FanPost

The Odd Career of Charlie Batch

For whatever reason I was perusing the career stat line of Charlie Batch and I was struck by two things that really surprised me. First, this is Batch's ninth year with the Steelers (had no idea it had been that long) and secondly he was only 28 years old when he came here (for some reason I assumed he was much older). Basically Batch was a QB who should have been entering the prime of his career and he basically decided to accept a third string job on his hometown team. While I'm sure he's not the only guy to make such a decision, I do wonder how different his career would have been if he'd signed with a team where he could actually compete for a starting job.

Batch certainly wasn't a great starting QB (56% comp, 49-40 TD/INT ratio and 6.8 YPA), but you do have to remember that he started each of his first four seasons on a pretty bad Detriot team. If you look at the first four years of a guy like Eli Manning (54.7%, 77-64 TD/INT ratio and 6.3 YPA), it really makes you wonder if Batch could have developed into a fairly decent starting QB if he'd bounced around looking for a starting job.

Now I'm certainly not disappointed that Batch made the decision to accept a third string job behind Tommy Maddox and Kordell Stewart (and maybe he thought both those guys were a joke and that he'd win the job eventually), but it does make you wonder. Of course considering he's about to make his fifth start in nine years and he has two Super Bowl rings to show for it, I'm sure he's not complaining.

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