I tend to agree that the criticism of Garrett is over the top and unfair.
I think pretty much everyone agrees Eric Dungey is our gold standards for dual threat QBs and if Garrett, or anyone else really, was able to match what Eric did, we would think they are awesome.
Here is a comparison of how Eric and Garrett did their sophomore seasons.
Name | Passes | Completed | Pct | TDs | Interceptions | Yards | Avg Yards/Catch | Rushes | Yards | Avg Yards/Carry | TDs |
Eric Dungey | 230 | 355 | 0.647887 | 15 | 7 | 2679 | 7.5465 | 125 | 293 | 2.344 | 6 |
Garrett Shrader | 123 | 234 | 0.525641 | 9 | 4 | 1445 | 6.1752 | 173 | 781 | 4.5145 | 14 |
Eric threw the ball a lot more and completed a significantly higher percentage of his passes. Garrett has to do better here but I think a good OC and better OL and WR play can help him out a lot. There wasn't time for pass plays to develop
Their rushing totals include sacks but I didn't have sack numbers for either and couldn't account for this. I think the OL was bad for both QBs but worse for Garrett. I don't have the number of sacks and yards lost for each but I do have this:
In 2016, the OL gave up 16 sacks for 112 yards.
In 2021, the OL gave up 37 sacks for 237 yards.
There is some pretty strong evidence here that the pass protection in 2021 was a lot worse than in 2016.
All that said, Garrett ran the ball a lot more and got a lot more yardage and a lot more TDs than Eric did.
It should be noted that Garrett had Sean Tucker playing RB. Sean was a lot more successful than Strickland and Neal were at RB for Eric in 2016. Strickland only averaged 3.5 ypc. Neal was a lot better at 5.3 but between them, they only had 933 yards rushing.
A stronger rushing attack helped Garrett some as defenses had to key on Sean, particularly with his rushing number but it might have hurt his numbers, particularly his passing numbers, as Sean ran the ball a lot and this reduced the number of throws Garrett was able to make.
It should also be noted that the 2016 team had 4 solid WRs in Etta-Tawo, Philips, Ishmael and Estime. Probably our best grouping at WR in the Babers era.
Individual Receiving Statistics Syracuse 2016
# | Player | GP | NO | YDS | AVG | TD | Long | AVG/G |
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7 | Etta-Tawo, Amba | 12 | 94 | 1482 | 15.77 | 14 | 81 | 123.50 |
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3 | Philips, Ervin | 12 | 90 | 822 | 9.13 | 6 | 58 | 68.50 |
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8 | Ishmael, Steve | 11 | 48 | 559 | 11.65 | 1 | 39 | 50.82 |
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1 | Estime, Brisly | 12 | 48 | 518 | 10.79 | 3 | 84 | 43.17 |
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This might be the biggest single difference in the tool each QB had to work with.
Here are the top four receivers Garrett had in 2021:
Individual Receiving Statistics
# | Player | GP | NO | YDS | AVG | TD | Long | AVG/G |
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85 | Jackson, Courtney | 12 | 37 | 389 | 10.51 | 3 | 29 | 32.42 |
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34 | Tucker, Sean | 12 | 20 | 255 | 12.75 | 2 | 72 | 21.25 |
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82 | Alford, Damien | 12 | 13 | 249 | 19.15 | 2 | 73 | 20.75 |
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14 | Queeley, Anthony | 12 | 15 | 222 | 14.80 | 2 | 30 | 18.50 |
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So all 4 of Eric's top WRs had better numbers than the best WR Garrett had to work with.
I think we can all agree that Garrett did not have the same level of WRs to throw to in 2021.
My guess is that if Garrett had the OL and WRs Eric had, his passing numbers would be a lot closer to the numbers Eric put up in 2016. Quite sure he would have thrown the ball more, had more completions and a higher completion percentage.
I am not saying Garrett was as good as Eric as a sophomore. But I will say I think if the play calling, the WR play and the OL pass blocking all improve somewhat, along with his mechanics and his health, there is reason to think Garrett can put up some excellent numbers in 2022.