Syracuse Football: Garrett Shrader drops out of QB rankings – whatever

I think we can all agree that Syracuse football has to clean up some things as a brutal seven-game stretch awaits the Orange in the near future, but at the same time, quarterback Garrett Shrader is having a pretty darn good 2022 season to date.

With FCS team Wagner (0-3) coming to the JMA Wireless Dome this Saturday, and the ‘Cuse a massive betting favorite in this non-conference encounter, it’s highly likely that Syracuse football (4-0) will get to 5-0 this weekend for the first time since 1987.

Now, as we recently discussed in another column, after the Wagner game and a bye week, the Orange in its final seven affairs will play five ranked teams, Notre Dame at home, and Boston College on the road.

Over the course of that daunting seven-contest slate, we’ll certainly know more about where Syracuse football resides in the national landscape and within the Atlantic Coast Conference pecking order.

But for now, anyway, the ‘Cuse is the No. 25 squad in the latest Coaches poll, and for my money, Garrett Shrader is among the best quarterbacks across the country.

A national writer removed Syracuse football quarterback Garrett Shrader from his QB ratings.

This week, Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports published the most recent version of his national power rankings at the quarterback position. He previously included Shrader in his top 10, but Fornelli didn’t in his latest version of these ratings.

If we’re talking about the ACC, North Carolina’s Drake Maye is No. 3 in Fornelli’s rankings, along with quarterbacks at top-10 groups such as Ohio State, Alabama, Southern California and Tennessee, as well as QBs from James Madison, Kansas and other schools.

I always say to take these sorts of rankings with the proverbial grain of salt, and I honestly don’t care that much that Shrader dropped off Fornelli’s list, because it doesn’t discount the production that Shrader has put forth to date this term.

Per ESPN statistics, Shrader through four games is completing 66.4 percent of his passes for 986 yards through the air, eight passing touchdowns and just one interception, with a rating of 163.8.

I acknowledge that the Orange’s schedule is going to get more challenging, and the team also needs to bolster its running attack. However, Shrader is on pace for nearly 3,000 passing yards, 24 TDs and only three picks.

If you told me before this season started that he would generate those kinds of numbers, I would have taken that in a heartbeat.

Plus, Shrader has 212 yards rushing and four scores on the ground, meaning he’s on pace for 636 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns with his legs.

Let’s see how he and the rest of the Syracuse football roster fare in the coming weeks, but at this juncture, I’m by and large quite pleased with what Garrett Shrader is doing in the 2022 stanza.