All time NFL QBs: The Worst Edition
Posted by Chase Stuart on June 23, 2008
Two years ago I wrote up a post about the worst quarterbacks of all time. Today I'll be updating that post, while tomorrow I'll be writing about the best quarterbacks of all time. To save myself some headaches, I've separated out the methodology for ranking the QBs into a separate post. That's pretty much required reading if you want to understand how the rankings were derived.
For starters, it always bugs me how much time NFL fans spend discussing the best quarterbacks ever, and how little time we spend discussing the worst QBs ever. Let's start with the worst single season of all time.
I doubt anyone alive today remembers the name Bud Schwenk. That's what happens when you throw 295 passes, and complete 126 of them to your team and 27 of them to the opponents. Yes, Bud Schwenk averaged an impressive 0.69 adjusted yards per pass attempt, while the league average outside of Scwhenk was 4.25 adjusted yards per pass (After 1969, every QB will be ranked by his net adjusted yards per attempt, but we don't have reliable individual sack data from before then). Schwenk singlehandedly dropped the league average to 3.23 AY/A, which might have misled readers into seeing how bad he really was.
Six years later, Jack Jacobs was nearly as bad, averaging negative yards per pass attempt but on over 100 fewer passes. Ineptitude kept Jacobs from passing (sliding behind?) Schenk.
And the third worst QB season of all time? You need to fast forward 51 years, to 1999. Check out this stat line:
Cmp Att Cmp% Yds TD Int Sk SkYd ANY/A LgAvg ANY/A 201 381 52.8 2111 9 24 27 152 2.38 4.87
Plummer, in 1999, "contributed" 1,017 fewer yards to the Cardinals than the league average QB would have brought to the table. As far as modern seasons go, Plummer's '99 stands as the worst. Here's a list of the 25 worst seasons by any QB:
year att pyd ptd icp sk-syd any/a RY4.0 Rating Bud Schwenk 1942 CRD 295 1360 6 27 - 0.69 0 -1243 Jack Jacobs 1948 GNB 184 848 5 21 - -0.26 0 -1158 Jake Plummer 1999 ARI 381 2111 9 24 27-152 2.38 0 -1017 Archie Manning 1975 NOR 338 1683 7 20 49-390 1.20 64 - 972 David Carr 2002 HOU 444 2592 9 15 76-411 3.07 76 - 942 Davey O'Brien 1940 PHI 277 1290 5 17 - 2.08 0 - 917 Bobby Hoying 1998 PHI 224 961 0 9 35-185 1.43 0 - 916 Milt Plum 1965 DET 308 1710 12 19 - 3.17 0 - 891 Kerry Collins 1997 CAR 381 2124 11 21 27-200 2.67 0 - 888 Tobin Rote 1959 DET 162 861 5 19 - 0.35 36 - 885 Joe Kapp 1970 BOS 219 1104 3 17 27-231 0.56 0 - 857 Stan Heath 1949 GNB 106 355 1 14 - -2.50 0 - 838 Ryan Leaf 1998 SDG 245 1289 2 15 22-140 1.85 0 - 831 Dick Wood 1966 MIA 230 993 4 14 - 1.75 0 - 818 Vinny Testaverde1988 TAM 466 3240 13 35 33-292 3.01 36 - 815 Kyle Orton 2005 CHI 368 1869 9 13 30-190 2.97 0 - 815 Dan Pastorini 1981 RAM 152 719 2 14 14-149 -0.24 0 - 813 Dan Darragh 1968 BUF 215 917 3 14 - 1.47 0 - 813 A.J. Feeley 2004 MIA 356 1893 11 15 23-136 3.15 0 - 806 Frank Tripucka 1952 DTX 174 769 3 17 - 0.20 22 - 802 Roy Zimmerman 1943 PHI 124 846 9 17 - 1.38 0 - 798 Dave M. Brown 1996 NYG 398 2412 12 20 49-276 3.03 0 - 797 Jon Kitna 2001 CIN 581 3216 12 22 25-185 3.57 0 - 791 Zeke Bratkowski 1960 CHI 175 1051 6 21 - 0.95 0 - 787 Jack Trudeau 1986 IND 417 2225 8 18 29-213 2.87 0 - 785 Paul Christman 1945 CRD 219 1147 5 12 - 3.00 0 - 784 Jeff Komlo 1979 DET 368 2238 11 23 40-361 2.33 7 - 781 Alex Smith 2005 SFO 165 875 1 11 29-185 1.06 0 - 769 Andrew Walter 2006 OAK 276 1677 3 13 46-256 2.69 0 - 764
How about the worst QB in the league for every season since the merger?
