By all indications, Matt Cassel proved himself to be Kansas City’s quarterback of the future this year.
The Chiefs were certainly better with him in the lineup and he doesn’t exactly have the number of targets a Trent Green or even a Damon Huard had.
Cassel guided his team to a division title in year two of his time in Kansas City, something Green and Steve DeBerg could not do that quickly. Joe Montana is the only other post-Dawson era quarterback to lead the Chiefs to a division in his first two seasons at Chiefs quarterback – he did it in year one.
Still, there will be one headache for Cassel in the offseason and one hurdle he has to get over: Performing consistently against winning teams.
Cassel played six games this season against non-losing teams. I’m going to count 8-8 teams in this discussion.
A look at how he played in each of them, in order of they appeared on the schedule:
1. San Diego (9-7)– 68.0 quarterback rating, 10-22, 68 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT
2. Indianapolis (10-6) – 70.5 quarterback rating, 16-29, 156 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT
3. Jacksonville (8-8) – 144.0 quarterback rating, 13-18, 193 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT
4. Oakland (8-8) – 82.6 quarterback rating, 20-35, 216 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT
5. Oakland (8-8) – 19.1 quarterback rating, 11-33, 115 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT
6. Baltimore (12-4) – 20.4 quarterback rating, 9-18, 70 yards, 0 TD, 3 INT
A few points.
First, there’s a few quarterback ratings in there that are not too bad. The Jacksonville rating is off the charts, but the ratings against Oakland (first game) and Indianapolis are not exactly bad.
To his defense, Dwayne Bowe had a few horrendous drops early in the season and his dropped catch against Indianapolis cost the Chiefs a matchup against the New York Jets and the third seed. At some points, Cassel did not have help.
Plus, Baltimore is an outstanding defense. They limited Tom Brady to just a 69.5 quarterback rating and Brady has been unreal this season.
There are two big points though that will have to be addressed.
1. Cassel will have to start playing well against the better defenses in the league. Drew Brees had an above 90 quarterback rating against the Ravens, displaying a quarterback even with a weak arm can do well against Baltimore. It wasn’t just Baltimore, though. He struggled badly against the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers. This doesn’t include his tough games against losing teams like Cleveland and the game at home against Denver.
2. The Chiefs, to help offset some issues, will have to draft offensively or make a run at Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald. There’s nothing wrong with providing a quarterback help – especially when he needs it. Brady skyrocketed this year without Randy Moss, but no other quarterback on Earth is as good as Brady.
Criticism aside, I do think Cassel proved himself this year. He took some vicious shots while scrambling for first downs and showed fire that past quarterbacks (I’m looking at you, Elvis Grbac and Steve Bono) did not have.
