In this case, I mean it as something of a compliment, albeit a back-handed one. Check out this chart Ian Boyd compiled, ranking last season’s SEC starting quarterbacks by yards per attempt:
You have to admit Lambert fits right in. I will grant you those stats say a lot more about the state of quarterbacking in the SEC than about Lambert, but still, it’s hard to look at that and insist he was awful, or the worst quarterback Richt ever started, or some of the other astute analysis I’ve seen from some of you here.
And maybe that explains a little about why he’s still in the mix for 2016.
Get The Picture 
He is serviceable, no doubt..to argue otherwise just shows ignorance.
LikeLike
Not advocating either way, but break down that number by thirds of the season and see what kind of trend you get.
LikeLike
Whatever that might show, I’m willing to bet it would be better than Jeremy Johnson. Which is kind of the point here.
LikeLike
I’m not hating on Lambert…I think he has his limitations but wasn’t a bad QB last year…but what this doesn’t show is the range…the deviation from the average on a week to week basis, if you will.
If you can set records like he did against USCjr and yet still come up average to below average on the year, that probably means you had some real stinkers (Mizzou comes to mind). Not saying that every QB doesn’t have highs and lows, but I think the sheer range of highs and lows of production with Lambert may be different. Not to mention the fact that his lows very rarely correlated with turnovers like many QBs. Just a strange QB to get a handle on.
LikeLike
Good Lambert and bad Lambert. I say it all had to do with the other team’s pass rush. When pressured, he became bad Lambert.
LikeLike
DGAS about his trends, just his won/loss record….and that ain’t too shabby.
LikeLike
256 pass attempts … That’s why it looked like our offense looked constipated most of the year especially after Chubb went down. It appeared we refused to take any risk after the Tennessee game and especially after the WLOCP.
LikeLike
If anyone told me Perry Orth had more attempts than Lambert I wouldn’t have believed them. And we were 6th in the sec in rushing.
Considering the ease of our 2015 schedule, that was one truly conservative offense. If we’re going to give credit to anyone for last year’s 10 wins, it ought to go to the D.
LikeLike
Yep – everyone else lit up Auburn, and we needed a kick return and a fumble on the goal line to beat them. That offense was difficult to watch the 2nd half of the season.
LikeLike
No doubt about it, we were not good.
LikeLike
There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.
LikeLike
Yawn.
If you truly believe that list is a lie, then I doubt you watched every other QB on that list last season.
LikeLike
You truly don’t understand the expression. farts
LikeLike
Right.
I’m not the one with the agenda here. Neither is Ian Boyd.
LikeLike
Also tells you what a crap shoot QB star ratings are. It is amazing Richt didn’t have a major gap at the position until the end of his run at UGA and that took misses on Lemay and apparently Ramsey.
LikeLike
One guy on that list ever has and ever will win an SEC title. That’s what we’re trying to do. Arguing that our shitty qb is statistically, slightly better than some other shitty qb over the course of the season seems pretty pointless.
However, if you want to debate stats in Lambert’s last three starts in sec games he averaged 4.98 yards per attempt. Those were not top tier sec teams and no sec qb was worse than that number over the course of the season.
LikeLike
Lambert suffers by comparison with Greene, Shockley, Stafford and Murray, but not so much by comparison with his current SEC peers. He’s serviceable, he just isn’t what we have come to expect. He doesn’t have the high ceiling of those predecessors, or (it appears) of his heir apparent. That isn’t his fault, and it’s no reason to hate him. He did a solid job for the most part last year, but there’s no point in expecting spectacular, game seizing, out of his mind performances. Give the kid a break, and meanwhile, let’s hope Eason is ready as soon as possible. I’d like to go back to having a game changer available at QB, but if a game manager is what helps us win more now, so be it.
LikeLike
I’m not saying you are implying it, but I want to say that I don’t think anyone hates Lambert. Sometimes we get so full of emotion about the state of things on the field that we may act like it. Lambert is’s a Dawg and we should all love him for that.
LikeLike
I didn’t mean hate him personally. I meant hate him as a QB. Although with some of our fan base, it’s been hard to tell where the line is, or if there is one. Ask Aaron Murray’s house.
LikeLike
Who would you rather start? Joe Cox or Grayson Lambert?
