Bucs Corners Better Than Believed?
July 16th, 2025
Best in NFC South?
Joe is not a big fan of quarterback ratings.
Every time Joe Buck starts rattling off a quarterback rating within the first 30 seconds of a game, Joe wishes someday Troy Aikman would holler, “How do they calculate that, Joe?”
Buck doesn’t know, Joe is sure of that. Not many do. It’s a complex calculation. So why do so many folks lean on a stat they cannot define?
Joe would rather hear a deep analysis of cheerleaders than parroting quarterback ratings on a script laid out days before.
But here is why Joe does not like quarterback ratings. Go ahead and look at this list of all-time quarterback ratings. Even a normally stoic guard at Buckingham Palace would fall off his horse laughing so hard.
So how in the world is Joe supposed to take quarterback ratings seriously?
When it comes to quarterback ratings against defenders, well, Joe sort of puts some credence into those. It shows how successful quarterbacks are against a targeted defender. It provides, in a roundabout way, an idea of how bad or good a defender may be.
So the following should scare the hell out of the crowd who wants to run Jamel Dean out of town.
Per Mike Tannenbaum’s cash-strapped The 33rd Team, quarterback throwing against Zyon McCollum and Dean had their lowest ratings among NFC South cornerbacks.
So, armed with these numbers, does that suggest the NFC South has poor corners, or are quarterback ratings against defenders an unreliable stat?
Remember, the Bucs, for the second-straight season in 2024, gave up the fourth-most passing yards per game.
July 16th, 2025 at 5:21 am
Thanks for the link Joe to QBs of the past. Yeah, I won’t ever think of QBR the same. I sure liked Sonny Jurgeson and Billy Kilmer. Baker reminds me of those two. Tough dudes. And cornerback is going to be a strength this year with much needed depth. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Dean stay healthy for the season. Competition is a good thing.
July 16th, 2025 at 6:23 am
Sonny and Billy! Haven’t heard those names in a long, long, long time, thanks!
July 16th, 2025 at 6:41 am
JBF … ‘does that suggest the NFC South has poor corners or are quarterback ratings against defenders an unreliable stat?’
Passer Rating Allowed When Targeted looks to be a questionable rating that’s heavily focused on 1 stat (TDs Allowed). Just look at one CB from each team …
o Alontae Taylor (Saints): Passer Rating Allowed: 111.0%. Allowed 62.1% Pass Completions (64 completions out of 103 targets) with 4 sacks & 89 tackles. He also got tagged with surrendering 7 TDs & 852 passing yds.
o JC Horn (Panthers): Passer Rating Allowed: 93.1%. Allowed 53.2% Pass Completions (41 completions out of 77 targets) with 2 sacks & 68 tackles. He also got tagged with surrendering 6 TDs & 474 passing yds.
o Mike Hughes (Falcons): Passer Rating Allowed: 94.4%. Allowed 69.7% Pass Completions (46 completions out of 66 targets) with 0 sacks & 66 tackles. He also got tagged with surrendering 3 TDs & 483 passing yds.
o Jamel Dean (Bucs): Passer Rating Allowed: 85.6%. Allowed 69.7% Pass Completions (46 completions out of 66 targets) with 0 sacks & 59 tackles. He also got tagged with surrendering 1 TD & 511 passing yds.
Looks to me like Passer Rating Allowed grades are very heavily focused on how many TDs the CB allowed on the season. Jamel Dean’s stats and Mike Hughes’ stats are almost virtually identical EXCEPT for the number of TDs allowed (1 vs 3). The best by quite a bit in terms of Pass Completion Percentage Allowed was JC Horn of the Panthers (53.2%) but he was obviously hurt in Passer Rating Allowed (93.1%) because he allowed 6 TDs. Of course that could’ve been on him OR it might’ve been because of lack of support (safeties not covering his back?).
July 16th, 2025 at 6:46 am
Joe, is this that for all games or just games against NFC south teams?
July 16th, 2025 at 6:52 am
Eyeballs tell me lots of these “stats” are BS Joe.
Go Bucs!
July 16th, 2025 at 7:16 am
After Dean has his contract, let’s see how long he can play……or how well. If he is highly rated, trade him.
July 16th, 2025 at 7:37 am
“So, armed with these numbers, does that suggest the NFC South has poor corners or are quarterback ratings against defenders an unreliable stat?”
It means that our problem with most teams and their pass attack has been closer to the hashes than it has been on the boundaries.
