The Bombers big problem

Chris Streveler is not an accurate passer. At the very least, he hasn't shown he's an accurate passer thus far.

There must be dozens of qualities that allow a quarterback to be successful. Passing accuracy has to be high among them--if not the most important. That's a quality the Bombers backup has not shown yet.

We've charted every throw in the CFL in the past five seasons. With that, we can compare a QBs throws to similar throws in the league in that time. Doing that gives us an "Expected Completion Percentage" for every QB.

Based on Streveler's throws in 2018, an average passer would have completed 64.5% (chart below). Streveler's completion percentage was 61.4%. Being 3.1 percentage points below expected put him second-worst in the league, ahead of only Brandon Bridge.

Completions can be aided by incredible catches by receivers. So let's consider how often passes are accurate.

By this measure, Streveler fared even worse.

Streveler was almost 15 percentage points below expected. That was worst in the league and more than 10 points worse than the 3rd-least-accurate passer.

Here's a look at all his throws in 2018. This chart represents every pass as if the snap was on the left hash mark (so the boundary is the left and the field side is to the right).

Though he had terrific success with the deep ball last season, Streveler's accuracy was only so-so.

He had real problems throwing to the field side last season. The area highlighted is all his throws to the field side between 0 and 20 yards downfield.

In this area CFL QBs are accurate on 77% of their attempts. Streveler (in a small sample) was accurate 17% of the time (4 for 23).

It's hard to believe that sustained success is possible if a QB is that far below average.

For as bad as Streveler's passing has been, his designed running has been lethal. In each of the last two seasons, he's been #3 in rushing value above average.

This number considers only designed runs and excludes sneaks and scrambles to allow us to compare QBs & RBs more accurately. Even without his value on scrambles, Streveler

The Bombers are approaching a vicious part of their schedule. In the next five games they play Saskatchewan (6-3) three times, the Ticats (8-2) once and the Alouettes (5-4) once. How they will maximize Streveler's strengths--and maybe more importantly, minimize his weaknesses--will go a long way to determine first place in the West.