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A ridiculous stat, courtesy of ESPN

While I love statistics about as much as anyone this side of Nate Silver, there are some stats at which I have to roll my eyes, like this next one.

The Philadelphia Eagles drafted USC quarterback Matt Barkley in the 4th round of the NFL Draft. Barkley will join the likes of Michael Vick, Nick Foles, and Dennis Dixon at the quarterback position. Thanks to "ESPN Stats and Information," the following stat was just released:

"NFL - Vick and Foles Fumble, Barkley Doesn't

Only 2 quarterbacks in the NFL had more fumbles than games played in 2012: Michael Vick (11 fum, 10 games) and Nick Foles (8 fum, 7 games). Matt Barkley had 10 fumbles in 47 games at USC -- that's the fewest fumbles by any FBS QB who played 47+ games from 2009-12."

First off, both Vick and Foles played behind a battered offensive line all year, which didn't help their cause. Also, while Vick has been pretty notorious for fumbling the football throughout his NFL career, Foles was just a rookie last year, so I don't think it's really fair to label Foles as a notorious fumbler after only playing in seven games thus far in his NFL career. In any case, it's completely ridiculous to compare Matt Barkley to Vick and Foles on anything, including this. Foles has only played in seven NFL games. Vick has played in many more than that. In how many NFL games has Matt Barkley played? Zero. How can we really declare that a quarterback who has never played an NFL game will be better at protecting the football than two quarterbacks whom have played in at least seven NFL games a piece, all based on his college statistics? It's simple - we can't. Once Barkley gets some games under his belt, then we can start to compare, but not until that point.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/_/name/phi/philadelphia-eagles

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