Clayton Thorson: QB · Northwestern · #18.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Clayton Thorson
Operates within the system without forcing anything. Four seasons in the Northwestern quarterback room to date. The first career honor came in 2017: All-Big Ten. A game that shows it: 455 passing yards and 3 passing TD against Nebraska — Week 7, 2018.
Play style
Balanced passer who operates within the system, without one standout number carrying the profile.
Checkdown vs gunslinger · 3rd-and-long
Where the completions actually land
58.9% completion on 3rd-and-8+, but only 16.1% conversion-per-dropback — 69.7% of completions land short of the sticks.
Where completions land is fact — whether incompletions were aimed deep is intent, not recorded here, so this card counts completions only. checkdown by design
Short-yardage / goal-line · enumeration
Who gets the tough yard
11 of 14 on 3rd/4th-and-2-or-less (78.6%). 12 of the team's 38 inside-the-5 carries (31.6%).
No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.
OregonLive Oct 29Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Season | Team | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Northwestern | 298 | 490 | 60.8% | 3,181 | 6.5 | 17 | 15 | 120.7 | 51 |
| 2017 | Northwestern | 262 | 434 | 60.4% | 2,844 | 6.6 | 15 | 12 | 121.3 | 45 |
| 2016 | Northwestern | 280 | 478 | 58.6% | 3,182 | 6.7 | 22 | 9 | 125.9 | 36 |
| 2015 | Northwestern | 150 | 295 | 50.8% | 1,522 | 5.2 | 7 | 9 | 95.9 | 20 |
| Career | 990 | 1,697 | 58.3% | 10,729 | 6.3 | 61 | 45 | 118.0 | 40 |
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Northwestern | 78 | −110 | −1.4 | 9 | 27 |
| 2017 | Northwestern | 87 | 23 | 0.3 | 8 | 21 |
| 2016 | Northwestern | 97 | 98 | 1.0 | 5 | 42 |
| 2015 | Northwestern | 100 | 397 | 4.0 | 5 | 68 |
| Career | 362 | 408 | 1.1 | 27 | 68 |
Game log · Week-by-week
2018 season · 14 games
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| Wk | Opp | CMP/ATT | YDS | TD | INT | YPA | QBR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 31-27@ Purdue | 16/27 | 172 | 0 | 0 | 6.4 | — | |
| Wk 2 | L 7-21vs Duke | 22/38 | 198 | 0 | 1 | 5.2 | — | |
| Wk 3 | L 34-39vs Akron | 33/52 | 383 | 3 | 2 | 7.4 | — | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 5 | L 17-20vs No. 14 Michigan | 16/27 | 174 | 0 | 0 | 6.4 | — | |
| Wk 6 | W 29-19@ No. 20 Michigan State | 31/47 | 373 | 3 | 2 | 7.9 | — | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 7 | W 34-31vs Nebraska | 41/64 | 455 | 3 | 2 | 7.1 | — | Season-high 455 yds |
| Wk 8 | W 18-15@ Rutgers | 17/34 | 150 | 0 | 0 | 4.4 | — | |
| Wk 9 | W 31-17vs No. 20 Wisconsin | 17/30 | 167 | 1 | 3 | 5.6 | — | 3 INTs — rough day |
| Wk 10 | L 21-31vs No. 3 Notre Dame | 16/29 | 141 | 1 | 0 | 4.9 | — | |
| Wk 11 | W 14-10@ Iowa | 15/30 | 122 | 1 | 2 | 4.1 | — | |
| Wk 12 | W 24-14@ Minnesota | 15/21 | 230 | 0 | 0 | 11.0 | — | |
| Wk 13 | W 24-16vs Illinois | 12/18 | 110 | 2 | 0 | 6.1 | — | |
| Wk 14 | L 24-45vs No. 6 Ohio State | 26/43 | 265 | 1 | 2 | 6.2 | — | |
 Bowl | W 31-20vs No. 20 Utah | 21/30 | 241 | 2 | 1 | 8.0 | — | |
| Total | 298/490 | 3181 | 17 | 15 | 6.5 | — |
Week 6 · 2018
W 29-19
373 yds · 3 TD · 2 INT
With J. Collins — 43.8 yards per punt · 6 punts · 3 inside the 20 · K. McGowan — 1 rec · 77 yds · 1 TD
The plays that mattered most
Pass Profile · Completions by yards gained (PBP)
Adjusted ANY/A, sack rate, and where the yards came from
Totals here are the box score's. Play-by-play lists 488 passing plays (296 completions) against the box score's 490 attempts (298 completions), and the depth buckets use play-by-play.
Adjusted ANY/A
5.00161 of 207 QBsSack rate
6.3%102 of 207 QBsRarely sacked (102 of 207), but Adjusted ANY/A hasn't followed (161 of 207).
Adjusted ANY/A uses full-season box-score totals (attempts, yards, TDs, INTs); sack rate is play-by-play-derived.
Short
0–9 ydsMiddle
10–19 ydsDeep
20+ ydsOverall 60.8% completion on 490 attempts · 34 deep completions averaging 31.9 yds.
Is he a different quarterback when it matters
Each situation vs his own 2018 baseline
No situation moves him more than 33 percentile points from his baseline.
Deltas are vs. this player’s own season baseline, never a league average. League sack rate by down is shown as context because sack attribution isn’t incompletion-denominated.
4 seasons under Pat Fitzgerald — 36-17 over that span.
Splits · Per-game
2018 season · 14 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home7g | 233 | 1.4 | 6.1 | 1.1 |
| Road5g | 209 | 0.8 | 6.8 | 0.8 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-77g | 285 | 1.6 | 6.9 | 1.1 |
| Weeks 8+7g | 169 | 0.9 | 6.0 | 1.0 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Pat Fitzgerald
Pass share
51.1%
524 pass / 502 run
Plays / game
73.3
14 games
Scheme: Balanced.
Player standing · 2018
490 pass attempts and 78 carries in 14 games, more passes and runs a game than most FBS quarterbacks who play every week.
How it ended
Four seasons at Northwestern, 10,729 passing yards — drafted at #167 overall by the Philadelphia Eagles.
A blue-chip recruit with honors.
Trophy case · Confirmed honors
What the selectors said
ALL-BIG TEN
All-Big Ten mention (2017)
Coaching lineage · 2014–2018
1 coachPlayed every college season under Pat Fitzgerald.
Next stop · NFL
Philadelphia EaglesEntering 8th NFL season
Philadelphia EaglesEntering 8th NFL season
