Chris Simms, son of former New York Giants quarterback and current CBS NFL analyst Phil Simms, believes his famous last name is why his brother, Matt Simms, is not getting calls from teams around the league to at least be a backup quarterback.
“(Matt) hasn’t proven himself to be an NFL starter or anything like that, but every opportunity he’s gotten, whether it’s the preseason or even coming up in mop-up duty in the regular season he’s done very well and taken advantage of those chances,” Chris Simms said on WFAN. “Some of the preseason performances he had … I truly believe if his last name was not Simms, teams would be wanting him to be their backup quarterback.”
In three years' worth of preseason games, Matt Simms has completed 76-of-114 passes (66.7 percent) for 810 yards (7.1 per attempt) and two touchdowns, and he has not been intercepted. That's good for a passer rating of 93.1, which is very solid. He has, however, been sacked 15 times in 150 dropbacks, giving him a 10.0 percent sack rate that would rank near the top of the league. The Jets have generally been below average in pass protection the last two years, though, which likely contributed to Simms' taking so many sacks.
Simms' regular season numbers are quite a bit less inspiring, as he's gone just 19-of-39 (48.7 percent) for 195 yards (5.0 per attempt) and one touchdown along with one interception. That's a passer rating of just 61.4, which would rank among the lowest in the league on a yearly basis. He also has a 9.3 sack rate in the regular season, indicating that sacks are a problem for him.
The regular season sample is smaller than the preseason sample, but of course, those are the games that actually matter and thus may be slightly more indicative of true skill level. It seems more likely that those numbers, along with his subpar collegiate performance (54.5 completion percentage, 6.9 yards per attempt, 8:8 touchdown to interception ratio), and not his last name, are why the phone is not ringing off the hook.
