[moklerman]

I'm a believer in stat's. I don't completely rely on them but I do think they are very useful. In general, I believe Bulger's stat's to be pretty good most of the time. Nothing earth-shattering but nothing to really complain about. However, those stat's have to be accompanied by "when he's healthy". That's a real concern when discussing Bulger. He's only played a 16 game schedule once in his career.

That was two years ago when he had his career year and everything looked so promising. But, since a few have offered that Bulger's numbers can't be argued, I think Bulger has benefited from the quirks in the passer rating formula. One of Bulger's statistical strengths is his YPA(yards per attempt). He's always been one of the top qb's in that regard and his career 7.5 is nothing to sneeze at. In my opinion, much of that success can be attributed to the vaunted dig route that the Rams have made a staple of their offense but I don't see much of a dropoff with whatever Saunders is going to bring in.

Where I do have a problem with Bulger and where I think the passer rating formula fails is in TD%. Total TD's is generally used as a gauge for a QB's production but it's too easily skewed. In 2006 for example(Bulger's career year), Bulger had 24 TD's. That's not bad at all for a total. But in reality, his TD% was only 4.1%. That's not particularly good. In 2006 that was 15th in the league. In fact, in seasons where Bulger has around 500 attempts(a relatively full season), he's always at that 4.1% mark, ranking 15th or 16th in those years.

I was very impressed by his low interception number in 2006 and if he can keep that relatively low and increase his TD production, I think the Rams could make some noise in the playoffs. Saunders already has more to work with in skill positions on offense than he did in KC so I think the Rams will be tickling the 400 point total this year, even if the o-line is still a question mark.