LikeLike
Good question. Depends on what you’re trying to get out of your offense. Does Cox get Nick Chubb in his backfield? Does Lambert have AJ Green as a receiver to throw to?
LikeLike
I’d say Cox was more exciting to watch.
LikeLike
Lambert, Cox isn’t even practicing.
LikeLike
I would still take Cox, maybe ten years since he’s thrown a ball but he never pissed his pants.
LikeLike
Pointless. My sister had a better arm than Cox. Thankfully we don’t have ANY candidates that are even close to his level of ineffectiveness.
LikeLike
How about Lambert vs Tereshinski?
LikeLike
Right or wrong, Richt put so much emphasis on protecting the ball that I believe it effected Lambert’s play. Lambert came here from a team in Virginia with little talent at running back and he tried to do more than he or his receivers were capable of doing. But beyond all of that, our team last year had little blocking and not much in our receiving core. I can see a possibility with new coaching on offense and a new line coach, a better result in 2016.
LikeLike
Lopezgrp…that is a very interesting thought. I think you’ve hit on something we’ve misse. Just as he wouldn’t let Joe Tereshinski throw the ball as we sat and watched Florida beat us, CMR may have been in Lambert’s ear to just manage the game and if a player isn’t open by 10 yards, eat it or throw it into the grass.
That would explain a lot.
And it would give us a little hope that we’ll see better from him this year.
.
LikeLike
Lambert does not deserve the continual drubbing he gets here, or on message boards. He is guilty only of not being able to put the offense on his back after Chubb went down, and I think a good portion of that is on the OL, and the offensive game plan by coaches. He is a decent QB that might be among the Top 4 in the conference this year, considering a healthier RB situation and a reasonable upgrade on the OL performance. Not saying he is a better choice than Ramsey, because none of us see enough to know, but we can get to Atlanta with him as the starter if the other pieces fall into place. Not a bad option for us to have, and I am glad he is on board.
As for the ongoing Dawgrading about his lack of INTS, yes he had a few that should havecbeen picked. name me just one QB that doesn’t have at least one per game that “should have” been picked by the defense….just one. Soit you want to add the drops, add a comparable number for very other QB in CFB. It is part of the game, as are the fact that a decent amount of INTs are not the QB’s fault when the ball is tipped, deflected, or the receiver runs the wrong route. All a part of football and applies across the board. I will say his INT avoidance is a positive and leave it at that.
LikeLike
We’re sorry, Mrs. Lambert.
LikeLike
“He is guilty only of not being able to put the offense on his back after Chubb went down”
When you play Alabama, then Chubb might as well be down because he and Leonard fournette and Herschel Walker and Jim brown ain’t doing shit running the ball vs. that front and then it’s on the qb to move the ball. Alabama is who stands in our way of winning sec titles. If you don’t want to win one, go with lambert because that’s what you’ll get.
You can sit here and talk stats vs. weak sisters of the poor, but what matters is beating the good teams on the schedule and in those games “serviceable” means getting your ass beat.
LikeLike
What matters is beating florida – do that and everything else falls into place
LikeLike
First, we haven’t done too well in that series with mediocre qbs either. Only Greene, Stafford and Murray have beaten them this century. Second, any suggestion that we would have beaten Florida if lambert had started is foolish. His performances just before and just after that game were terrible. Third, had we somehow beaten Florida, which for you is everything, we would haven’t gotten beaten even worse in Atlanta so I don’t get the “falling into place” suggestion.
LikeLike
The rain was a huge factor that played into Bama’s hands. I still don’t think we beat them; but it’s a better game. Lambert couldn’t throw a wet football at all. he had some open receivers and missed them badly. the game really got out of hand after the blocked punt for a TD.
LikeLike
You’re insane. We barely beat Georgia Southern but we’d have given Alabama a game. Sure. Put the crack pipe down!
LikeLike
I don’t want to get in the way of a good rant, but HW could run the ball on pretty much anyone in his prime. He’s about 55 now, so maybe he wouldn’t get 100 on Alabama. Maybe.
Now Jim Brown, he’s about 80, so I concede your point there.
LikeLike
Lambert didn’t go for a 100 yards against Kentucky or Auburn. Sony and Marshall put the team on their shoulders as did the defense.