Slot WRs(really Darnell Mooney) & TEs in our division did much better than boundary WRs. Kyle Pitts had pretty good numbers against us.
Do remember, those other CBs from the division have to defend our receiving talent and our CBs don’t.
That and I think what won’t be said is the obvious, that when available our CBs are better than theirs.
July 16th, 2025 at 7:48 am
OK, my head’s about to explode now. Too much analysis goin on. If you just look at QBR as a measure of overall performance, the stats presented here suggest that QBs don’t perform very well when targeting receivers covered by the Bucs’ two CBs. You start breaking it down beyond that and you’re reading tea leaves.
July 16th, 2025 at 8:18 am
Those QB ratings have Blake Bortles higher than Johnny Unitas. So much for that.
July 16th, 2025 at 8:22 am
The stats are fun but not really meaningful. The only stat that matters is who is #1 at the end of the season. Then it’s a 31 way tie for 2nd.
July 16th, 2025 at 8:36 am
Once in a while, Dean makes a good play. More frequently the eyeball test shows Dean backpedalling or sprinting away from the first down line allowing easy pick ups of first downs. Is that Dean or the defensive scheme? I don’t know but I am excited to see what our rookie corners do. In college, both looked to have great man to man skills.
July 16th, 2025 at 9:43 am
Our Cornerbacks wasn’t the problem,
The problem were the ILBs and Safeties
July 16th, 2025 at 10:10 am
The premise that are corners are best, well maybe but it likely reflects they (our corners) are not going up against Baker and the Bucs offense.
July 16th, 2025 at 10:23 am
Joe!
“Even a normally stoic guard at Buckingham Palace would fall off his horse laughing so hard. “
As I did after reading this quote! It was a coffee spray, not a jameisons. Fortunately.
July 16th, 2025 at 11:27 am
I certainly get JJoes point but I’m not sure he’s not tilting at windmills. But I am certain JJoes knows his readers better than me.
What I recall reading over and over is nothing about Dean’s talent. In fact most here praise his talent. It’s his durability and cost per game played that people are beotching about.
Now that the roster and cap are virtually set…I am thrilled to have Dean in a Bucs uni but I’m just as thrilled by the young talent behind him. As much respect as I have for Dean’s talent I hope the kid from Notre Dame turns the starting CB competition into a battle between Dean and Zyon.
BTW I thought I read Todd has already considered moving Zyon to nickle is that correct?
July 16th, 2025 at 11:35 am
I like how Terry Bradshaw is ranked 171st in QB rating.
There are plenty of QBs in the Football Hall of Fame that rank below Terry. LOL
Game was played differently back then.
July 16th, 2025 at 11:51 am
KABucs
You just triggered me to a memory with that talk of Bradshaw and the game being different then.
I was at the old Riverfront Stadium when Bradshaw and the Steeler’s great team came to town. The Bengals had an LB who would gain more fame after going to the Eagles. Bill Bergey was a BEAST.
So Bradshaw rolls out of the pocket and Bergey has a clear shot and he TOOK it cleanly nowhere near the head or knees. Bergey stuck his helmet into Bradshaws number on the front and it dang near came out the number in the back.
Bradshaw was laid out with the wind totally knocked from his sails. He crawls to the Steelers sideline to get off the field. There on all fours he hurls.
Riverfront Stadium erupted into a standing ovation at the sight of Bradshaw on the sidelines on all 4’s with the wind knocked out of his sails.
I don’t even remember who won the game. Probably Terry and the Steelers but I never forgot Bill Bergey after that hit.
July 16th, 2025 at 1:03 pm
There are three types of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics- Mark Twain
July 16th, 2025 at 1:06 pm
Joe, what I’m getting this offseason is that a lot of these calculated stats (qbr, win rates, fail rates, etc) all contain some subjective element. Shoot, even asst tackles and PDs are questionable at times. We love to emphasize how football is a team sport to protect our heroes when they lead the league in interceptions or have an off yr and slide from all pro to no go, and side eye unfavorable individual stats. But, when we want to build a pedestal individual stats suit us just fine. Grain of salt on a sh!t burger
July 16th, 2025 at 3:57 pm
Stop having the corners stand around and zone and actually let them play defense, and the defense is going to make a big leap.
July 16th, 2025 at 5:09 pm
Joe, where do I sign to do the deep analysis of cheerleaders? You have an “in” at 1 Buc palace, Nest-ce-pas?