Quarterback Year Team ANY/A Rating Trent Dilfer 2007 SFO 2.09 - 754 Andrew Walter 2006 OAK 2.69 - 764 Kyle Orton 2005 CHI 2.97 - 815 A.J. Feeley 2004 MIA 3.15 - 806 Joey Harrington 2003 DET 3.56 - 738 David Carr 2002 HOU 3.07 - 942 Jon Kitna 2001 CIN 3.57 - 791 Ryan Leaf 2000 SDG 2.91 - 697 Jake Plummer 1999 ARI 2.38 -1017 Bobby Hoying 1998 PHI 1.43 - 916 Kerry Collins 1997 CAR 2.67 - 888 Dave M. Brown 1996 NYG 3.03 - 797 Bubby Brister 1995 NYJ 1.53 - 660 Billy Joe Tolliver 1994 HOU 3.24 - 473 Mark Rypien 1993 WAS 3.04 - 598 Stan Gelbaugh 1992 SEA 2.10 - 700 Jeff George 1991 IND 3.68 - 650 Troy Aikman 1990 DAL 3.63 - 548 Troy Aikman 1989 DAL 2.80 - 508 Vinny Testaverde 1988 TAM 3.01 - 815 Mark Malone 1987 PIT 2.68 - 674 Jack Trudeau 1986 IND 2.87 - 785 Joe Theismann 1985 WAS 2.43 - 677 Joe Ferguson 1984 BUF 2.61 - 750 Joe Ferguson 1983 BUF 3.48 - 597 Joe Ferguson 1982 BUF 3.06 - 490 Dan Pastorini 1981 RAM -0.24 - 813 Phil Simms 1980 NYG 3.16 - 530 Jeff Komlo 1979 DET 2.33 - 781 Steve DeBerg 1978 SFO 1.58 - 681 Randy Hedberg 1977 TAM -3.21 - 723 Gary Marangi 1976 BUF 0.72 - 721 Archie Manning 1975 NOR 1.20 - 972 Bob Lee 1974 ATL -0.08 - 762 Dan Pastorini 1973 HOU 1.42 - 732 Jim Plunkett 1972 NWE 1.94 - 732 Dennis Shaw 1971 BUF 1.47 - 704 Joe Kapp 1970 BOS 0.56 - 857
Okay, I know what you're all waiting for. Let's get to the career list.
Quarterback Att Rate Joey Harrington 2538 -2129 Rick Mirer 2043 -2081 David Carr 2206 -1804 Ryan Leaf 655 -1607 Frank Tripucka 1745 -1519 Mike Taliaferro 966 -1501 Gary Huff 788 -1433 Kim McQuilken 272 -1392 Alex Smith 800 -1353 Kent Nix 652 -1335 Davey O'Brien 478 -1320 Mike Phipps 1799 -1299 Kyle Boller 1311 -1292 Danny Kanell 956 -1286 Rick Norton 382 -1277 Trent Dilfer 3172 -1275 Tim Couch 1714 -1208 Craig Whelihan 557 -1151 John McCormick 555 -1146 Dan Darragh 296 -1146 Randy Wright 1119 -1117 Dave M. Brown 1634 -1100 King Hill 881 -1081 Joe Kapp 918 -1078 Bud Schwenk 662 -1057 Dennis Shaw 924 -1051 George Izo 317 -1037 Josh McCown 1052 -1024 Kelly Stouffer 437 -1013 Jack Jacobs 552 -1005 Scott Brunner 1046 - 995 Dick Wood 1194 - 993 Dan Pastorini 3055 - 993 Heath Shuler 593 - 984 Jack Thompson 845 - 969 Randy Johnson 1286 - 951 Akili Smith 461 - 939 Jeff Komlo 437 - 916 Stan Gelbaugh 391 - 913 David Klingler 718 - 898
There you have it -- no QB has performed so far below the league average for so long as Joey Harrington. To be clear, Joey Harrington probably isn't the worst quarterback of all time in an absolute sense. But in terms of being so far below average, but far enough above miserable to earn more playing time, Joey Harrington hurt his team more than any other QB in NFL history. If Harrington had been worse, he would have played less, and he wouldn't have set back the teams he played on. To put it another way, if you had the choice of getting Joey Harrington for 2,538 attempts, or Roger Goodell for 9 attempts you would certainly choose Goodell. At least after he's gone, your team has a chance.
