Jon "the big cat" Kitna appreciation thread

[mrschaney]

If you don't love Jon Kitna, well then, you just aren't right!

 

[ducky]

Kitna's a great example of a past QB to point out when people tell you "the level of QB play has went down so much now" or "there just arent as many good QB's in the league right now compared to the past". Just completely blows that argument out of the water.

Kitna's first 2 years in the league he developed. Didnt play much.

Then year 3 he got his chance to start.

Seattle started him 2 years in a row. Over those 2 years, he was not good. Had QB ratings those 2 years of 77.7 and 75.6. Bad enough that when Seattle got a new HC that they decided to go a different direction (Matt Hasselbeck).

But Cinci looked at those 2 years when Kitna was not good and decided to hand him their starting QB job anyways. Over the next 2 years in Cinci, he was even worse than he was in Seattle.

In year 1 he had a paltry 61.1 QB rating. He was flat out awful.

He was bad again in year 2 as well. So bad in fact that Cinci finished with the worst record in the league and drafted a Heisman trophy winning QB with the #1 overall pick the following draft.

So what did Cinci do after that? They still handed Kitna take every single snap in his 3rd year there and never once trotted out their #1 overall pick Carson Palmer onto the field even for a single snap to get some playing time. Brilliant!

So 3 full years of starting in Cinci, even with Palmer on the roster, before they finally moved on. And what happened years later? After a couple of years of being Cinci's backup the Lions decided to hand Kitna their starting job for a couple of years. Not good there either of course but you get the point.

So that is 7 full years where Kitna was handed a starting QB job in the NFL. In those 7 season he only finished top 10 in QB rating once (his final starting season in Cinci). In ALL those 7 season he finished in the top 10 for most INT's thrown (6 out of 7 years he was in the top 5 for most INT's thrown).

So the moral of this long rant is that when someone says there arent enough starting caliber QB's in the league to go around right now compared to the past, call their bullshit. Because it is dead wrong. There were guys in the past with zero business being an NFL starting QB given the job for 7 full seasons.

 

[Anointed One]

Kitna's a great example of a past QB to point out when people tell you "the level of QB play has went down so much now" or "there just arent as many good QB's in the league right now compared to the past". Just completely blows that argument out of the water.

Kitna's first 2 years in the league he developed. Didnt play much.

Then year 3 he got his chance to start.

Seattle started him 2 years in a row. Over those 2 years, he was not good. Had QB ratings those 2 years of 77.7 and 75.6. Bad enough that when Seattle got a new HC that they decided to go a different direction (Matt Hasselbeck).

But Cinci looked at those 2 years when Kitna was not good and decided to hand him their starting QB job anyways. Over the next 2 years in Cinci, he was even worse than he was in Seattle.

In year 1 he had a paltry 61.1 QB rating. He was flat out awful.

He was bad again in year 2 as well. So bad in fact that Cinci finished with the worst record in the league and drafted a Heisman trophy winning QB with the #1 overall pick the following draft.

So what did Cinci do after that? They still handed Kitna take every single snap in his 3rd year there and never once trotted out their #1 overall pick Carson Palmer onto the field even for a single snap to get some playing time. Brilliant!

So 3 full years of starting in Cinci, even with Palmer on the roster, before they finally moved on. And what happened years later? After a couple of years of being Cinci's backup the Lions decided to hand Kitna their starting job for a couple of years. Not good there either of course but you get the point.

So that is 7 full years where Kitna was handed a starting QB job in the NFL. In those 7 season he only finished top 10 in QB rating once (his final starting season in Cinci). In ALL those 7 season he finished in the top 10 for most INT's thrown (6 out of 7 years he was in the top 5 for most INT's thrown).

So the moral of this long rant is that when someone says there arent enough starting caliber QB's in the league to go around right now compared to the past, call their bullshit. Because it is dead wrong. There were guys in the past with zero business being an NFL starting QB given the job for 7 full seasons.

 

[eaglesnut]

Kitna's a great example of a past QB to point out when people tell you "the level of QB play has went down so much now" or "there just arent as many good QB's in the league right now compared to the past". Just completely blows that argument out of the water.

Kitna's first 2 years in the league he developed. Didnt play much.

Then year 3 he got his chance to start.

Seattle started him 2 years in a row. Over those 2 years, he was not good. Had QB ratings those 2 years of 77.7 and 75.6. Bad enough that when Seattle got a new HC that they decided to go a different direction (Matt Hasselbeck).

But Cinci looked at those 2 years when Kitna was not good and decided to hand him their starting QB job anyways. Over the next 2 years in Cinci, he was even worse than he was in Seattle.

In year 1 he had a paltry 61.1 QB rating. He was flat out awful.

He was bad again in year 2 as well. So bad in fact that Cinci finished with the worst record in the league and drafted a Heisman trophy winning QB with the #1 overall pick the following draft.

So what did Cinci do after that? They still handed Kitna take every single snap in his 3rd year there and never once trotted out their #1 overall pick Carson Palmer onto the field even for a single snap to get some playing time. Brilliant!

So 3 full years of starting in Cinci, even with Palmer on the roster, before they finally moved on. And what happened years later? After a couple of years of being Cinci's backup the Lions decided to hand Kitna their starting job for a couple of years. Not good there either of course but you get the point.

So that is 7 full years where Kitna was handed a starting QB job in the NFL. In those 7 season he only finished top 10 in QB rating once (his final starting season in Cinci). In ALL those 7 season he finished in the top 10 for most INT's thrown (6 out of 7 years he was in the top 5 for most INT's thrown).

So the moral of this long rant is that when someone says there arent enough starting caliber QB's in the league to go around right now compared to the past, call their bullshit. Because it is dead wrong. There were guys in the past with zero business being an NFL starting QB given the job for 7 full seasons.

You are conflating the situation to make your point. Kitna was a starting QB. He didn't limit an offense; all the plays, all the formations were available.

You get QBs handed the job nowadays that:

1) Can't throw to parts of the field
2) Don't know what they're looking at when they line up
3) Can't get rid of the ball without running around like a headless chicken
4) Can't be trusted to drop back 50 times
5) Can only run shotgun

The QB play has deteriorated so much that you think any young guy is worth sticking in there just because they played in college.