Lambert looks great when he isn’t pressured but cracks when faced with pressure which UT UF, and possibly USC now will generate.
LikeLike
If you go by yards per attempt, he was 5th, not far behind #3 Dak Prescott. If you look at interception rate, he was first, way above everybody else. No, the stat here that explains our exasperation was passes attempted – only T. Harris and Johnson attempted fewer, and if you look on a per game basis even those guys might pass him. Was it Schotty? Did Lambert audible out of passes? Did Richt lose faith in him and put the brakes on? With an interception rate that low and his job on the line, you’d think Mark would’ve taken a shot with him. It wasn’t like they had a healthy Nick Chubb.
LikeLike
“With … his job on the line, you’d think Mark would’ve taken a shot with him.”
Good point. But I don’t believe CMR thought his job was on the line. He was on course to get his requisite 9 or 10 wins, and that was sufficient to keep his job though the 14 previous years. Heck, 10 wins got him a raise and extra years contract boost the year before. Like a lot of us, I’m thinking CMR was stunned to get the boot.
So he went with his ultra conservative offense, let the D do the heavy lifting, and would’ve been satisfied with another Miss Congeniality trophy if not for the pink slip.
LikeLike
Up to a point you’re right. But I think by the Florida game he sensed something was up and his response was Bauta, not exactly an ultra conservative move. I’ll always wonder what would’ve happened if he had let Lambert loose in a short passing game to try and beat the Gators before their rush got to him. Never know.
LikeLike
You are correct that Lambert fits right in with pretty awful QB play in the SEC last year outside of 3-4 teams.
LikeLike
All that table showed was that Lambert is the most average 4-star rated QB ever.
Average in some people’s minds equals SAFE. Safe isn’t going to win more than 7 or 8 games against our schedule.
We need a dynamic play- maker running our offense, not some safety net who can’t make big-time, game changing plays with his arm or his legs, and wilts under pressure from SEC defenses…just like last year.
I know I should be more positive about this thing, but Lambert is not the answer.
I have this nasty feeling in my gut that Smart and Chaney may be leaning the safe way (if ever so slightly). Some people believe that if the staff chooses Eason, then Ramsey will opt out. (Lambert, a fifth year senior, isn’t going anywhere)
What they need to be worrying about is Eason looking elsewhere if he loses out to a much less capable and talented competitor, especially since he got zero snaps with the # 1 offense during the spring. I mean, wasn’t that the whole purpose behind his early enrollment?
Personally, I am willing to risk this season as part of Eason’s OJT program, because his upside is unquestionable, and the dividends it could pay are, I think, tremendous. A redshirt should not even be on the table, IMHO.
Go Dawgs!
LikeLike
3rd and Lambert is our new Carlton Thomas up the middle.
LikeLike
One think I will give him credit for is not being color blind. He almost always hit the correct color jersey. Almost every starting QB would love that int%.
Other items maybe not so much, maybe, but he hit the right team.
LikeLike
Came to say this. .07%.
If Jeremy Johnson had that he probably would’ve won the non-summer Heisman
LikeLike
Our offense really was a chicken and the egg thing for me last year. Was the Coordinator so bad that it left Lambert with no options, or was Lambert so bad that it left the playcaller without any options?
My general response to that is yes. Yes to both questions.
Either way, I recall too many playcalls where no one got open. And yet, I remember plenty of plays where a wide receiver was open and not thrown to, or thrown to poorly.
I realized then and see again that the stat line on paper doesn’t look as bad as what I saw last year, but Lambert just was not a good quarterback consistently last year.
And then he’d pull a South Carolina. Or he’d pull a 4th and forever against UT with a 55 yard strike to Reggie Davis that would have tied the game, only to be dropped by Davis.
Ugh, apparently the painful memories still hurt.
LikeLike
Lambert can still be a serviceable option while simultaneously carrying the label of the worst starting qb during the Richt era. Tereshinski was probably the worst (where was Bobo’s development there?), but then again Lambert didn’t have a 5 star breathing down his neck last season like he does now. In other words he has a full season of observable numbers.
Lambert may or may not have been the worst, but I don’t really see any angle where he isn’t at least in the running.
LikeLike