Mertz quieted critics in Florida’s 2023 football season, but there’s more silencing to do

You wouldn’t know it by the 2024 SEC quarterback rankings, but Graham Mertz is coming off a pretty impressive 2023. Just check out his statistics:

Three interceptions, 20 passing touchdowns, a 72.9 completion rate and 14,269 servings of crow dished out.

I’m just guessing on that last one, but it’s safe to say thousands of skeptics ate their words when it came to Mertz. Certainly, nobody thought Billy Napier would be saying things like this as Florida prepares for its first football practice next week.

“Graham Mertz, the biggest, No. 1 storyline and the biggest decision that was made to affect our team is when Graham Mertz decided to come back and play quarterback for the Gators,” he said.

That might be news to those who are still wiping crow crumbs off their faces. The weeks leading into fall practice are List Season. If you check the SEC’s top QBs, Mertz is closer to Diego Pavia than Carson Beck .

Part of that is due to the quality of the competition. Georgia’s Beck and Texas’ Quinn Ewers are getting Heisman hype.

Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, Missouri’s Brady Cook and Jaxson Dart from Ole Miss all have solid top-five credentials. After that, you’ll find Mertz’ name in a tier with Garrett Nussmeier, Nico Iamaleava, Brock Vandagriff and Conner Weigman.

It’s usually at the bottom of that tier.

The others are younger and drip with potential, but none have come close to matching what Mertz has accomplished. If you’re wondering why there’s a built-in bias when it comes to the No. 1 storyline of Florida’s season, dig a little deeper into the stats.

Only 39 of Mertz’s 358 passing attempts were for 20 yards or more. Of those, he completed 16. Mertz’s average depth of target (ADOT) was 6.8 yards. That was about three yards less than top-tier QBs.

There was no stat for NoDoz Consumed (NDC), but opposing safeties probably went through two bottles a game just trying to stay awake.

The dinking and dunking wasn’t all on Mertz. The Gators’ scheme was heavy on screen passes and jet-sweep tosses. When it came to protecting targets, the UF offensive line resembled the U.S. Secret Service.

Mertz had to unload the ball quickly. But when big completions were possible, he didn’t take advantage of them.

The working theory is he’d become risk-averse at Wisconsin. Mertz threw 38 TDs in three seasons but also had 26 interceptions. His completion percentage dropped every season and was 57.3% his final year.

It may have been subconscious, but Mertz came to UF wanting to prove he wasn’t scatter-armed. There’s also a lingering question whether he has the arm strength to consistently throw deep.

Mertz doesn’t have a bazooka, but his arm is good enough to get him on the watch lists of NFL scouts. That’s an improvement over last year, when he was generally rated the 14 ^th best QB in the 14-team SEC.

None of this is news to Mertz. He acknowledged he needs to create more explosive plays. He spent spring practice taking more of what Napier calls “calculated risks.”

That should be easier if Florida’s offensive line improves as much as Napier thinks it will. And while big-play specialists Trevor Etienne and Ricky Pearsal are gone, Mertz will have plenty of capable skill position players to throw to.

“Ultimately, what I learned last year is that we’ve got to play good around Graham,” Napier said. “We’ve got to protect Graham and have a really good, complementary play at all positions on offense.”

If that happens, it will be up to Mertz to show he’s taken the next step in his evolution. I don’t know if it will happen but keep those preseason QB rankings in mind.

Another big serving of crow would indeed be a No. 1 storyline.

David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun's sports columnist. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on X @DavidEWhitley

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Mertz quieted critics in Florida’s 2023 football season, but there’s more silencing to do