Written by Pablo Figueroa at Sporting Charts
Week after week, the NFL proves again that having a good quarterback is the essential ingredient of any winning team, while having a superstar can mask many deficiencies and turn a merely adequate roster into a true contender. However, we also have weekly reminders that the league continues to struggle in finding the minimum 32 starters with a certain level of quality, thus differentiating the haves from the have nots in the league.
A step below them, there are 32 (or more) quarterbacks that are simply awaiting their chance to enter a game and potentially become a starter down the road. Whether it is because of injuries, ineffectiveness, or simply coaches trying to give their team a change of pace, backup quarterbacks are a necessity that almost no fan wants to see in action.
In a season where more than a handful of starting QB’s have lost their jobs for various reasons, leading to their replacements playing in many meaningful snaps throughout the year. Their varying levels of success have led us again to wonder if having a quality backup has become the new NFL market inefficiency or if it is simply an unnecessary luxury in a game where a salary cap exists.
After ranking the NFC’s 16 backup QB’s, today we turn to the AFC, where QB stability has suffered a bit in yet another roller-coaster season. These backups are ranked not only by their 2015 results, but also because of their overall body of work and how they would do if they were needed to be primary starters at any point of the rest of the year.
#16 – Tennessee Titans – Zach Mettenberger
The former LSU alum is still looking for his first win as a starter in the NFL, and we are left to wonder if he’ll get a chance to do it. Serving as a backup for Charlie Whitehurst in 2014 and now for Marcus Mariota, Mettenberger has been given the job due to injury issues for the incumbent starters, and things have not gone well. His 8 starts have produced a 0-8 record, with 9 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, producing a QBR below 20. The Titans certainly hope that Mariota becomes the franchise quarterback he is projected to be, because his understudies have been a disaster.
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