TODAY’s SPORTSTAT-February 25, 2019

Who has been the Packers worst QB in the Super Bowl era?

There is no argument when it comes to who are the best quarterbacks for the Green Bay Packers franchise… there are two Hall of Famers, Bart Starr and Brett Favre, and a future HOFer in Aaron Rodgers. The only discussion might be who would take the fourth spot in a Packers QB Mt. Rushmore, but even that might be a brief discussion as Lynn Dickey would be a solid choice for the fourth spot.

But what about the worst QB for the Packers? Is there a clear-cut selection?

To answer that question, I looked at five stats. First, I limited the discussion to only quarterbacks who played for the Packers in the Super Bowl era (1966 and beyond). There have been 18 players who attempted 100 or more career passes with the Packers since 1966. (In case you wanted to see if you could name all 18, here they are: Zeke Bratkowski, Lynn Dickey, Anthony Dilweg, Brett Favre, Matt Flynn, John Hadl, Scott Hunter, Don Horn, Brett Hundley, Blair Kiel, Don Majkowski, Aaron Rodgers, Bart Starr, Jerry Tagge, Mike Tomczak, David Whitehurst, Randy Wright, and Jim Zorn.)

The five stats I used were pass completion percentage, TD percentage, interceptions percentage, Passer Rating and win-loss percentage as a starter.

Following are the five Packers QBs since 1966 that had the lowest rankings in these five stat categories:

Lowest pass completion percentage
Hunter, 43.95%… Zorn, 45.53%… Tagge, 48.4%… Horn, 48.94… Whitehurst, 51.43%

Highest interception percentage
Horn, 7.75%… Hunter, 6.73%… Bratkowski, 6.54%… Tagge, 6.05%… Hadl, 5.40%

Lowest TD percentage
Tagge, 1.1%… Hadl, 1.7%… Wright, 2.8%… Hundley, 2.8%… Whitehurst, 2.9%

Passer Rating
Tagge, 44.2… Hunter, 49.0… Hadl, 53.2… Zorn, 57.4… Whitehurst, 59.2

Win-loss percentage (minimum of 10 games started at QB for the Pack to qualify)
Wright, 7-25 (.219)… Hadl, 7-12 (.368)… Dickey, 43-56-2 (.436)… Whitehurst, 16-20-1 (.446)… Majkowski, 22-26-1 (.459)

Okay… if we take these five stats and assign a numerical value to each, I come up with my list of the five QBs who would statistically rank as the Top Five worst Packers QBs in the Super Bowl era. They are:

1. Jerry Tagge: (1972-74). Started 12 games for the Packers. The 11^th overall pick in the 1972 draft. Played only three seasons in Green Bay with only three TD passes and 17 interceptions. Was released prior to the ’75 season. Did not play in the NFL after that.
2. Scott Hunter: (1971-73). Selected in the sixth round of the 1971 draft. Started 29 games for the Pack, 10 in his rookie season. Led the team to a 10-4 record in ’72 and a NFC Central crown. Was traded to the Buffalo Bills inn 1974.
3. John Hadl: Traded to the Packers and played two seasons (1974-75) with the Pack. His trade to the Pack for five draft choices has been called one of the worst trades of a QB in NFL history. Hadl, who earlier had a great career for the San Diego Chargers, was a flop with the Packers throwing only nine TD passes with 29 interceptions in 22 games with Green Bay.
4. Randy Wright: Wright played collegiately at Wisconsin and was a sixth round pick of the Packers in 1984. He played five seasons in Green Bay, starting 32 games. He was only 7-25 as a starter with the team.
5. Don Horn: Another first round pick of the Packers in 1967. Played four seasons in Green Bay, although he only played in 20 games, starting six of them. Was traded to Denver in 1971. Did win four of the six games he started for the Pack.

So what do you think? Who is your choice?

Comments?

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