Chapter 1016: Creating New Glory

In the 2011 season, three rookie quarterbacks—Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, and Lu Ke—shined in the league. Dalton and Lu Ke even led their teams to the playoffs. In the 2012 season, Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck, and Russell Wilson also had stellar debuts. What’s more, all three led their teams to a playoff spot. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Among them, Griffin’s performance was phenomenal. He was completely dominant in both his passing and running game, showing incredible command. If it weren’t for Lu Ke’s monstrous performance last year, Griffin would have already set his own historical records.

While Griffin’s outstanding performance was expected—he had, after all, beaten Andrew Luck to win the 2011 Heisman Trophy—his selection as the second overall pick by the Washington Redskins meant he was a player with immense expectations. Russell Wilson’s breakout, however, was a total surprise.

He had 3,118 passing yards with a 64.1% completion rate, 26 passing touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. He also had four rushing touchdowns and 489 rushing yards, with a season average quarterback rating of 100.0.

This third-round, 75th-overall pick was virtually unknown before the season started. His disadvantage in height made him almost invisible in scout reports. He was the sixth quarterback chosen in the draft, with the Philadelphia Eagles’ Nick Foles being the seventh and the Redskins’ Kirk Cousins being the eighth.

But once the regular season began, Russell showed an eagerness to learn and grew incredibly fast. He struggled a bit in the first half of the season but took off in the second half. His 26 touchdowns tied Peyton Manning’s rookie record, but he kept his interceptions to just 10. While not exactly amazing, it was far beyond what anyone expected.

At the end of the season, Russell became only the third rookie quarterback in history to have a season average rating of over 100. The entire league was in an uproar, with everyone praising the Seattle Seahawks for finally finding the right quarterback.

In fact, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, like Jim Harbaugh, comes from a West Coast offense background, which was one of the reasons Carroll considered Lu Ke in last year’s draft.

But unfortunately, the Seahawks’ focus has always been on the ground game. The entire draft system and player acquisitions reflected this. When Carroll first took over, he was tied down by the existing players and couldn’t make drastic changes right away. He could only adjust and expand on what he had.

In this year’s draft, he chose Russell. Unexpectedly, it was a home run. Russell’s running ability was certainly a plus, and his passing accuracy was much better than Cam Newton’s. In the 2011 season, Cam’s completion rate was 60%. In the 2012 season, it was only 57.7%.

For Carroll, Russell was the most suitable quarterback for the team, which was the main reason he boldly promoted him to the starting position in the first week of the regular season.

As for Luck.

Because of Peyton Manning and the promotional hype from the Indianapolis Colts, the league’s expectations for Luck had reached a new high. Everyone expected this quarterback to create a miracle and lead the Colts back to the top of the league, even though he was just a rookie.

But the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment.

This isn’t to say Luck’s performance was bad; it was more that the expectations before the season were too high. In addition, the excellent performances of Griffin and Russell also created immense pressure, and Luck’s own performance couldn’t live up to those expectations.

He had 4,374 passing yards with a 54.1% completion rate, 23 passing touchdowns, and 18 interceptions. He had five rushing touchdowns and 255 rushing yards, with a season average quarterback rating of 76.5.

To put it simply, Luck is a traditional pocket quarterback. He’s not a great runner, but he still has the ability to scramble and even score touchdowns in a crisis. He can definitely throw the ball. His 4,374 yards broke Cam Newton’s rookie passing record from last year by more than 300 yards. But his low completion rate and high number of interceptions show one thing:

The Colts eagerly placed all the offensive responsibility on Luck. He also had an incredible 657 pass attempts, a rookie record. For comparison, Griffin and Russell both had 393. But in the end, Luck couldn’t control his turnovers, so his performance was inconsistent.

This all brought back memories of when Peyton Manning joined the team in 1998.

Manning took a season to grow, and then he became the cornerstone of the Colts. So, how much time would Luck need? How much victory and glory could he bring to the Colts?

