Drew Lock has been one of the league's worst QBs this year
And somehow, they remain under the delusion that Lock simply needs another chance, after he was absolutely abysmal in relief of Smith against the Rams. I like the guy, but he was 2 of 6 for three yards - yes, three - and threw an interception that not even the great Tyler Lockett could save. Pro Football Focus (our paywalled buddies) ranks him last among all Seahawks players on offense. Yes, below Jake Curhan, who allowed 26 pressures in six games, and has been released by the team. I guess Lock's fans can take solace in that he's ranked ahead of Clayton Tune and Mitch Trubisky.
Sadly, he's also ranked behind Brett Rypien. You know, the guy the Seahawks nabbed from the Rams practice squad. A lot of people figured it was just to get some intel on the Rams' offense, as Rypien had actually started for Los Angeles the week before their tilt with Seattle. Rypien certainly isn't great, but he's outperformed Lock. In two games this season (the first a mid-game replacement), the Spokane native connected on 18 of 38 passes for 178 yards, no touchdowns, and one pick. Sounds pretty awful, really. But he's still miles better than Lock.
Well, yards better, anyway. Diving into his numbers (thanks to pro-football-reference.com), we see that Rypien averages 4.9 yards per completion before the ball reaches his target. In other words, he isn't just dumping the ball off and hoping the receiver can make something of nothing. In contrast, that's exactly what we see with Lock. He's averaging just 2.8 air yards per completion. Oh, he tries to throw the deep ball, alright. Lock's intended air yards - or depth of target for us regular folks - is a sparkling 11.6 yards per attempt. The problem is that he can't complete those throws, so he winds up with just .9 yards per attempt, on average. That's right, your Seahawks savior has averaged about 32 inches in the air per pass attempt this season.