Will somebody please get off the back of...

[Jack of Arcades]

Brett Favre?

Most words penned about Brett Favre this season include words like "washed up," "lousy," and "interceptions." You might see a sentence that goes something like this: "Brett Favre is a lousy, wsahed up quarterback that throws a ton of interceptions." Is that true? Well, let's lay all the facts out on the table. Once that's done, we can go about trying to interpret the data.

Brett Favre has:

Thrown 19 interceptions, most in the league
Thrown 19 touchdowns, fourth in the league.
Thrown 401 passes, second in the league.
Completed 63.6% of his passes, ninth in the league.
Has thrown for 6.52 net yards per pass, 21st in the league
*NYPA is (Passing Yards - Sack Yards) / Attempts
Has thrown for 2714 yards, 5th in the league.

Furthermore, Favre has played a pretty tough schedule. So far, he's played the great pass defenses of Pittsburgh and Cincinnatti. He's played Carolina, Minnesota (twice), and Detroit, all with good pass defenses. He's faced the average pass defenses of Tampa, Atlanta, and Philly. He's gotten to face Cleveland and New Orleans as well - but those defenses aren't flat out horrible. They're a step or three above teams like Arizona, Tennessee, St. Louis, Seattle, San Francisco, Houston, and New England. Huh, funny that, Peyton Manning has played those defenses 6 times this season.

Along with the tough schedule, Favre has had no support from his running game. Ahman Green ran for 3.3 ypc before he went down, and was replaced by Najeh Davenport - who promptly got injured against New Orleans. Favre has been relied upon to win the games, beng placed in touch situations where he has to make a play. This, of course, results in risk taking that leads to interceptions.

Another thing to take into consideration is the injury of his #1 wide receiver, Javon Walker. How great would other QBs look after losing a very talented young receiver?

So to summarize:

Brett Favre has thrown the second most passes in the league against tough defenses, without a running game, a #1 wr, and while trailing most of the time. This has lead to the most interceptions in the league, but also the fourth most touchdowns. His Net Yards per Pass is 21st in the league - but when you're passing 36 times a game without a running game, that'll happen. As attempts go up, yards/attempt go down. It's hard to imagine someone playing in such circumstances with great success; the closest thing to that this year is Tom Brady, who still has pretty good receivers catching the ball.

I feel confident in saying Brett Favre is getting screwed this year. This is very different from years previous, when he was simply getting blown. Favre is still an above average QB and can still lead a team to the playoffs - just not this team, ye gods.