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Even after getting brutalized year after year in college (far beyond what any other QB aside from contemporary Ostrander ever experienced) and becoming so shell-shocked that he infamously became Captain Checkdown with the Bills, based on Weighted Career Approximate Value Edwards is tied with Dils as the fifth best NFL QB in Stanford history (behind only Elway, Brodie, Plunkett, and Luck, though Mills looks assured of passing Edwards). I think it is possible that if Edwards had been born six or ten years earlier or later we could have talked about him among our Mount Rushmore of quarterbacks. People misunderstand my grouping of Edwards, Pritchard, Nunes, and McKee if you think I was comparing their inherent quality as QBs. I was comparing the quality of their play, specifically 2005 Edwards, 2008 Pritchard, 2012 Nunes, and 2021 McKee, for which we have a quite good/insightful/comprehensive external metric for evaluating QB performance over time. I am fully cognizant that the three of these QBs who played multiple years had other years of different quality QB play (in all three cases considerably worse) and I agree that supporting cast and other circumstances played a role in that. The point of this exercise was to get a window into the level of QB play needed/reasonably expected/etc. Anyway, lots of smart comments I agree with, just didn’t want to leave the impression I think Edwards = Nunes or something.

Righto. Really appreciate your Sunday analyses.

[old spanish trail]

Even after getting brutalized year after year in college (far beyond what any other QB aside from contemporary Ostrander ever experienced) and becoming so shell-shocked that he infamously became Captain Checkdown with the Bills, based on Weighted Career Approximate Value Edwards is tied with Dils as the fifth best NFL QB in Stanford history (behind only Elway, Brodie, Plunkett, and Luck, though Mills looks assured of passing Edwards). I think it is possible that if Edwards had been born six or ten years earlier or later we could have talked about him among our Mount Rushmore of quarterbacks. People misunderstand my grouping of Edwards, Pritchard, Nunes, and McKee if you think I was comparing their inherent quality as QBs. I was comparing the quality of their play, specifically 2005 Edwards, 2008 Pritchard, 2012 Nunes, and 2021 McKee, for which we have a quite good/insightful/comprehensive external metric for evaluating QB performance over time. I am fully cognizant that the three of these QBs who played multiple years had other years of different quality QB play (in all three cases considerably worse) and I agree that supporting cast and other circumstances played a role in that. The point of this exercise was to get a window into the level of QB play needed/reasonably expected/etc. Anyway, lots of smart comments I agree with, just didn’t want to leave the impression I think Edwards = Nunes or something.

Righto. Really appreciate your Sunday analyses.