You might notice that the four worst QBs of all time were all guys from the last fifteen years. Why? Surely it isn't a coincidence that each QB was a top three pick in the draft. I doubt there's much comfort to Texans fans in the words "At least you made the right decision in the Harrington/Carr sweepstakes." But top picks now, more than ever, are given multiple chances to succeed. And when they're bad, that means many, many chances to fail.
In 1962, the Rams took future NFL MVP QB Roman Gabriel with the second pick in the draft. In 1963, the Rams took QB Terry Baker with the first pick in the draft. He threw only 19 passes as a rookie, but in the '64 draft, the Rams took Bill Munson with their first pick, seventh overall. That sort of stuff just doesn't happen anymore, unless Matt Millen's running your team. So while I'm always on the lookout for era-bias in my rankings, I think we've got a legitimate, non-era reason for why the worst QBs of all time are from this era.
Ironically enough, Harrington actually fares much better on the previous list than on the all time list if you discard all sacks data. For all of Harrington's faults, he's done a terrific job at avoiding sacks. Here are the worst 15 QBs of all time when ignoring sack data:
Joey Harrington 2538 -2596 Rick Mirer 2043 -1761 Frank Tripucka 1745 -1519 Ryan Leaf 655 -1471 Mike Taliaferro 966 -1438 Kent Nix 652 -1323 Davey O'Brien 478 -1320 Mark Malone 1648 -1300 Danny Kanell 956 -1289 Kim McQuilken 272 -1271 Scott Brunner 1046 -1237 Randy Wright 1119 -1216 Gary Huff 788 -1200 Craig Whelihan 557 -1193 Rick Norton 382 -1179
What if we go go back to including sack data, but both eliminate any rushing bonus and drop the baseline to three-fourths of league average? This, I think, probably gets as what most people think of when they think of the worst passers ever. These are the guys that were just really, really bad. Harrington is actually positive for his career when comparing to three-quarters of league average, so he's nowhere to be seen on this list. If you think Harrington is more like the 200th best QB of all time and not the absolute worst, you might like this list better to crown our worst quarterback of all time:
Kim McQuilken 272 -989 Rick Norton 382 -765 Bud Schwenk 662 -741 Stan Heath 106 -704 Dan Darragh 296 -688 George Izo 317 -662 Kent Nix 652 -648 Davey O'Brien 478 -645 John McCarthy 67 -642 Ryan Leaf 655 -588 John McCormick 555 -540 Randy Hedberg 90 -535 Boley Dancewicz 238 -514 George Herring 233 -487 Gary Marangi 283 -465 Bill Mackrides 315 -459 Mike Taliaferro 966 -452 Craig Whelihan 557 -409 Scott Bull 193 -405 Tommy Wade 69 -401 Bob Davis 324 -399 Gary Huff 788 -388 Jack Jacobs 552 -384 King Hill 881 -383 Will Furrer 124 -381
Any list where Kim McQuilken ranks as the worst QB of all time sounds okay to me. From 1974 to 1976, McQuilken threw 3 TDs against 28 interceptions, and lost over 300 yards in sacks against just 261 attempts. McQuilken, for the three year span, averaged -1.63 net adjusted yards per pass attempt. Those Falcons teams would have been better off if he ran a QB sneak each play.
