A fairly common thought is that Derek Carr is constantly under pressure. That if he only had more time to throw, think of what he could do with it.
Coming into this season, it looked like he’d be in for perhaps one of his roughest seasons in terms of pressure. But we are more than three-quarters the way through the season and the numbers say otherwise.
A good judge of how much pressure he’s receiving is QB hits. And in that category, he’s right about average in the league.
sifting through stats and learning that Kirk Cousins has been hit a league leading 67 times this year pic.twitter.com/PUNkdnNwj5
— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) December 13, 2022
There are 11 quarterbacks who have been hit more than Carr this season. Five of them on fewer dropbacks than Carr has had.
Additionally, just behind Carr in terms of the number of hits — within three hits each — are Josh Allen, Tom Brady, and Joe Burrow. All of whom have significantly more dropbacks than Carr’s 467 this season.
What’s more is most of these quarterbacks who have been hit more than Carr or around the same amount included each of the league’s top seven passing leaders, all of whom are leading winning and/or division-leading teams including Kirk Cousins, Justin Herbert, Patrick Mahomes, Geno Smith, Allen, Brady, and Burrow. While Daniel Jones and Ryan Tannehill head up winning teams.
So, it seems not only can it be done, it pretty much goes with the territory.
