Deep Rate: 14.91% | Passing NEP per Attempt: 0.66 | Success Rate: 45.83%
If you're hanging onto a starting job by a string, you'd think you'd want to let that sucker fly a bit to see what happens. Case Keenum apparently had different plans prior to his benching.
Keenum threw just 14.91% of his attempts at least 16 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Part of the blame here should go on the Los Angeles Rams for trotting out Tavon Austin as a legitimate wide receiver, but Keenum didn't attack deep with any regularity.
What makes this more interesting for Keenum is he was significantly more effective on deep passes than short ones.
| Split | Passing NEP per Attempt | Success Rate |
|---|---|---|
| On Short Passes | 0.01 | 45.15% |
| On Long Passes | 0.66 | 45.83% |
There were 33 quarterbacks who had at least 200 attempts this year; only three had a higher Success Rate on deep passes than on short passes, and Keenum was one (with Derek Carr and Andrew Luck being the others). The league-average Success Rate on short passes was 10 percentage points higher than on long passes.
Ideally, this would incentivize the Rams to have him heave it more often, but nah, fam. That's assuming competency. You can't always do that with some teams. Hopefully new head coach Sean McVay will bring about some changes here and allow the team to air it out in 2017.