Comparing the capabilities of Zach Mettenberger to Landry Jones as Steelers backup quarterbacks

I am not going to argue that Zach Mettenberger should be the Pittsburgh Steelers second string quarterback. That job clearly belongs to Landry Jones. Jones knows the playbook, and despite his shortcomings he does have moments where he shows real promise. Look at the Steelers preseason game against the New Orleans Saints. Jones went 19-of-22 for 206 yards and a touchdown, and landed a passer rating of 120.8. He started two games last season too, so clearly there is promise for him.

On the other hand, the Mettenberger signing was necessary for the team moving into this season, due to the loss of Bruce Gradkowski. Yes, Dustin Vaughan and Byrn Renner spent time on the team's preseason roster, and yes Mettenberger does have a lot to prove, but despite all this, he is the clear choice for number three because of his starting experience.

To further prove that Mettenberger is capable of holding this position if Roethlisberger and Jones are unable to play, I'm going to compare some of his stats to the man ahead of him on the depth chart - Landry Jones. Again, I am not arguing that Mettenberger should be number two, and I think anyone who thinks that might be a bit crazy.

Let's start off with their history in the NFL. Mettenberger was taken in the 6th round, with the 178th pick by the Tennessee Titans in the 2013 draft. He's a sixth rounder. He's played for the Chargers in the time since then, and there must be a reason that he has played for two other teams between now and then after being taken so late in the draft. Jones, in contrast, has only played for one team - the Steelers. He was taken in the 4th round with the 115th overall pick in the 2013 draft by the Steelers. In that time he has played behind Roethlisberger and Bruce Gradkowski, so it's safe to say that he has had two good players with him to learn from, and the fact that he hasn't been moved around shows that he must be taking at least a good portion of it in.

Their physical stats are remarkably similar. Jones is two years older than Mettenberger, Jones being 27 years-old and Mettenberger 25 years-old. Their height and weight are almost identical. Mettenberger is 6"5' and 224lbs and Jones is 6"4' and 225lbs. Being as they are physically similar, Mettenberger should, in theory, be able to fill the position behind Jones well because their physical performance would be similar. The only difference of note is their age, and all of the physical differences that being two years younger than Jones would bring for Mettenberger. However, with age comes experience, and Jones will have a year of knowing the NFL and three years of knowing the Pittsburgh Steelers over Mettenberger.

Despite the fact that Jones will know the playbook far better than Mettenberger, as well as the NFL as a whole, Mettenberger actually has more on field experience than Jones. Mettenberger played 14 games in his time with Titans, where as Jones has only played 8. That's nearly double. Further to that, Mettenberger has 10 starts in his shorter tenure with the NFL, where Jones has just 2 (both in the last season). This means that Mettenberger could potentially act under pressure better due to this experience. Regardless, neither player has started a playoff game, and Jones has only played in one - again, that was this year. Neither player is particularly experienced, but Mettenberger's handful of starts and games over Jones could mean that he is more ready to take the number three spot at the Steelers than Jones is the number two spot.

All of this is just speculation however - it all boils to how well they play on the field. Looking at statistics on their career, both have moderate passer ratings, with Mettenberger at 75.4 and Jones at 77.3. Their completion percentages are similar too; Mettenberger at 60.3 and Jones 58.2. These men actually seem quite similar statistically.

Going off of that, when comparing the two stats again, looking just at the season where each player played the most games yields little difference. For Mettenberger that season is 2014, and for Jones its 2015. The completion percentage is even closer, with Jones staying the same at 58.2 and Mettenberger's falling to 59.8. But, when looking at passer rating, they actually start to separate. Jones' passer rating on 2015 is 77.3 (the same), but Mettenberger goes up to 83.4.

This is interesting, considering what were the main weapons for each of these players in those seasons. For this, I'm going to look at pro football reference's starting lineup for the 2014 Titans and the 2015 Steelers. When looking at running back, I'm only looking at receptions for the sake of simplicity and to show the two players' ability throwing the ball.

According to pro football reference, the starters Zach Mettenberger had around him in 2014 were as follows:

• Bishop Sankey (RB), who had 18 receptions for 133 yards
• Justin Hunter (WR) who had 28 receptions for 498 yards and three touchdowns
• Nate Washington (WR) who had 40 receptions for 647 yards and two touchdowns
• Kendall Wright (WR) who had 57 receptions for 715 yards and six touchdowns
• Delanie Walker (TE) who had 63 receptions for 890 yards and four touchdowns