Nebraska position review: Quarterback

While the new year has begun, HuskerOnline is looking back at the previous season and taking a deep dive into each of Nebraska's positions, how they graded, their trends and other observations.

First up in this series is the leader of the offense: the quarterback. Adrian Martinez, the Huskers starter who has since transferred, ranked among the best in the country in certain categories but the worst in others.

Martinez under pressure:

Martinez was under pressure by defenses 164 times in 2021 and was sacked 28 times. He ranks seventh in the FCS in the number of plays under pressure, tied with East Carolina's Holton Ahlers.

Alabama quarterback and Heisman winner Bryce Young was under pressure on 184 plays (No. 3 in FBS and No. 1 in Power Five) and was sacked two more times than Martinez.

Being pressured has little to do with the quarterback himself. These numbers reflect on what defenses use to play the offense based on the quarterback's skills. Outside of that, the offensive line allows these pressures whether in the play design or not.

Martinez was blitzed 64 times, meaning that the defense sent five or more players after the quarterback. The former Husker quarterback was pressured 100 times with four players, again a reflection of the offensive line.

During those 64 blitzes, Martinez had an offensive grade of 86.4, a 77.6 pass grade and an 88.6 run grade. He completed 65.6 percent of his passes on those 64 plays, ranking No. 19 in FBS.

Solid on deep passes:

Of all four passing depth categories (behind LOS, short, medium and deep), Martinez had the highest passing grade in deep passes of over 20 yards with a 91.9 grade. He attempted 61 deep passes and completed 29 of them, four were dropped by the receiver. Martinez ranked No. 50 in FBS in his pass grade on deep passes.

In 2020, he had a 49.2 pass grade on his 20 attempts on deep passes. Part of this big jump in deep passes could be the addition of Montana transfer Samori Toure.

Smothers completed four of his seven deep passes for 152 yards. His pass grade is 93.2 on those passes. The young quarterback who has a shot at starting in 2022 is capable of completing deep passes.

Help needed on short passes:

While the Huskers' starter and backup scored high in deep passes, both struggled with short passes of up to nine yards.

Martinez ranks No. 130 of 143 quarterbacks in the FBS with a 56.6 pass grade on short passes. He has the fifth-worst percentage in the Power Five.

Roughly one-third of Martinez's passes were short and 20 percent of Smothers were short. The majority of Martinez's passes were short and it was also his lowest passing grade.

Lacking on Big Time Throws:

Martinez's deep passing grade is a 91.9, pretty good. However, his BTT (Big Time Throw) numbers add an interesting layer to this stat.

PFF defines Big Time Throws as "a pass with excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and/or into a tighter window."

Of the 53 quarterbacks in FBS that have a deep pass grade of over 90, Martinez has the second-lowest BTT percentage with 19.7 percent. He recorded 13 'excellent' throws, according to PFF.

Based on his percentage of BTT attempts, Martinez threw below average compared to the other top 50 deep pass quarterbacks in FBS.

On the run:

Martinez is one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in the country when he is scrambling. In 2021, he scrambled for 415 yards, the sixth most in FBS and the most in the Big Ten.

Michigan State's Payton Thorne is the next closest Big Ten quarterback with 109 scramble yards. Noah Vedral, current Rutgers quarterback and former Husker, is right behind Thorne with 89 scramble yards.

Martinez averaged 13.8 yards per scramble in 2021. He was Nebraska's leading rusher with 683 yards and averaged 6.3 yards per carry. In fact, Martinez has been the Huskers leading rusher for the last three seasons.

The Huskers have a very mobile quarterback to replace.