Have Mailbags Gotten Too Long? Part III of an Ongoing Investigation.

This is Part III of Mailbag. You can find Part 1 here and Part B here. There will be no Part Four. Part v. is right out.

Many of your more detailed questions are addressed here, which may be why I am a little loopy. Thanks so much for your participation. It’s exciting to cover such a wide breadth of topics!

Is there any team with a worse group of scrubs to start at QB over the last decade then the Raiders? – Geoff Filinuk

Others chimed in here:

The Jets! – Kevin Langstaff

The Browns! – Tracer Bullet

The problem with going back a decade is Derek Carr. He was the Raiders starter for years, and he was good enough to blow most of the quarterbacks for other bottom-feeding organizations away.

So let’s go back to 2023 instead. Here is the Raiders list of quarterbacks who started at least one game, in order of total starts: Geno Smith, Aidan O’Connell, Gardner Minshew, Jimmy Garoppolo, Kenny Pickett, Brian Hoyer.

Here is the Jets list: Aaron Rodgers, Zach Wilson, Justin Fields, Tyrod Taylor, Trevor Siemian, Tim Boyle, Brady Cook.

And now the Browns: Deshaun Watson, Jameis Winston, Joe Flacco, Dillon Gabriel, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Shedeur Sanders, P.J. Walker, Jeff Driskel, Bailey Zappe.

Aaron Rodgers automatically disqualifies the Jets. The Browns list is terrible, but you can at least see what they were going for with some of the veterans and rookies. The Raiders list didn’t even include a former first-round pick until Pickett started on Sunday, and averaged 1.0 net yards per attempt. The only rookie to get a start was O’Connell in 2023.

So it’s the Raiders, by a touchdown!

Who have been the weakest MVPs and/or MVP classes of all time? – Jake

The weakest MVP of all time was Washington kicker Mark Moseley in 1982. Moseley converted 20-of-21 field goals in that strike-shortened year, most of them inside 40 yards. He essentially rode a wave of vibes to the award; I can remember media coverage of him at the time, and it was as if he were performing the impossible.

Moseley edged out Dan Fouts in the 1982 vote; the Pro Football Writers Association gave their MVP award to Fouts. Rookie Marcus Allen finished third in the voting. I don’t think it was a weak class, just a weird year.

I don’t think of the 2025 MVP candidates as particularly “bad.” Matthew Stafford is a well-established star having a great season. It isn’t unusual for a second-year phenom like Drake Maye to be a contender. Josh Allen is having a very typical Josh Allen year. The fact the “MVP” basically means “Top QB” limits the available candidates and drowns our perceptions of the candidates in preconceptions and memes. (Dak Prescott? Get serious! He’s … you know … a Cowboy.)

I think podcast culture has trained us to expect there to be some “MVP conversation” involving eight guys every year. That’s just not always, or often, going to be the case.

Let’s Get Mathematical!

Does a QB have a good chance of attaining a game QBR that matches his uniform number? Shedeur Sanders was approaching 12 but flattened out at 18 before it went up to 30. – Ron K

I don’t know how to calculate QBR. And please don’t tell me how. I don’t care!

In terms of passer rating: it is really hard to get a whole number as a result, because (among other reasons) there’s division by 6 built into the formula. It’s hard to divide rate stats (already decimals) by six and end up with whole numbers.