Senior quarterback for Illinois. 2023: 1,294 passing yards, 9 TD, 3 INT.
6′0″ · 190 lb · Bloomfield Hills, MI
CFB Index
A single number blending on-field production (an EPA-based value lane) with box-score output for this player's position.
0-100, scaled within each position's own cohort — not directly comparable across positions.
Recruiting
PRO recruit
No. 2145 nationally · Signed with Ball State
No college snaps yet.
His career numbers, season by seasonThe story
4 quarterback for Illinois. 2023: 1,294 passing yards, 9 TD, 3 INT.
John Paddock
Pushes it downfield on every look. Two head coaches in five seasons, at two different programs. His first career honor landed in 2023: Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week. The receipt: 507 pass yds, 4 pass TD against Indiana — Week 11, 2023.
Low coverage — composed from the verified record.
How it ended
Five seasons at Illinois, 4,189 passing yards — his college career is complete.
His career
Nobody recruited him. He earned the honors anyway.
The role got bigger.
Career arc
Coaching lineage · 2018–2023
2 coachesCoaching transition mid-career: Lovie Smith → Bret Bielema. Worth noting in scheme + development context.
Season context · Team result + system
Where this profile ranks vs the QB cohort
Box-score + play-by-play EPA percentiles
Elite: success rate (90th percentile). Strength: epa / dropback (84th percentile). Concern: rush tds (7th percentile).
Real play-by-play efficiency
Season trend
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season. Most bars are box-score rates; EPA / success-rate bars are computed from real play-by-play (offense only — no defensive EPA model exists yet).
Pass Profile · Completions by yards gained (PBP)
Adjusted ANY/A, sack rate, and where the yards came from
Adjusted ANY/A
8.8022 of 212 QBsSack rate
3.4%43 of 212 QBsRarely sacked (43 of 212 QBs) and still 22 of 212 in Adjusted ANY/A.
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 60.0% completion on 135 attempts · 18 deep completions averaging 35.7 yds.
Splits · Per-game
2023 season · 6 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home3g | 323 | 2.7 | 10.7 | 1.0 |
| Road3g | 108 | 0.3 | 12.3 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-72g | 76.5 | 0.5 | 6.0 | 0.0 |
| Weeks 8+4g | 285 | 2.0 | 14.2 | 0.8 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Bret Bielema
Scheme reads (pass share, tempo, sack rate) need at least 3 team games — 2 games in so far.
Player standing · 2023
Earning real snaps in the rotation without a starting job.
| Season | Team | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Illinois | 85 | 142 | 59.9% | 1,294 | 9.1 | 9 | 3 | 153.1 | 80 | -- | -- |
| 2022 | Ball State | 286 | 480 | 59.6% | 2,715 | 5.7 | 18 | 14 | 113.6 | 14 | -- | -- |
| 2021 | Ball State | 18 | 26 | 69.2% | 132 | 5.1 | 0 | 1 | 104.2 | -- | -- | -- |
| 2019 | Ball State | 1 | 2 | 50.0% | 5 | 2.5 | 0 | 0 | 71.0 | -- | -- | -- |
| 2018 | Ball State | 5 | 6 | 83.3% | 43 | 7.2 | 0 | 0 | 143.5 | -- | -- | -- |
| Career | 395 | 656 | 60.2% | 4,189 | 6.4 | 27 | 18 | 121.9 | 28 | -- | -- |
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Illinois | 12 | -55 | -4.6 | 0 | -- |
| 2022 | Ball State | 27 | -84 | -3.1 | 0 | -- |
| 2021 | Ball State | 2 | -9 | -4.5 | 0 | -- |
| 2019 | Ball State | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 2018 | Ball State | 2 | -10 | -5.0 | 0 | -- |
| Career | 43 | -158 | -3.7 | 0 | -- |
Signature plays · top plays by |EPA|
The plays that mattered most
Game log · Week-by-week
2023 season · 6 games
| Wk | Opp | CMP/ATT | YDS | TD | INT | YPA | QBR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 3 | L 13-30vs Penn State | 10/16 | 129 | 1 | 0 | 8.1 | 78.6 | |
| Wk 5 | L 19-44@ Purdue | 2/6 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 4.0 | 53.2 | |
| Wk 10 | W 27-26@ Minnesota | 3/3 | 85 | 1 | 0 | 28.3 | 100.0 | |
| Wk 11 | W 48-45vs Indiana | 24/36 | 507 | 4 | 1 | 14.1 | 81.8 | Season-high 507 yds |
| Wk 12 | L 13-15@ Iowa | 22/47 | 215 | 0 | 0 | 4.6 | 62.8 | |
| Wk 13 | L 43-45vs Northwestern | 24/34 | 334 | 3 | 2 | 9.8 | 64.8 | 3 TD passes |
| Total | 85/142 | 1294 | 9 | 3 | 11.5 | 73.5 |
Play style
Elite arm talent, pushing downfield. Completion rate is the variable.
CFB Index positional classification
Short-yardage / goal-line · enumeration
Who gets the tough yard
2 of the team's 17 inside-the-5 carries (11.8%).
Player DNA
Elite arm talent, pushing downfield. Completion rate is the variable.
His 2023 production profile sits closest to Casey Thompson’s 2022 season.
Differs from Casey on
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a graduate, his production profile tracks closest to Casey Thompson's graduate season at Nebraska (2022).
Matches Casey on
Differs from Casey on
Player DNA