Passing Chart: Where did Haynes King find success in 2024?
Georgia Tech's QB finished with great numbers, but what did they really look like?
Georgia Tech’s Haynes King wrapped up a season that saw some ups and downs for the Yellow Jackets offense. Battling a tough injury, King wasn’t able to play the full slate of games at Georgia Tech. However, in the games he did play, he showed an efficiency that sometimes evaded his play in 2023. It was a year of growth for the veteran quarterback in the second year in Buster Faulkner’s system.
King finished the season throwing over 2,114 yards passing and 14 touchdowns, while only throwing two interceptions. But what did King’s numbers really look like? Let’s take a look at King’s passing chart and where the signal-caller has success and struggled.
Takeaways:
King’s completion percentage drops as the passes get farther away from the line of scrimmage. On throws behind the line of scrimmage, where most of the production came from, King was nearly perfect. He also loved to attack the middle of the field from behind the LOS and in the 0-10 yard range.
When King got into the 10-20 yard range and 20+ yard range, that’s where the numbers started to fall. On passes 20+ yards or more, King tallied a 48% completion percentage. That was adjusted for a 52% completion percentage when accounting for plays ruled as drops.
King tallied the bulk of his passing yards on throws in that 0-10 range with over 700 passing yards and five touchdowns.
What this means…
Look, PFF isn’t the end-all for determining how good a player is. Rather, it should be used as a tool to help build a viewpoint on what a player brings to the table. It doesn’t take advanced analytics for fans to see what King brings to this offense. He’s the heart and soul of not just the unit but the team, too.
There was a noticeable difference in how the passing attack looked this season. The downfield passing game really wasn’t there, and several factors may have contributed. Two of the biggest, in my opinion, could be the early injury issues to the tight end spot and then the injury to King. The downfield passing attack is something that needs to develop for the Yellow Jacket offense to take the next step. Without it, defenses can key in on the underneath routes. Without Eric Singleton (transferred to Auburn) in the fold, there are some unproven names that will need to showcase that they can win those one-on-one battles.