Long live Schatz!

For Snap Judgment's last regular season edition, they finally shelve all the morons and turn the whole column over to the only intelligent panel member: Aaron Schatz. He ranks the NFL's quarterbacks' 2004 performances from 1 to 42. Number 1, to the surprise of no one except Bill Simmons, is Peyton Manning. Number 42 is not Eli Manning, unfortunately--that certainly would have given the list a beautiful symmetry--but another rookie, Craig Krenzel. Eli Manning's solid last two outings boosted his final ranking to #35. Interestingly, he finishes right behind Ken Dorsey, who got virtually no press for his efforts for the Niners, because, of course, he (a) doesn't play in New York, and (b) wasn't a jerk before the draft last year.

Also of note is that Michael Vick finished #26. Ah, you say, but that doesn't count his valuable rushing contributions. Actually, I'm afraid it does. Even after taking his rushing yards into account, Vick finishes towards the bottom of the heap. And yes, this man is going to the Pro Bowl. But who else is there, in that pathetic wreck of a conference? Well, Mark Bulger and Brett Favre finished #6 and #7, respectively, in Schatz's ratings. I'm not saying that Schatz's ratings are the end-all and be-all of value metrics, but I mean come on, a 20-place difference there is kind of hard to ignore. The world continues to evaluate Vick based on what they think he will do, rather than on what he's actually doing.

Now, I don't pretend to understand the intricacies of Schatz's rating system at all, but I was at least superficially impressed with some explanatory notes he included at the bottom of today's rankings. Particularly, these points on the value of his system:

1. Gives value for first downs, which are not really included in any other QB rating system but are hugely important.

5. ... Sacks are punished as well.

6. 5-yard scramble on 3rd-and-10? Worthless!