1) Introduction: Matt Flynn has a BCS Championship MVP trophy sitting on his shelf. So while there is little doubt he can perform in a big spot, the question on Flynn has always been, does he have enough talent to be an NFL quarterback?
The seventh round draft choice won the Packers backup QB job as a rookie, beating out second rounder Brian Brohm. At the time, I thought Ted Thompson was crazy to not bring in a veteran backup. Ted rolled the dice with Flynn, and fortunately, he wasn’t needed.
2) Profile:
Matthew Clayton Flynn
Position: QB
Height: 6-2 Weight: 228 lbs.
Born: June 20, 1985 in Tyler, TX
College: LSU (school history) (Flynn college stats)
Drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the 7th round (209th overall) of the 2008 NFL Draft.
3) Expectations coming into the season for that player: Coming into this season, Matt Flynn was expected to once again be nothing more than the emergency #2 QB for the Packers. But this preseason was a bit different. The Packers had Super Bowl aspirations this year. Consequentially there was an undercurrent among Packers fans wanting to know that Flynn could keep the season on track if Rodgers had to miss a few games. I frankly, didn’t have the confidence that he could and he proved me wrong against the Patriots.
4) Player’s highlights/lowlights: Matt Flynn threw more passes in the New England game than he had in his first two years in the league. And for the most part, he threw them well. Coming off the horrible loss to the Lions, most observers didn’t give Flynn or the Packers a chance against New England. Flynn surprised them all by throwing 3 TD passes and just coming up short against the seemingly invincible Patriots. Flynn’s lowlight came in the aforementioned loss to the Lions, where Flynn threw 2 INTs, including one in the Lions’ end zone. I don’t blame him for the loss, however, as the entire Packers’ team and coaches were just awful that day.
5) Player’s contribution to the overall team success: Well, there’s only one way to evaluate a backup quarterback’s contribution to a team’s success – how he performs when called upon. Flynn got the call twice this season with mixed results; a below-average performance against the Lions and an above-average performance against the Patriots.
6) Player’s contributions during the 6-win end-of-season run: Flynn’s only snap during the Packers run was a victory formation kneel-down against the Falcons. So this section is an unequivocal “not applicable.”
Season Report Card:
(B) Level of expectations met during the season
(C) Contributions to team’s overall success.
(N/A) Contributions to team’s success during the playoff run (last 6 games)
Overall Grade for the year: C+
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Jersey Al Bracco is the founder and editor of AllGreenBayPackers.com, and the co-founder of Packers Talk Radio Network. He can be heard as one of the Co-Hosts on Cheesehead Radio and is the Green Bay Packers Draft Analyst for Drafttek.com.
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Disagree. I believe the close game at NE was a turning point for the season and illustrated, once again but this time at the QB spot, the resiliency of the ’10 Packer squad. In my view, had Flynn laid an egg in the NE game – and, therefore, the rest of the squad followed suit – the Pack doesn’t win the SB.
Flynn led by example and inspired his teammates in the NE game – it gave them all confidence of immesurable importance.
I did consider that, but decided to stick with the parameters of the category, those being contributions “during” the last six games.
Ooops. My disagreement is with your grading. A “B” for overall sucess and, at a minimum, a “B” for their playoff run – which, truly, began after the NE game.
I hear what you’re saying, but I just can’t give a season B grade for just one game.
It’s tough to apply a grade to a backup quarterback. On the one hand, you have his performance when called upon. On the other hand, you have his actual contributions to the team’s success.
Unless a backup plays an extended period of time, it’s hard to merge the two.
I think the overall grade is something to maybe ignore for this profile. That said, I think Al nailed the “B” for expectations and “C” for contributions. Those are the truly important grades, IMO.
Grading Flynn for ’10 is similar to grading Rodgers in ’07. Both players had come in to replace the injured starter, and both looked impressive. But the body of work is simply not there to grade for an entire season’s worth of play. For all we know, if Flynn had to play against the Giants (the week Rodgers came back) he could have stunk up the joint and left the Packers out of the playoffs. We don’t know.
I think C+ is very fair-he is better than average, but more would have to be seen to push the grade any higher in my opinion
The most important thing about Flynn IMO was he didn’t come out looking TIMID.That in itself merits a B,even if just one game.