Chad Kelly told reporters at SEC Media Days that he considers himself the best quarterback in college football. It’s that mix of confidence and talent that led to the nickname “Swag Kelly.”
Analytics website Pro Football Focus weighed in, saying that while it ranks Kelly as the SEC’s best quarterback, the site has him as No. 5 overall in college football. When it comes to areas of improvement, well, PFF can’t find much:
Being ranked the fifth-best quarterback in the country is still a tremendous accomplishment, but where does Kelly need to improve in order to overtake the players ahead of him on that list and become the nation’s best QB? Truthfully, not much. Kelly checks most of the boxes from a production standpoint, ranking second behind only (Oklahoma State QB Mason) Rudolph in deep adjusted completion rate at 53 percent (among returning QBs), ranking 11th in rushing grade and performing pretty well when facing pressure (his passer rating dropped just 13 points under pressure as compared to his performance from a clean pocket, while the national average drop is 35 points).
PFF included a graphic breaking down Kelly’s passing chart from 2015:
Chad Kelly's passing chart from 2015: Strong at all route depths, particularly on throws of 20-plus yards pic.twitter.com/syRabl0p0t
— PFF College (@PFF_College) July 15, 2016
As one might notice, shorter throws could improve:
If anything, Kelly could afford to be more precise on shorter throws, and he did pad his numbers a little bit in early-season games against softer opponents Tennessee-Martin and Fresno State. But if he can avoid any rough outings like he had last year in Week 8 versus Texas A&M, he should challenge for the title of college football’s best quarterback.
While the Rebels will be without Laquon Treadwell in 2016, Kelly sounded confident at SEC Media Days that the Ole Miss passing game would be a team strength again this fall.
“I think we have some great wide receivers. We got Quincy Adeboyejo, Evan Engram, Derrick Jones,” Kelly said. “We have a whole armful of people and they are working really hard and understand the offense. They have been in it for a couple of years and are ready to get back at it.”
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
