempts.

David Klingler was the 6th pick of the 92 draft. He played in a career total of 33 games, starting 28. He wasn't as bad as any of the 4 stinking turds listed above, but was hardly good either. He only threw 16 career TDs (against 22 INTs) although his completion % (54.2) and passer rating (65.1) look "Rodgersesque" compared to the four above him.

Those are the ones I just thought of off the top of my head. I'm sure there are others. All were SUBSTANTIALLY worse than Kyle Boller, who unlike the others, was not a top ten pick (pick 19). In parts of 5 years with the Ravens, Boller had 45 TDs-44 INTs over 53 games. Boller's completion percentage as a Raven (roughly 58%) and QB rating (roughly 72) put him light years ahead of everyone else. In fact, Boller's worst year in Baltimore (his 03 rookie season in which he had a 62.4 passer rating) was better than every season turned in by Leaf, Ware, Smith, or Shuler. Boller's QB rating the other four years were 70.9, 71.8, 104.0, and 75.2. He was a disappointment as a QB, but he probably wouldn't even make the list of worst first round QB busts of the last 20 years. The guy wasn't that bad when you look at the larger picture.

[bmorecareful]

The current #1 Ravens myth is that the Ravens "identity" is "the running game and great defense."

Call it HALF a myth, because great defense is definitely true, but the Ravens are a bottom 5 team in the league in rushing and they were bottom 10 last year. The Ravens are a more effective passing team at this time. They haven't always been great passing, but they have been better passing than rushing, especially on 3rd down.

I love how people say a "balanced attack" won the game on Thanksgiving, when on the Ravens only TD drive Joe Flacco was forced to convert 4 3rd downs--all of them 6+ yards to go. Great rushing teams move down the field with rushes and win on 3rd and short. The Ravens don't do either of those things consistently.

[LukeDaniel]

No to both. Both got three seasons.

Yes, but Quinn only got 13 starts in Cleveland. Awfully small sample size.

[lobachevsky]

Boller was more frustrating because he occasionally did show that the lights were on before then doing some exceedingly stupid as opposed to a flat out bust waterboy masquerading as the guy behind the snap.

Boller had two brilliant games toward the end of 2005, crushing the Pack 48-3 on December 19 (still the biggest rout in MNF history AFAIK) & then outdueling Brad Johnson to knock the Vikings out of the postseason on Christmas night. It looked for all the world as if the porch lights were on and at long last someone was indeed home. Then he messed the bed in the loss to the Browns to close out the season. If he had performed decently in that last game, I doubt that the Ravens would have picked up McNair.

Then there was the 2007 game vs the undefeated Pats where he outplayed Tom Terrific &, had it not been for the errant wind gust that batted down a long pass for a sure TD into the hands of a NE DB, would have helped run that bunch of frauds right out of the stadium on national TV.

Hindsight reminds us that at Cal, coach Jed Tedford lashed Boller into a harness during practice to correct his throwing motion and (more significantly) simplified the offense so that he only had to look at half the field on any one play. It was a real "leap of faith" to believe that Boller would be able to learn to see the whole field--which as it turned out was a lot more important than being able to throw a ball through the uprights from the 50 yard line on his knees...

[Captain Silver]

I am very Pro-Billick, but this is ancient history at this time.

[ballhawk]

sorry guys...that dude had me fired up earlier.

mods: you can send this thread back to 2006 if you want :D

[RavensRock]

One of Boller's best games was the infamous Monday Night game in 2007 against the Patriots. He was playing great until the pick thrown into the endzone. But still, we win that game if Rex doesn't call timeout.

If Boller could have played like that consistently he may be a starter some where. Maybe even here.

[PeterB58]

One of Boller's best games was the infamous Monday Night game in 2007 against the Patriots. He was playing great until the pick thrown into the endzone. But still, we win that game if Rex doesn't call timeout.

That game....ugggh...it was in the running for Top 5 all-time Ravens game for 59 minutes 30 seconds. Then Brady went no huddle, quick snap, Ray quickly read the play perfectly and called the correct D, and Rex....well, Rex wasn't sure, so he called the time-out.

[HoustonRaven]

The Seattle come from behind win in 2003 was the best Boller perfo ... oh wait .... that was Anthony Wright

[alien bird]

Can anybody name a 1st round QB that was given less than 3 years to prove himself, cuz i can't think of one.

Cade McNown was drafted in the first round by the Bears and by year three he was on Miami's roster.

Jim Druckenmiller was a first round pick of San Francisco and was gone by year three.

Tommy Maddox got two years with Denver before they dumped him.

[LukeDaniel]

Cade McNown was drafted in the first round by the Bears and by year three he was on Miami's roster.

Jim Druckenmiller was a first round pick of San Francisco and was gone by year three.

Tommy Maddox got two years with Denver before they dumped him.

Good call on McNown. I remembered him, but never realized how awful he was. He threw his last NFL pass at age 23. His 16 TD/19INT career was probably still better than Leaf, Shuler, Ware, and Akili Smith though.

Duckenmiller only threw 52 NFL passes. Pretty awful. He was a 25 year old rookie who had the maturity of a 12 year old.

Maddox gets a pass because his career won't be viewed as a bust due to his Pittsburgh years.

Todd Marinovich would be another example. He was out of football too by age 23 after being the 24th overall pick of the 91 draft. He played in 8 NFL games. The strange thing with him was that he wasn't really all that hideous of a QB. IN those 8 games, his passer rating was 66.4, which back in the early 90s, wasn't awful. He had serious off-the-field issues though.

The amusing thing is that there have been so many pitiful first round QBs that Tim Couch wouldn't even make the "top 10 least productive QBs of the last two decades" list. Being a #1 overall pick, he was a massive disappointment, but he at least put together some type of NFL resume with 64 career TDs (against 67 INTs). He also had a 59.8 completion % and a 75.1 QB rating, which are far from awful.