A Look At Austin Davis, The Other Backup QB The Seahawks Met
You heard the Seahawks are in the market for a backup quarterback, right? Seattle met with two potential backups on Wednesday. I bet you know about the Colin fellow already. In fact, we discussed his qualifications right here. Let’s take a closer look at “the other guy”, Austin Davis.
Career backup with three seasons of zero pass attempts
Davis fits the profile of what most consider a typical NFL backup quarterback. He’s bounced around the league, playing with three teams in five years. Well, playing might be an exaggeration, as he didn’t throw a single pass for the Denver Broncos in 2016, nor with the Rams in his first two seasons. He was the classic Captain Clipboard.
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This was so long ago, the Rams were still in St. Louis and Jeff Fisher was their coach. That rookie season was 2012. 2013 saw him continue his clipboard prowess. But in 2014, things got interesting. And not in a good way for the Rams.
The Rams weren’t coming off a very good year, as they were 7-9 in 2013. Starting QB Sam Bradford tore an ACL in the 4th quarter of game 7 that year. They were just 3-4 with Bradford, so it’s hard to say they would have been contenders even if had he stayed healthy.
2014 decided to take Bradford out of the equation completely as the starter injured his left knee again, this time in preseason. The season was on the shoulders of the defense and backup QB Shaun Hill. For about one half.
Captain Clipboard makes his debut
Suddenly the third year player with no regular season passing attempts was the man in St. Louis. And he didn’t play too badly at all. Davis got eight starts for the Rams, until the “real” backup Shaun Hill returned from his injury. Including his play in the first game in relief of Hill, here are the stats for Shaun Hill and Austin Davis for 2014 – and just for fun, Sam Bradford’s from 2013. Who’s who?
Cmp Att Cmp% Yds TD TD% Int Int% Y/A Rate QBR
180 284 63.4 2001 12 4.2 9 3.2 7.0 85.1 50.3
145 229 63.3 1657 8 3.5 7 3.1 7.2 83.9 46.1
159 262 60.7 1687 14 5.3 4 1.5 6.4 90.9 58.2
Bradford was better…but not by that much
Remember, both Davis and Hill got eight starts, while Bradford had seven in 2013. It should be obvious that the megastar QB’s stat line is the third line as it clearly is the best…but not by that much. By the way, Davis’s stats are the first listed. There isn’t a big difference, but he outplayed the number two man, Shaun Hill. Not bad for a clipboard guy. Both Davis and Hill were 3-5 in their starts that season. About the same as Bradford, who was 3-4 in 2013.
Notably, Davis played his best game against – you guessed it, the Seahawks. He was 17 of 20 for 155 yards, two touchdowns, zero picks and zero sacks. His passer rating for the game: a cool 132.3. Maybe that’s why Davis was invited to meet with the Seahawks.
Davis produced like their starter, but just a bit cheaper
I assume the Rams let Davis go in 2015 because they thought they had to move all their quarterbacks, not just their starter. By 2015 Bradford had produced 18 wins in four seasons for a mere $65 million. Davis won 3 games for the princely sum of $570 thousand in his only real shot with the Rams. That’s $3.6 million per win for Bradford, $190 thousand per win for Davis. I don’t know, maybe the Rams weren’t fans of cost efficiency.
Davis got into a few games with the Browns in 2015, who allegedly fielded a professional football team in the distant past. He went 0-2 as a starter, but I believe Otto Graham would be hard pressed to win with that crew. As previously noted, Davis carried the clipboard for the Broncos in 2016, which brings us to Davis visiting the Seahawks on Wednesday.
If Davis does get the nod from the Seahawks, everyone will certainly hold their collective breath every time Russell Wilson gets hit. In his limited chances with a decent team, he proved to be more than adequate. Do you want him as a starter? No, but that isn’t his role. Does he fit the Seahawk’s read-option offense? We all know there’s another guy they interviewed who’s a better fit. If the backup gets into the game, expect heavy doses of the run game anyway. I think Davis proved himself up to the task in St. Louis – you know, back when they had a team.