Georgia football captain Jake Fromm ranked behind 8 quarterbacks in PFF metrics

ATHENS — Kirby Smart wouldn’t trade Jake Fromm for anyone, but the Georgia football third-year starting QB ranked only 9th entering this season based on Pro Football Focus metrics.

Football fans love statistics, and few organizations are as savvy with their database and distribution as Pro Football Focus, known more commonly as PFF.

The PFF breakdowns on position groups and players has become a part of daily reading, and on Wednesday the organization released its quarterback rankings.

PFF explained its quarterback rankings as such:

“Combing through our play-by-play data ad nauseam, these rankings take into account a quarterback’s PFF grade both from last season, and all other subsequent sets of data that we have on their time in college. The list projects these players as the starter but is also influenced by the situation behind the projected starting quarterback if he were to miss any amount of time going forward.”

In its breakdown of Fromm, who ranked second only to Tua Tagovailoa in 2018 among returning quarterbacks in pass efficiency, PFF writes:

“Fromm hasn’t quite taken the Bulldogs all the way to a National Title but he has single-handedly given the Crimson Tide the most scares on their way to the season finale. Fromm is as good as they come from a clean pocket and his two-year grade of second in the SEC to only Tagovailoa. With a talented running back and one of the nation’s best bookend tackle situations, Fromm has Georgia ready to once again contend for a National Championship.”

Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence ranked No. 1 among the quarterbacks, with Tagovailoa at No. 2, Oregon’s Justin Herbert No. 3 and Houston’s D’eriq King and North Texas’ Mason Fine rounding out the Top 5.

Other notables: Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts No. 11, Ohio State’s Justin Fields No. 16, Notre Dame’s Ian Book No. 18 and Washington’s Jacob Eason No. 36.

Fromm was ranked No. 23 among all players in Sports Illustrated’s Top 100 list earlier this summer, and ESPN had him ranked No. 5 overall.