Finally, let's close with a list of the worst QBs of all time for each team. Only the stats a QB accumulated for his team are included on here. One more note -- while I used the 100/95/90 sliding scale to rank the QBs on all the normal career lists, I weighted each season equally here. And, believe it or not, Joey Harrington isn't even the worst QB in Lions' history.
Milt Plum det -2167 Jake Plummer crd -2143 Vinny Testaverde tam -1967 David Carr htx -1866 Randy Johnson atl -1801 Rick Mirer sea -1705 Mike Phipps cle -1687 Rick Norton mia -1544 Kyle Boller rav -1530 Ryan Leaf sdg -1528 Jack Jacobs gnb -1453 Alex Smith sfo -1450 Jack Concannon chi -1438 Frank Tripucka den -1409 Davey O'Brien phi -1366 Dave M. Brown nyg -1357 Jeff George clt -1336 Dennis Shaw buf -1314 Dan Pastorini oti -1285 Mike Taliaferro nwe -1200 Dave Wilson nor -1160 Mark Malone pit -1125 Kerry Collins car -1111 Ralph Guglielmi was -1079 Akili Smith cin -1067 Todd Blackledge kan - 886 Marc Wilson rai - 817 Dan Pastorini ram - 813 Bubby Brister nyj - 660 Quincy Carter dal - 588 Spergon Wynn min - 402 Steve Beuerlein jax - 218
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:52 am
"You might notice that the four worst QBs of all time were all guys from the last fifteen years. Why?"
Also:
- expansion: 30/32 teams means there's a greater disparity between the best starting QB to the worst;
- lack of able veterans from the 1990s: Lions were better off playing Harrington, who had potential to become a star, than trying to sign Mike McMahon, AJ Feeley, Elvis Grbac or other veterans who did not. Drafts from 1990 to 1998 produced one Hall of Famer and at most a dozen starting-caliber QBs, leaving a real lack of depth at the position (especially compared with the 1980s).
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:24 am
One other reason that guys get more of a chance nowadays is just that teams throw more. Back in the 70s, if a QB sucked and a team had no other options to turn to, he might throw 300 attempts over the course of a season before his team could acquire someone else in the offseason. Now, that same QB would get more like 600 throws.
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:29 am
Milt Plum had a very, very odd career. His Cleveland years were fantastic - I'd guess his 1960 season was high on the best ever list.
There has to be a story.
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:15 am
...which makes Plum the anti-Pastorini.
Lunchtime!
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:27 am
Good call, Downpuppy. Plum's 1960 season ranks as the 15th best season ever. Quite a contrast to his 1965 year.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:33 am
I like the clearness of the approach. However, it does seem that the # of attempts overly weights the "worstness" and thus you see more of the recent QB's on the list, due to the increase in throwing the last few years. A longer career with regular starting would also ad to this evaluation dilemma. I work with a lot of social science data and measuring concepts can be tricky business. Deciding the "worst" is certainly conceptual and as we can all see, subjective. But you did operationalize your definition of worst so that all readers can agree by that yardstick.
Another interesting career with some ups and downs was Tobin Rote who played for SD and Detroit and had some success with both while also having at times a poor TD to Int ratio.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:41 am
Good observations, Tim. I think being below average for a long time is pretty bad, because no fan would take that, all other things being equal. No one wants below average performance from their QB for the next five years; I'd easily take really bad performance once year, and a roll of the dice for the next four over that option.
Rote is an interesting example. He's got three years -- '52, '56 and '63 of well over 500 yards added above average. He's also got two years of 700 yards "added" below average ('50 and '59). Some strong ups and downs there.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Your approach - give 'em a shot, & if they're poor to mediocre, try somebody else, - is the modern way. I remember an old Bill James article about the Toronto Blue Jays, talking about how talent is taken from the tail end of the distribution, and how easy it is to replace the worst players out there. At the time, he seemed to think that the Jays were one of the few teams who recognized that & acted accordingly. Now they all do.
