Beyond the midway point of the 2011 regular season, the Chicago Bears were coasting. After outgunning the Chargers to win their fifth consecutive game, which raised their overall record to 7-3, the Bears appeared to be a serious contender in the NFC.
And then, after the win over the Chargers, the news began to leak out of Halas Hall. Bears quarterback Jay Cutler had broken his thumb during the game. He would be forced to miss the remainder of the regular season.
But there was still hope. Cutler had helped lead the Bears to seven wins to that point in the season. With just six games remaining, the Bears only had to find a way to win half of their remaining games to have a shot at qualifying for the playoffs. In place of Cutler, Caleb Hanie stepped in under center.
The Bears lost their next five games before eventually replacing Hanie with Josh McCown in the final game of the season, which resulted in a meaningless win for the Bears. An offense that had averaged nearly 27 points per game in the first 10 games of the season ended up sputtering without Cutler under center, averaging less than 14 points in the final six games.
Lovie Smith's Bears missed the playoffs and Cutler never got his chance to finish what he started.
A couple years later, in 2013, Cutler tore his groin during the Bears' seventh game of the season. He returned just three weeks later, but he suffered a serious ankle sprain in his first game back. In total, Cutler winded up missing five full games. But, unlike the 2011 season, the Bears survived Cutler's injury. This time, McCown led the Bears to a 3-2 record without Cutler.
By the time Cutler returned, the Bears were still in the hunt for the NFC North title and Cutler got a chance to finish what he started. The Bears would end up losing the division crown when they fell to the Packers in the regular season finale, but -- the point is -- they got the chance to finish their season. And that's because they were able to manage the injury to their starting quarterback. For that, credit then-coach Marc Trestman and McCown, because not many teams are able to survive the loss of their starting quarterback.
And that brings us to this article, which will rank the best backup quarterback situations in the NFL. Because, as the story above should illustrate, backup quarterbacks are often overlooked, but that shouldn't diminish their importance to a team.
With that being said, I won't be ranking the worst backup quarterback situations in the league because -- let's face it -- ranking the worst backup quarterbacks in the NFL is no fun. They're all just really bad.
So, with that, let's get to the best backup quarterback situations in the league. Here are the five teams (plus two honorable mentions) that I believe are best set up to win in the event that their starters go down.
1) Philadelphia Eagles -- Mark Sanchez or Sam Bradford
As much fun as it is to make fun of Mark Sanchez for the butt fumble and as easy as it is to criticize Sam Bradford for his inability to stay on the field, the Eagles are set up to succeed even if their starting quarterback goes down at some point in the 2015 season. At this point, it's unknown if the backup will be Sanchez or Bradford, as both are competing for the starting gig, so let's take a look at both guys.
Let's say Bradford wins the starting job (after all, Chip Kelly willingly traded draft picks and his starter of the past two seasons in order to acquire Bradford this offseason). If Bradford secures the top spot on the depth chart and then goes down injured (let's face it, this is a plausible scenario given Bradford's injury history), Sanchez will be placed in a familiar situation.
In 2014, Sanchez was Nick Foles' backup. Sanchez ended up playing in nine games and attempting 309 passes. Of those 309 pass attempts, 64 percent resulted in completions. Sanchez also racked up 7.8 yards per attempt and threw for 14 touchdowns. And, in the eight games that he started, the Eagles won four.
In 2015, Sanchez will be entering his second year in Chip Kelly's system, which should help him if he's called upon.
If Sanchez were to win the starting job, Bradford would then immediately become one of the most talented backup quarterbacks in the league. Sure, Bradford is new to Kelly's system, but the system is one that turned Foles into a quarterback who only threw an interception on just 0.6 percent of his pass attempts in his first season under Kelly's guidance.
And, despite how uneventful Bradford's career has been so far, he's still not the worst option at quarterback. His career quarterback rating sits at 79 and, before getting hurt in the middle of 2013, it looked like he was close to turning the corner. In that season, his interception rate was just 1.5 percent, his completion percentage was almost 61 percent, his touchdown percentage was over five percent, and his quarterback rating was above 90.
The biggest worry I'd have if Bradford took over after a Sanchez injury is that he'd be one hit away from his own injury. And in that case, it could be Tim Tebow time in Philadelphia. Sorry, I was obligated to mention Tebow at least once in this article.
Look, even though the Eagles lost Jeremy Maclin in free agency and LeSean McCoy via a trade, the team still has enough playmakers around the quarterback. They signed running back DeMarco Murray, drafted wide receiver Nelson Agholor (who takes a taxi to the team facilities just so he can get there earlier than everyone else), and still have Jordan Matthews lining up out wide.
And Kelly, in his two seasons as a head coach in the league, has shown the ability to throw mediocre quarterbacks into his system and turn them into productive signal callers. The Eagles' system is why I'm giving them the top spot.
2) New York Jets -- Ryan Fitzpatrick
Ryan Fitzpatrick is the best quarterback on the Jets' roster.
However, he probably won't be starting because he's 32 and he doesn't have a long-term future as a viable starter in the league. Geno Smith probably doesn't either, but he's 24 and the Jets invested a high draft pick in him. So, they're going to give him one final shot to emerge as a legitimate starting quarterback.
