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The Denver Broncos used the final pick in the draft on QB, Chad Kelly, from Mississippi. Given that he was “Mr. Irrelevant” I assumed that his college numbers would have been poor. Why else would he have been the last guy picked in the draft? Trevor Siemian’s numbers in college were bad and he got hurt his senior year. That is why he was picked in the 7th round. I soon discovered that Chad Kelly was injured in his final year of college ball (missed the last 3 games) and that is one reason why he fell, but I was surprised to see how good his passing (and rushing stats) were particularly in comparison to three QBs drafted well before.
Below are the passing and rushing stats for four quarterbacks taken in the this draft: Mitch Trubisky - the #2 pick, DeShone Kizer - the 52nd pick, C.J. Beathard - the 104th pick and Chad Kelly - the 253rd pick. I have NOT listed the names by the stats, I have only shown them as QB1, QB2, QB3, and QB4.
First the passing stats for their college careers
| Att | Comp | Pct. | Yards | Y/A | TD | Int | |
| QB1 | 803 | 513 | 63.9% | 6858 | 8.5 | 50 | 21 |
| QB2 | 572 | 386 | 67.5% | 4762 | 8.3 | 41 | 10 |
| QB3 | 695 | 422 | 60.7% | 5805 | 8.4 | 47 | 19 |
| QB4 | 782 | 454 | 58.1% | 5562 | 7.1 | 40 | 19 |
Note that all 4 are fairly close. QB2 had the best completion %, and the best TD/INT ratio. QB1 threw for more TDs, but in significantly more throws. QB3 and QB4 look very similar with the exception of Y/A and TDs. QB1 had the highest yards per passing attempt.
Now the rushing stats
| Att | Yards | Avg. | TD | |
| QB1 | 204 | 949 | 4.7 | 16 |
| QB2 | 120 | 439 | 3.7 | 8 |
| QB3 | 264 | 997 | 3.8 | 18 |
| QB4 | 224 | 429 | 1.9 | 10 |
QB1 looks like the most effective runner in terms of yards per carry and and touchdowns per carry. QB4 must have gotten sacked a bunch (sacks count against you rushing stats in college) to have 429 career rushing yards (and 10 TDs) while only gainin 1.9 ypc.
So have you guessed yet who is who from the stats? QB1 is Chad Kelly. QB2 is Mitch Trubisky. QB3 is Deshone Kizer and QB4 is C.J. Beathard. Did you guess correctly? Isn’t it amazing how much an injury and questions about maturity can hurt the draft stock of a QB given who similar the stats for these four QBs are?