***OFFICIAL - Should McNabb or Reid go ***thread (1 Viewer)

[T Bell]

He protects the football very well and rarely makes poor decisions (poor throws are another matter however).

This is a function of HOW he throws. Usually, when he misses, he misses low instead of high -- and he throws low quite a bit. That means incompletions instead of interceptions. Hence, the low INT %, but also the low completion %.

There may be some truth to that, and also to the fact that his best receivers during his career have tended to be at RB and TE rather than at WR, which usually means shorter, easier and less risky throws. OTOH, McNabb deserves some credit for taking fewer risks with the football than Romo or Eli do that result in INT's. I'm a firm believer that an INT has a much greater impact on a team than does a passing TD, meaning that you need to throw far more TD's than INT's for your rewards to outweigh your negative plays. A 2:1 ratio is probably a good rule of thumb on that, and McNabb has a better than 2:1 ratio for his career. Romo's ratio is almost 2:1 (slightly better than 10:6), and Eli's is a far inferior 4:3.

In the playoffs, their TD:INT ratios are:

McNabb- just under 3:2

Romo- 2:1

Manning- 8:7

All except Romo take a step backwards in this area in the playoffs, though of course Romo's sample size is far smaller, having played just two games.