Here's what all of that means -- the Jets have a backup quarterback who posted the following stats with the Texans last season:
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Games started: 12
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Completion percentage: 63.1
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Passing touchdowns: 17
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Interception percentage: 2.6
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Yards per attempt: 8
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Quarterback rating: 95.3
Fitzpatrick's career quarterback rating is 79.5. Smith's career quarterback rating is 71.5. I just have a feeling that we're going to see Fitzpatrick under center at some point in the season and it might not be because of an injury -- it might be because the Jets realize that Smith doesn't have a future in the league as a starter and Fitzpatrick is capable of playing some fairly decent football.
While I should dock points from the Jets' backup quarterback situation because this is Fitzpatrick's first season with the Jets and it's the team's first season under the tutelage of head coach Todd Bowles and offensive coordinator Chan Gailey, we should remember that Gailey coached the Bills from 2010 until 2012 and that Fitzpatrick quarterbacked the Bills during that same period of time.
The Jets also have Brandon Marshall now, by the way. That'll help.
3) Tennessee Titans -- Zach Mettenberger
Sorry Zach, but the starting job isn't going to be yours in 2015, even if you're willing to "fight to the death" to snatch the job away from No. 2 overall pick Marcus Mariota.
The job is Mariota's, but if Mariota goes down injured, the Titans will be in good hands. Last season, Mettenberger appeared in seven games and started six of those. In those seven games, he completed nearly 60 percent of his passes, averaged 7.9 yards per attempt, and his quarterback rating sat at about 83.
I mean, just look at how two of the Titans' receivers -- Justin Hunter and Kendall Wright -- reacted when Mariota was selected.
That's not to say those two players were disappointed because they're such huge fans of Mettenberger, but it's safe to assume that they wouldn't have been disappointed with Mariota's selection if they didn't think they had a somewhat viable option at quarterback already on the roster.
This is how I view the Titans' quarterback situation: Mariota has the chance to be a great player in the league in the years to come. And Mettenberger is one of the league's most talented and promising options, as a backup quarterback. Eventually, if Mariota works out, Mettenberger might get a starting shot in another NFL city.
4) Baltimore Ravens -- Matt Schaub
It's too easy to simply knock Matt Schaub for his last season in Houston and his season spent on the bench in Oakland, and to characterize his career in a negative manner just because of those two seasons. To do that, you'd have to ignore the solid 11-year career that Schaub has put together.
Schaub's career quarterback rating is 89.5. He's often overlooked because the Texans were almost always a solid yet not great team and because Schaub was almost always a solid yet not great quarterback. But he shouldn't be overlooked -- Schaub put together a nice long career as a starter and he should be considered one of the best backups in the NFL.
Let's say Schaub had been lucky enough to play on a team that had snuck into the playoffs, got hot at just the right time, and then won the Super Bowl -- which is what happened to Joe Flacco, the quarterback who holds the Ravens' starting job, coincidentally. How would we view Schaub's career if he had a ring?
Consider this: Schaub has a higher quarterback rating than Flacco, a (barely) higher touchdown percentage, and a higher yards per attempt. I'm not criticizing Flacco, I'm just saying that the Ravens should feel just fine with Schaub as their backup. And hey, Marc Trestman, the team's offensive coordinator, has a history of succeeding with backup quarterbacks -- just ask Josh McCown.
5) Tampa Bay Buccaneers -- Mike Glennon
Speaking of Josh McCown, why Lovie Smith decided to name McCown his opening day starter last season instead of Mike Glennon is something I'll never understand. I mean, I guess I know why Smith chose McCown. It's because McCown played like Peyton Manning for a handful of games in 2013 and it's because Smith just couldn't resist the temptation of potentially stumbling upon the next Rich Gannon -- if you had Smith's history with awful quarterbacks, you probably wouldn't have been able to resist either.
Anyways, Glennon is often forgotten by most, especially now that No. 1 pick Jameis Winston is in Tampa Bay, and he's studying the playbook at Drake concerts, and he's staying at the team's facilities until the coaches are pretty much like: Hey, Jameis! Go home!
But it's strange that Glennon is overlooked, because he's actually been a fairly decent player in the league. He might even be good enough to start on a few teams. (Hey, Cleveland, take it from Lovie Smith. Josh McCown might be able to "spin it" in practice, but he's not Peyton Manning.)
- Glennon's career quarterback rating? 83.7 (We can work with that)
- His career completion percentage? 58.8 (Again, we can work with that)
- His career interception percentage? 2.4 (We can work with that!)
- His career touchdown percentage? 4.7 (Meh)
- His career yards per attempt? 6.5 (Meh)
OK, so he's not Peyton Manning, but I'll take an 83.7 quarterback rating out of my backup quarterback. And, I'm guessing Smith will too. Guess how many times Smith, as a head coach, has finished a season with his team's collective quarterback rating above 83.7.
It's never happened in Smith's 10 years as a head coach.
The Buccaneers could do worse than Mike Glennon as their No. 2 dude and, for once, Smith should feel somewhat secure if his No. 1 quarterback goes down. Because there's a very high probability that Glennon won't be the next Caleb Hanie.
Honorable Mentions:
Arizona Cardinals -- Drew Stanton
The Cardinals might've won that playoff game against the Panthers if Drew Stanton had been healthy.
Indianapolis Colts -- Matt Hasselbeck
Because who doesn't love the great coin toss troll, Matt Hasselbeck? And yes, I checked -- he still hasn't retired.
