We've seen great quarterback play in the first two weeks of the 2011 season after a tumultuous and shortened offseason. Veterans like Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers are among the league leaders in Quarterback Passer Ratings, touchdowns and efficiency. We are also seeing a lot of young guys coming into form including; Matthew Stafford getting Detroit off to a 2-0 start and Rookie Cam Newton with 2 consecutive 400 yards games. A few guys, unfortunately, are having slower than desirable starts. Veterans Joe Flacco, Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger, products of run heavy offenses, have thrown 7 interceptions among the three and their teams are all 1-1 with many questions surrounding their offensive prowess.
Today, although I will focus on the quarterbacks in the AFC East. Drew Brees may be the best quarterback in the league since their 2009 with Aaron Rodgers getting most of the attentions after the Packers reclaimed the Lombardi Trophy, but Tom Brady may be the best quarterback of all time and he is looking like it in the infancy of the 2011 season.
1. Tom Brady - His 72% completion rate, 7 touchdowns and and 470 average passing yards per game puts him firmly atop the list of quarterbacks in the AFC East (and the NFL). Brady is on pace to become the second unanimous pick for MVP (he was the first unanimous MVP last season and received 49 out of 50 votes in 2007 when he won his first MVP). Brady's success has been well documented so I won't bore you with his regular season and playoff statistics.
2. Ryan Fitzpatrick - Despite a wild first few years in the league after being drafted by the St. Louis Ram in the 7th round of the 2005 NFL Draft, Fitzpatrick had a few bright spots in St. Louis and Cincinnati that make his play this year no surprise. In his first career game in the NFL in November of 2005, Fitzpatrick led the Rams from a halftime deficit of 24-3 to an overtime victory against the Texans throwing for 310 yards and 3 TD's (sound familiar?). While with the Bengals and playing for an injured Carson Palmer he threw for 1900 yards, was third in the league in rushing yards for a QB, threw for 8 touchdowns. Since becoming a Bill in 2009, the franchise has put all their faith behind him which he should be rewarded with soon in the form of a contract extension. His 110 QB and 7 touchdowns in 2011 so far has Buffalo buzzing and thinking playoffs. After falling behind 21-3 last week against the Raiders, Fitzpatrick led a second half comeback scoring on all their offensive possessions including the game winning TD pass with just seconds remaining.
3. Mark Sanchez - While most NFL quarterbacks were running individual team mini-camps, Mark Sanchez was modeling for GQ. Albeit this isn't the reason for his slow start, the criticism he has received as been far from positive. Sanchez has one of the easiest jobs in the NFL playing on the other side of the ball of the premiere defense in the league. He's been asked in the past to simply manage the game and now it seems Rex Ryan has taken the leash off prematurely. in 32 career regular season games he has completed only 54% of his passes has thrown 34 interceptions to his 31 touchdowns and managed only a 71.1 QBR. In the playoffs, In the playoffs although, Sanchez lights it up with averaging almost 300 yards a game with 9 touchdowns and 3 interceptions in 6 games. He he can manage not to screw up too much in the regular season and ride the coat tails of his defense, the Jets will have a good shot once they get into the playoffs.
4. Chad Henne - The Michaigan product has been under constant scrutiny since coming into the league in in 2008. The Miami Dolphins have made it perfectly clear that will always have their eyes open when it comes to finding Henne's replacement. Since Dan Marino retired, this has been an ongoing problem down in Miami (they should have signed Drew Brees back in 2006 but thought the risk was too great coming off shoulder surgery... what a mistake). Despite an impressive opening week effort against the Patriots, Henne's decision making and accuracy has always come into questions. There is no questions he has the arm strength, but doesn't seem to be able to lead the Dolphins to anything but obscurity.
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