Which is why Pastorini is the only guy who got a chance to be worst on 2 teams. Don't start an aging mediocrity - you can keep trying young guys until you find somebody who can win games.
There's no value to going 6-10 vs 4-12. Epic Fail, like Doc Rivers in 2007, & maybe you'll hit the jackpot next year.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I don't know what's a more impressive Buffalo Bills accomplishment--the team's four straight AFC titles, or Joe Ferguson's three straight Worst QB titles. But hey, at least they were loyal! Great post--worst lists are always better for laughs than educational purposes...but in the original Worst post, you included the year-by-year AY/A for the league as a reference. Would it be possible to include the year-by-year league NAY/A in future posts?
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Hey Rock,
Here's a list of the league-wide, year by year NAY/A ratios:
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:31 pm
In 1999, Plummer had 2 rushing touchdowns. In the methodology post, you said you'd be adding 10 points for every rushing touchdown...how does that come into play here? In fact, I'm not quite sure how the rushing numbers fit into the calculations. I mean, I don't wanna cause any headaches here, but the methodology post doesn't actually say what the formula is. The original Best/Worst had a pretty clear-cut formula.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Thanks for the list.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Hey Rock,
QBs get rushing yards for all adjusted (i.e., 10 points for every rushing TD) yard above 4.0 yards per carry. That's what the RY4.0 category is. In 1999, Plummer had 39 carries for 121 yards and 2 TDs. That's 141 adjusted yards, but obviously zero rushing yards above 4.0 yards per carry. The thinking being, if a QB can't get at least 156 rushing yards on 39 carries, he really doesn't deserve any bonus for being a running QB.
It's arbitrary, and it's somewhat plucked from thin air. I'm always interested in hearing other thought son how to improve the system, but i haven't really found any method to count rushing data that seems fair to all QBs. Lots of QB take kneel downs, which drops their average a ton. And while a QB rush for 3 yards is better than an incompletion, it's not better than what you'd expect on your average pass play, or your average RB rush play. So I feel okay with using RY4.0 as my barometer.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:28 pm
When I look back at some of the really bad passing offenses of old, I just don't get it. Take, for example, the 1942 Lions, who threw for one touchdown and 33 interceptions. Shouldn't they have decided, at some point between maybe the 31st and the 32nd interception of the year, that maybe they just shouldn't bother throwing anymore? They were running for a somewhat respectable 3.7 yards per carry.
I am fairly convinced that many coaches just had atrociously poor run-pass ratios for years.
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:01 pm
I have to say I'm pretty surprised that Mark 'Go Home' Malone didn't fare worse (as a long time Steelers fan). It is quite amusing though as a Steelers fan that on the "Worst QB per team list", the following all played for the Steelers at some point:
Mark Malone
Todd Blackledge
Bubby Brister
This maybe isn't surprising since Blackledge and Brister really became journeymen and that's what you'd expect from under achievers.
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Kill me for doing this...while the issue of the rushing numbers is cleared up, I still can't figure out what the value formula is, whether for a guy like Plummer(no rushing number) or a guy like Carr(rushing added). I mean, there's this: (NAY/A - lgNAY/A) / (patt + sacks). How the rushing numbers--when they apply--come in, I don't know. I don't even get a correct calculation when it's just passing numbers. I'm sorry, but what is the exact formula?
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:01 pm
If Goodell is having his nine attempts for the Patriots then yeah, I'm definitely choosing him over Harrington every time. (Rim shot.)
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Hey Rock,
Here's the step by step calculation for Plummer. He averaged 2.375 ANY/A. The league average that year, excluding Plummer, was 4.867. So Plummer, on his 381 pass attempts plus 27 sacks, was 1,017 yards below average.
For Carr, he averaged 3.069 ANY/A. The league average that year, excluding Carr, was 5.03. So Carr, on his 444 pass attempts and 76 sacks, was 1,018 yards below average. But he did put up 312 adjusted rushing yards on only 59 carries, or 76 additional rushing rushing above 4.0 YPC. So we bump Carr up from -1018 to -942.
