In a post over at NFL FanHouse, J.J. Cooper took a look at quarterbacks who hold onto the ball too long and, in essence, "create their own sack." Cooper's criteria did not include total sacks, but rather the number of sacks a quarterback had in which he held the ball for over three seconds. I think there is certainly a lot of debate that can be made as to whether or not that criteria is valid, but Cooper explained his reasoning:
I chose three seconds as the demarcation line because it's a pretty fair cutoff point for where a sack can no longer be blamed on a quarterback's blockers. The median sack time in the NFL last year was 2.7 seconds, just as it was in 2009. Obviously a line should be able to hold a three-man rush back longer than a eight-man all-out blitz, but for practical purposes, three seconds is the point where a quarterback should generally know that he has to get rid of the ball.
The article claims that Joe Flacco, not Ben Roethlisberger, is "king" of holding onto the football for too long. When I saw the statistics though, something jumped out at me right away: these numbers weren't adjusted for playing time. Flacco played the entire season, while Roethlisberger missed four games. Colt McCoy was ranked No. 12 on the original list, but I knew that would change with adjusted stats.
I picked one quarterback from each team and adjusted everyone's stats for a 16-game season.
| Player | > 3 seconds | Games Played | Adjusted > 3 seconds |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 20 | 12 | 26.67 |
| Michael Vick | 19 | 12 | 25.33 |
| Joe Flacco | 25 | 16 | 25.00 |
| Colt McCoy | 11 | 8 | 22.00 |
| Jay Cutler | 19 | 15 | 20.27 |
| Jason Campbell | 16 | 13 | 19.69 |
| Kyle Orton | 15 | 13 | 18.46 |
| Matt Cassell | 14 | 15 | 14.93 |
| Mark Sanchez | 14 | 16 | 14.00 |
| Brett Favre | 11 | 13 | 13.54 |
| Philip Rivers | 13 | 16 | 13.00 |
| Vince Young | 7 | 9 | 12.44 |
| Sam Bradford | 12 | 16 | 12.00 |
| Alex Smith | 8 | 11 | 11.64 |
| Donovan McNabb | 9 | 13 | 11.08 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 10 | 15 | 10.67 |
| Derek Anderson | 8 | 12 | 10.67 |
| Matt Hasselbeck | 9 | 14 | 10.29 |
| Josh Freeman | 10 | 16 | 10.00 |
| David Garrard | 8 | 14 | 9.14 |
| Matt Schaub | 9 | 16 | 9.00 |
| Ryan Fitzpatrick | 7 | 13 | 8.62 |
| Tom Brady | 8 | 16 | 8.00 |
| Tony Romo | 3 | 6 | 8.00 |
| Shaun Hill | 5 | 11 | 7.27 |
| Matt Ryan | 7 | 16 | 7.00 |
| Jimmy Clausen | 5 | 13 | 6.15 |
| Chad Henne | 5 | 15 | 5.33 |
| Drew Brees | 5 | 16 | 5.00 |
| Carson Palmer | 4 | 16 | 4.00 |
| Eli Manning | 1 | 16 | 1.00 |
| Peyton Manning | 1 | 16 | 1.00 |
Three of the top four quarterbacks on the list reside in the AFC North. "Creating your own sack" is not necessarily a bad thing; in fact, it often means you have a quarterback who is mobile and likes to improvise. Sometimes that can lead to game-changing plays, as we have seen all-too-often in the past from Roethlisberger.
It's amazing to see both of the Manning brothers at the bottom of the list. It's no wonder these guys, particularly Peyton, never get injured. I think the ideal spot to strive toward is the middle of the list, right where Aaron Rodgers is. He is mobile, but he also has the threat of getting the ball out so quickly that I'm sure the number of dropbacks he has beyond three seconds is reduced significantly.