At what point is it fair to wonder if Aidan O’Connell might be better than some of the three quarterbacks picked in the first round? He passed for more yards and touchdowns in the preseason than all of them combined.
O’Connell doesn’t have a cannon arm or elite mobility; that’s why he lasted until the fourth round. But it’s apparent from the preseason that he can run an offense, consistently finding open receivers and delivering accurate balls. It’s looking like he should have been drafted a lot sooner.
O’Connell in August completed 43 of 62 for 482 yards, with 3 TDs and no interceptions. He completed 69 percent of his passes, while all of the quarterbacks drafted with top-5 overall picks finished under 60 percent. O’Connell finished the preseason with a 108.4 passer rating, over 20 points higher than any of those guys.
| ROOKIES: PRESEASON PASSING STATS | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player (Rd) | Att | Com | Pct | Yards | TD | Int | Rate |
| Aidan O'Connell, L.V. (4) | 62 | 43 | 69% | 482 | 3 | 0 | 108.4 |
| Tanner McKee, Phil. (6) | 72 | 39 | 54% | 453 | 1 | 0 | 78.1 |
| D. Thompson-Robinson, Cle. (5) | 58 | 37 | 64% | 440 | 2 | 0 | 98.3 |
| Jake Haener, N.O. (4) | 72 | 38 | 53% | 395 | 1 | 3 | 56.2 |
| Sean Clifford, G.B. (5) | 57 | 41 | 72% | 391 | 1 | 2 | 81.8 |
| Clayton Tune, Ariz. (5) | 59 | 34 | 58% | 353 | 1 | 1 | 73.6 |
| Stetson Bennett, LAR (4) | 62 | 36 | 58% | 347 | 1 | 3 | 59.0 |
| Jaren Hall, Min. (5) | 48 | 26 | 54% | 264 | 1 | 1 | 68.4 |
| • Anthony Richardson, Ind. (1) | 29 | 13 | 45% | 145 | 0 | 1 | 45.9 |
| • Bryce Young, Car. (1) | 24 | 14 | 58% | 129 | 1 | 0 | 87.0 |
| • C.J. Stroud, Hou. (1) | 20 | 11 | 55% | 89 | 1 | 1 | 62.3 |
| Will Levis, Tenn. (2) | 14 | 9 | 64% | 85 | 0 | 1 | 51.2 |
| Max Duggan, LAC (7) | 12 | 6 | 50% | 34 | 1 | 0 | 84.0 |
| Hendon Hooker, Det. (3) | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0 | 0 | .0 |
I expect O’Connell will begin the season as a backup behind Jimmy Garoppolo. With Garoppolo’s extensive history of injuries, I expect we’ll see O’Connell in the lineup at some point, and I’m not sure there will be much of a dropoff when he’s in there.
The three quarterbacks taken at the top of the draft, meanwhile, will all begin the season as starters. That puts each of them in line to finish the 2023 season with better stats than O’Connell, but it’s too early to say whether these guys are going to hit or miss.
Bryce Young is tiny, and without elite mobility. He took a couple of troubling hits in the preseason that make we wonder whether he’s going to be able to stay healthy. His best preseason game was his last one, with an accurate touchdown pass to Adam Thielen.
Anthony Richardson is a physical freak, with size and speed on par with Cam Newton and Josh Allen. His rushing production could help him become the first of these quarterbacks to post viable overall numbers. But he’s awfully raw. He completed only 13 of 29 passes in the preseason. One really nice ball – an on-the-money bomb at Buffalo that should have been a 34-yard touchdown (but was dropped by Alec Pierce).
C.J. Stroud to me looks like the 3rd-best of those first-round quarterbacks. He hasn’t done anything yet that suggests he’ll be an effective quarterback anytime soon. He has above-average mobility, but he doesn’t use it – preferring to operate from the pocket. In the game Sunday night, he threw an incompletion on a third down where there was a lot of green in front of him, with the opportunity to move the sticks with his legs. I saw one really nice downfield throw in that game that accurately dropped in, but the defensive back was able to knock it loose before the catch was completed.
Three other later-round quarterbacks impressed in the preseason. Sean Clifford and Dorian Thompson-Robinson played well enough that they’ll be the backups for the Packers and Browns. And Tanner McKee outplayed Marcus Mariota in Philadelphia.
But it was O’Connell that most caught my eye in the preseason. He looks like he’ll be playing in this league.
—Ian Allan