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Well THAT explains it! Have to admit just a little disappointment that I won't be able to do any calcs on my own like with two years ago, but it is what it is. Still incredibly curious about what the Best lists look like--I get the sneaking suspicion that 1984 Dan Marino will top the season list. Any particular reason why you decided to go with lgAVG excluding each player instead of just general lgAVG? I mean, does it make a difference?
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:31 pm
There’s no value to going 6-10 vs 4-12.
True, but remember, the QB isn't the only thing that determines the team's record. If you have a great defense, a superb running game, but a mind-blowingly atrocious QB, you're not going to win the Super Bowl, but you'll probably still win 7-9 games. Give that team a slightly below average QB, and suddenly you've got a playoff caliber team, one that might very well win a Super Bowl.
June 24th, 2008 at 6:23 am
Well, Rock, one of your colleagues suggested it and I thought it a good idea.
June 24th, 2008 at 8:13 am
"Give that team a slightly below average QB, and suddenly you’ve got a playoff caliber team, one that might very well win a Super Bowl."
Trent Dilfer and the 2001 Ravens say hello.
I find it amusing that Kim McQuilken isn't even the worst Falcons' QB of all time. There were worse? Amazing.
June 24th, 2008 at 8:59 am
what about Scott Mitchell? Why isn't he on the list?
June 24th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Not really part of the discussion but here are a couple of players from the 60's who played a fair amount as back ups and occasionally as starters--Karl Sweetan and George Mira. I kind of always subjectively lumped them as well below par. I'm sure many readers will say "Who" but this is just an old timer speaking. Interestingly, John Unitas once predicted Mira would have a better long term career than Fran Tarkenton.
June 24th, 2008 at 10:54 am
As I recently mentioned in your methodology post, I think normalizing based on team average games per year instead of team average attempts per year skews the results both the positive and negative lists to players who play in years with higher than average attempts/game. Much like it wasn't under their control as to how many games were scheduled, it also wasn't under their control what the league wide pass attempts/game average was.
This effect seems to impact the worst list more than the best list.
June 24th, 2008 at 11:02 am
As a followup, the disparate impact on best vs worst lists might be because it takes a certain amount of time (years) to determine if a QB is a dud, but the limitation on high end performance is longevity. QB longevity might be related to a factor like total career attempts which means that in the eras with fewer passes attempted per game, the good QBs lasts for more seasons until age limits the physical ability.
This would somewhat compensating for the decreased attempts/game in their era for the good QBs, while the decreased attempts/game make the constant decision time on the bad QBs less painful since they were utilized less.
June 24th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Hey mikilos,
Mitchell wasn't all bad. He does have the 90th best season of all time. His worst season -- 2000 with the Bengals -- ranks a little bit outside of the 200 worst seasons ever. For his career, he ranks as the 129th best QB ever. That might "seem" high to you, but consider: it puts him one spot ahead of Mike Tomczak.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Hey Tim,
Good call on Sweetan -- he ranks as the 42nd worst QB of all time. George Mira ranks right on average for his career. His worst season was in 1969, but he didn't get nearly enough attempts to rank notably low.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Good points, Dan. One thing I'll say is I do believe modern QBs are more valuable to their teams precisely because they throw the ball more. That might not be "fair" in some sense to older QBs, but simply put, 2007 notwithstanding, the need to have a great QB to win is more important now than before.
June 24th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Hey Rich,
McQuilken was surely worse than Randy Johnson in terms of being a QB; but McQuilken was only the QB for a couple hundred attempts. That didn't hurt Atlanta as much as throwing away over 900 attempts on Johnson.
June 24th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
I think in the last few years an underappreciated reason for poor quarterback play is that tightened rules keeping defenses off receivers have made sharp quarterback play even more important than before.
Trent Dilfer still wonders why he got axed by the Ravens even hough they won a Superbowl with him? He'd better look in the mirror.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:48 am
I know he didn't play much, but I am surprised NOT to see Detroit Lions' Andre Ware. Now THERE was a gem.
