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ShareThisRandom trivia: Buffalo Bills edition
If things keep going as they have been, the 2007 Buffalo Bills will have gotten their leading rusher and leading passer from the 2007 draft.
Since the merger, six teams have had their Year N leading rusher and passer come from their Year N draft. Who are they?
"HINTS": two of them happened in this decade. I predict people will guess those relatively quickly. One was in the 90s. Three were in the 70s. I would be extremely surprised if anybody gets the 70s ones without technological assistance.
ANSWER EDIT:
+------+------+-------------------+-------+----------------+-------+ | team | year | leading_rusher | round | leading_passer | round | +------+------+-------------------+-------+----------------+-------+ | sfo | 2005 | Frank Gore | 3 | Alex D. Smith | 1 | | htx | 2002 | Jonathan Wells | 4 | David Carr | 1 | | ram | 1996 | Lawrence Phillips | 1 | Tony Banks | 2 | | sfo | 1974 | Wilbur Jackson | 1 | Tom Owen | 13 | | phi | 1972 | Po James | 4 | John Reaves | 1 | | gnb | 1971 | John Brockington | 1 | Scott Hunter | 6 | +------+------+-------------------+-------+----------------+-------+
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 25th, 2007 at 5:45 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Pure guesses:
This decade: Seahawks and Falcons (the years Hasselbeck and Vick entered the league)
90s: 1990 Colts, with Jeff George and whoever their RB was (???)
70s: Do Joe Ferguson and OJ Simpson figure into the mix? What about Bradshaw and Franco Harris? Thinking outside the box, in 1976, the expansion Seahawks and Bucs were loaded with rookies. One (or both) of them?
I attest that I looked nothing up (with explains why I'm probably wrong with every one!)
For starters, I'm going to guess the 2002 Texans as one. David Carr and some JAG at RB.
Roethlisberger had Bettis/Staley, so that's not one. Vince Young had Travis Henry. Leinart had Edge.
Vick, Brady, Culpepper, Pennington, Palmer, Cutler, Campbell, Hasselbeck, Eli Manning and Brees didn't lead their teams in passing the first year.
I can't remember if Alex Smith led the awful 49ers in passing in 05, but I'll go with him and Frank Gore as the other one.
I think both #1  have it right--the expansion teams (note that the trivia question doesn't specify WHICH draft). So the 2002 Texans, 76 Bucs & Seahawks are prob. 3 of the 6. 2005 49ers are prob. one. I say Peyton Manning's Colts are the one of the 90's. My thought for the 70's was Bradshaw's Steelers, although I didn't know that Harris was the RB.
#3 - Manning had Marshall Faulk, so not hiom.
Scott has the two 00s answers: the 2002 Texans (Carr/Wells) and 2005 49ers (Smith/Gore).
Joseph, I assume you're talking about the expansion drafts? If so, I don't have data on those, so I didn't intend for that to be part of the question.
With that said, the Texans were the only expansion team.
I would be really stunned if anyone gets any of the 70s answers without technological assistance, but the 1990s team is guessable.
I'll guess New England with Bledsoe for the 90s team. I have no idea who the RB was.
The 90's team, as any St. Louis football fan like myself knows, is the 1996 Rams with Tony Banks and Lawrence Phillips. Rookie Eddie Kennison was second in receiving yards that year for them as well, with over 900.
As for the 70s... who knows? I'm surprised that it isn't an expansion team for at least one of the three. I don't know which teams may have been forced to play a rookie QB for a long enough time and pair him with a rookie runner. I guess that's why Doug says he'll be surprised -- the players involoved probably have very underwhelming numbers for their seasons and probably aren't name players 30 years after the fact.
Packers in 71 .... the beginning of the "Devine" era, with OSU great John Brockington and Scott 'Hunter?
I was thinking that neither Jim Zorn nor Tampa Bay's first QB were drafted by the teams. I thought Zorn came from Dallas. Then I looked at his PFR page and see that he was undrafted and that he went to Cal Poly-Pomona. Pomona? What the hell? I didn't even know they had a football team there.
looking up Tampa Bay....
Spurrier was their leading passer their first season, but he was drafted 9 years earlier.
The immortal John Reaves & Po James of the 1972 Eagles.
Well - I know Walter Payton lead his team in rushing as a rookie and the Bears went through lots of miserable QB's (and coaches) during that time. So- I suppose it could be them. Though I have no idea who their QB was.
Good guessing by Downpuppy, Hedgehog, and JWM
1996 Rams (Banks/Phillips)
1972 Eagles (John Reaves / Po James)
1971 Pack (Hunter/Brockington)
The third 70s team is 1974 49ers with Tom Owen and Wilbur Jackson. Original post updated.
JWM - those 1996 Rams were also the first team ever to start an all-rookie backfield on opening day, since Ernie Conwell started at fullback.