Quarterback stats have come a long way since all we had were completion percentage, yards and touchdowns. These days there's a wide range of numbers to evaluate quarterbacks, from passer rating and QBR to EPA and CPOE. The newest is from Austin Mock at The Athletic, who debuted the Quarterback Index this season.
Heading into Week 5, San Francisco 49ers QB Brock Purdy is on top in this metric at 139, followed by Lamar Jackson at 134 and Jared Goff at 123.
You won't find Atlanta Falcons starter Michael Penix Jr. on the list, but only because he hasn't had enough dropbacks yet to qualify. If he did, he would be ranked on top, even ahead of Purdy.
"You don't see the Falcons' Michael Penix Jr. on the list because he didn't quite hit the threshold of
14 dropbacks per team game, but he actually tops the league right now with a QBI of 143. His sample size is extremely small with just two starts, but he's been undeniably excellent so far. I'm excited to see if Penix can keep it up after such a shaky start to his career."
Before you get too excited, keep in mind that any QB number that has Purdy on top is probably not able to account for context enough. More than any other player at his position, Purdy benefits from an excellent supporting cast - especially the game's best offensive playcaller in Kyle Shanahan.
A lot of the same is going right for Penix right now. The Falcons have a ferocious run game, Tommy Rees is doing an excellent job calling plays, the offensive line has rebounded extremely well from a rough start and Atlanta's defense is helping put Penix in position for success.
All that being said, the eyeball test that Purdy often fails confirms that Penix has been spectacularly efficient so far. While he hasn't been asked to do too much, Penix's accuracy is vastly improved - 73.3% compared to his career mark of 61%.
Penix will have to keep this up longer than two games in order to earn a place among the league's best quarterbacks, but for now it's difficult to find fault with anything he's doing.
This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Falcons' Michael Penix leading NFL in new QB metric