June 25th, 2008 at 6:20 am
Chase, nice work. It would be interesting to see the list of worst NFL management over the last 50 years. Your post already calls out Matt Millen so I assume the Lions would be near the top of the worst.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Its a little curious how Joey Harrington can be the worst QB of all time but not the worst QB the Lions ever had. I realize you don't include his stats from other teams but frankly Harrington hasn't had that much time to suck for other teams. MOST of his stats are with the Lions.
So how?
June 25th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Chase,
Yes throwing more above average passes in a season makes the QB more valuable, regardless of what the average pass count is. However, does playing in an era when passing is devauled versus other options (and hence a lower pass attempt/game figure) mean that the QB is less worth of the label best/worst?
We're not rating quarterbacks against other positions. It seems wrong to me to give extra credit for those who play in pass happy years, much like the NFL's QB rating formula is horribly biased as it isn't zero sum/normalized.
I guess that I'm coming at it from a perspective of considering a QB in one year who's 1 ANY/A over average the same as another from a different year. If teams threw half the passes for one QB as the other (but they played similar game counts), I'd like to see them rated close to similar, rather than having the era impact their ratings.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Chase,
Did you see that the guys over at KSK linked to your post?
June 28th, 2008 at 7:19 am
Why isn't Bobby Douglas (Chi. Bears, 1969-70)
at the top of the list.
August 1st, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Worst QB Chokers of All-Time (regardless of inflated stats): Warren Moon & Dan Fouts, both of whom played in offenses that allowed them to put up big numbers, but they ALWAYS choked in the playoffs!!
September 21st, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Moon regular season
237 yards, 1.4 TD, 1.1 INT, 80.9 QB Rating
Moon playoffs
283 yards, 1.7 TD, 1.4 INT, 84.5 QB Rating
Moon played on stat-inflating pass happy offenses for the majority of his career, but I don't see how his playoff performance qualifies as choking at all, much less "Worst QB Choker of All-Time"
December 30th, 2008 at 1:01 am
You have obviously done your homework. It is hard to argue since you use a numeric formula to assess the worst quarterback. In my mind the worst quarterbacks in history are 1.Ryan Leaf, 2.Tim Couch and 3. Jim Pischarchik. Not sure of the spelling but as a diehard Giants fan, Jim broke my heart on that balmy afternoon when a botched hand off lost us a game and made Herman Edwards of Philadelphia a household name
December 30th, 2008 at 1:04 am
As far as your career list, can we give Trent Dilfer a "pass". He was no Hall of Famer but he did help the Baltimore Ravens win a Superbowl. Superbowl winning quarterbacks deserve some type of special treatment in this case.
December 30th, 2008 at 8:32 am
the worst quartback was leaf he had know leadership at all.he"s the worst of all time period!
January 3rd, 2009 at 4:00 pm
I'm amazed at the TD to Interception ratio of some of the stars of the 60's/70's and also the low completion percentages. Guys like Blanda and Pastorini threw more picks than TD passes and it isn't really close. I think the West Coast type offenses have helped some of the stats.
July 1st, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Come on. Give Slingin' Spergon Wynn some love. Started 3 career NFL games and managed to throw 7 interceptions.
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Harrington really wasn't that bad. I mean, these list really do not give him justice for what he had to go through with the Lions. Remember, he had nothing to work with(outside of Roy Williams): no line, no defense, and no big time play maker. In fact, in some ways, Harrington was one of the best things that ever happened to the Lions. He exposed a bad coaching staff, a bad manager, and a team full of player who really didn't care. He had effective leadership, which was why he often(17 times in four years) was able to lead his team to a victory with under two minutes left in a game. And remember, when in Miami he had a good year(outside of the 0.0 game in which he was injured) which he led a Miami team to defeat the then undefeated Bears. And in Atlanta, not bad, just not great.
October 9th, 2009 at 11:52 am
What about Todd Marinovich? I know he didn't complete an entire season but come on, he has to be the worst!