At least in his rookie season, the Indianapolis Colts made the playoffs, which was better than Manning’s first season. But Luck’s stats were not impressive and fell far short of expectations. Even if they won, the credit couldn’t be solely his.

When you look at the stats of Griffin, Luck, and Russell, and then you look at Lu Ke’s rookie season from last year, it’s a huge difference. Although Russell was called the "2012 Lu Ke" for his unexpected rise, his actual performance still had a noticeable gap.

The excellent performances of the three rookie quarterbacks were one of the biggest talking points in the league. They even stole a lot of the spotlight from the second-year quarterbacks. Lu Ke, Cam Newton, and Andy Dalton were still some of the best players this season, but their overall average performance couldn’t be compared to the rookies.

Cam Newton had 3,869 passing yards, a 57.7% completion rate, 19 passing touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. He also had eight rushing touchdowns and 741 rushing yards, with a season average quarterback rating of 86.2.

Andy Dalton had 3,669 passing yards, a 64.7% completion rate, 27 passing touchdowns, and 16 interceptions. He also had four rushing touchdowns and 120 rushing yards, with a season average quarterback rating of 87.4.

Both quarterbacks from the same draft class have solidified their starting positions. Overall, their second-year performance improved from their rookie season, and they didn’t hit a "rookie wall." However, their improvement was very limited and fell short of expectations, which is why the rookie quarterbacks stole their thunder.

In the end, Cam Newton’s Carolina Panthers finished with a 7-9 record. That’s one more win than last season, but they still didn’t make the playoffs. Fans were disappointed, as the team had missed the playoffs for four consecutive seasons. They thought this number-one pick could lead them to glory, but now it seems that hope was unrealistic.

Andy Dalton’s Cincinnati Bengals finished with a 10-6 record, also one more win than last season, and made the playoffs for the second consecutive year. This performance wasn’t amazing, but it was solid. He steadily led the team to a place in the league. In terms of efficiency, Dalton was a much better value than Cam.

But neither Cam nor Dalton was Lu Ke.

If you look at Lu Ke alone, his performance easily crushed his fellow second-year quarterbacks and led his rookie successors. He was a lone standout among all the quarterbacks in the league, dominating from the first half of the season all the way to the end.

This season, there were seven top-performing quarterbacks: Matt Schaub of the Houston Texans, Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons, Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints, Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, Tom Brady of the New England Patriots, Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos, and Lu Ke of the San Francisco 49ers.

Passing Yards: Lu Ke was first with 5,333 yards, his first 5,000-yard season. He is only second to Brees’s 5,476-yard record from 2011. Brees had his second consecutive 5,000-yard season and was second. Brady, Ryan, Rodgers, Manning, and Schaub followed.

Completion Rate: Lu Ke was first with 71.1%, his first season with a completion rate over 70%. Ryan and Manning were tied for second with 68.6%. Rodgers, Schaub, Brees, and Brady followed.

Touchdowns: Lu Ke was first and broke the historical record. Brees was right behind with 42 touchdowns. Rodgers had 39, Manning 37, Brady 34, Ryan 32, and Schaub 22. You can see the different offensive focuses of the teams here, with Schaub clearly at the bottom.

Interceptions: Lu Ke was first with only seven interceptions. In terms of pure numbers, Griffin had the least with five, but when you compare it to passing yards, touchdowns, and pass attempts, Lu Ke’s touchdown-to-interception ratio was far higher than Griffin’s. Brady and Rodgers both had eight, Manning had 11, Schaub had 12, Ryan had 14, and Brees had 19, which was a career high for him.

Quarterback Rating: Lu Ke was first with a rating of 124.5, breaking Rodgers’s historical record of 122.5 from last year. He now holds the record. Rodgers was second with 108.0, followed by Manning, Ryan, Brady, Brees, and Schaub.

In other words, Lu Ke’s stats this season were a complete explosion. His performance dominated the league!

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