99 Stats Until Kickoff: (#23) Eli Manning reaches 200-TD milestone for QBs
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With his 13-yard touchdown pass to Hakeem Nicks in the third quarter of the Giants’ 38-10 win over the Green Bay Packers on November 25, 2012, Eli Manning reached a couple of milestones in his career:
* Manning’s TD pass to Nicks gave him 200 for his career and moved him ahead of Phil Simms (199 TD passes) for most TD passes by a New York Giants QB.
* Manning became the 33rd QB in NFL history to reach the 200-TD mark.
In addition, Eli became the 19th QB in league history to throw 200 or more touchdown passes for one team, making the Giants the 15th franchise to have at least one QB with 200-plus TD passes.
Here’s a rundown of the teams with one (or more) QBs with 200-plus TD passes with their franchise:
3: San Francisco (Joe Montana, 244; Steve Young, 221; John Brodie, 214)
2: Indianapolis (Peyton Manning, 399; Johnny Unitas, 287)
2: San Diego (Dan Fouts, 254; John Hadl, 201)
1: Arizona (Jim Hart, 209)
1: Buffalo (Jim Kelly, 237)
1: Denver (John Elway, 300)
1: Green Bay (Brett Favre, 442)
1: Kansas City (Len Dawson, 237)
1: Miami (Dan Marino, 420)
1: Minnesota (Fran Tarkenton, 239)
1: New England (Tom Brady, 334)
1: New Orleans (Drew Brees, 232)
1: New York Giants (Eli Manning, 211)
1: Philadelphia (Donovan McNabb, 216)
1: Pittsburgh: (Terry Bradshaw, 212)
There are 14 QBs who have thrown for 200-plus TDs in their career, but do not have 200 or more with one team. Those QBs are: Warren Moon, Vinny Testaverde, Sonny Jurgensen, Drew Bledsoe, Dave Krieg, Boomer Esiason, Y.A. Tittle, George Blanda, Kerry Collins, Kurt Warner, Randall Cunningham, Jim Everett, Roman Gabriel and Matt Hasselbeck.
It’s also interesting to note that four current quarterbacks are approaching the 200-TD mark for their teams and will likely change the landscape of the list above in various ways. For example:
* Dallas’ Tony Romo last season surpassed Troy Aikman for most TD passes in Cowboys’ history. Romo now sits atop the Cowboys’ list with 177 TD passes. Will Romo be in Dallas long enough to become the first Cowboys’ QB to throw 200 TD passes?
* The Packers Aaron Rodgers during the 2012 season passed Bart Starr (152) for second on the team’s list for most TD passes with the franchise. He now has 171 TD passes and could become the Pack’s second 200-TD QB in this upcoming season.
* Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers missed three games in 2012 but was still able last year to up his career TD pass total with the team to 191. He will likely join Terry Bradshaw as Pittsburgh’s 200-TD quarterbacks sometime in the first half of the 2013 season.
* San Diego’s Philip Rivers has 189 career TD passes with the Chargers. He will probably join Fouts and Hadl with 200 when he reaches that mark early this season. That will make the San Diego franchise only the second in league history to have three QBs with 200-plus TD passes.
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Can Cam Newton match Aaron Rodgers first two career starts?
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Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a biweekly blog published every Wednesday and Sunday with a bonus “SIX STATS…” posting every Friday.
A lot has been said about Cam Newton‘s performance last Sunday in his NFL debut. Not to take anything away from Newton, but his fellow rookie starter at QB, Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton, also had a good start to his NFL career, although he was injured in the game and had to be replaced. Dalton completed 10 of 15 passes with one touchdown in his first NFL start for a 102.4 passer rating. Newton passed for 422 yards and finished the game with a 110.4 passer rating.
What makes Newton’s and Dalton’s first career starts impressive is that it is rare for an NFL QB starting his first career game to finish with a passer rating over 100. Case in point: Looking at the other 30 starting quarterbacks from last week, only four of them had a passer rating over 100 when they started their first career game in the league. Topping the list was Atlanta’s Matt Ryan who had a 137 passer rating in his first NFL start. The other three: Drew Brees (136.8), Philip Rivers (133.9) and Aaron Rodgers (115.5).
Worst starting debut in the league of the other 30 QBs who started last week: Alex Smith (8.5), Matthew Stafford (27.4), Matt Schaub (35.4), Tarvaris Jackson (35.4), Eli Manning (45.1), Donovan McNabb (46.3) and Matt Hasselbeck (48.4).
Here’s another interesting stat… Not only did Aaron Rodgers have a passer rating over 100 in his first career start, but he also had a passer rating over 100 in his second career start with a 117.0. Ryan, Brees and Rivers were all under 100 in their second career start, although Rivers just missed two straight 100 rating games with a 99.1 in his second career start. The big question: Can Newton and Dalton match Rodgers first two career starts with a passer rating over 100?
WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG FOR A TRIVIA QUESTION: Reader Steve Douglas asked against what franchise did the most Hall of Fame quarterbacks play their last game? Answer at the end of the blog.
Let’s expand the list of quarterbacks to compare Newton and Dalton. We looked at 13 Hall of Fame QBs who had 150 or more career TDs and 13 QBs not currently in the Hall who have 200 or more career TDs. Of those 26 QBs, only five had a passer rating of 100 or higher in their first career start. The five: Brett Favre (144.6), Roman Gabriel (128.5), Jim Kelly (119.8), Roger Staubach (115.3) and Dan Marino (108.7). Of those five, only Marino had a passer rating over 100 in his second career start as well (113.9).
The worst starting debuts of the 26: John Elway (0.0), John Hadl (0.0), Jim Everett (4.2), Fran Tarkenton (15.5), Terry Bradshaw (19.3), Randall Cunningham (22.7), Jim Hart (24.4), Bob Griese (25.0).
Did you know? Hadl not only had a 0.0 passer rating in his first career start, he also had a 0.0 passer rating in his second career start as well. He went on to throw 244 career touchdowns, most with the San Diego Chargers.
TRIVIA ANSWER: Of the 25 Hall of Fame quarterbacks, four played their last game against the Los Angeles Rams (Otto Graham, Sonny Jurgensen, Roger Staubach and Fran Tarkenton). Four teams had two Hall QBs play their last game against them: Miami, San Diego, Washington, Jacksonville. (Note: Last game stats were not available for two of the 25, Bob Waterfied and Sid Luckman)
NFL QBs: Success with a 100.0+ Passer Rating
Jay Cutler... Image via Wikipedia
Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a biweekly blog published every Wednesday and Sunday
Now that the NFL has officially kicked off the 2011 season with the first week of pre-season games, let’s look at a few numbers of interest.
It goes without saying that a quarterback who has a good game will have a positive affect on his team’s success. One of the ways to gauge a QB’s success in a game is the Passer Rating. If we establish a rating of 100 or better as a QB who has had a real good game, how well have some of the teams of the game’s best signal-callers (past and present) done in these games? First, let’s look at some of today’s quarterbacks. (Minimum of 15 regular season games with a Passer Rating of 100 or more)
Active Quarterback W-L Pct.
Jay Cutler 21-0 1.000
Matt Ryan 16-0 1.000
Tom Brady 60-3 .952
Donovan McNabb 43-4 .915
Ben Roethlisberger 38-4 .905
Joe Flacco 17-2 .895
Peyton Manning 73-9 .890
Drew Brees 44-9 .830
Tony Romo 28-6 .824
David Garrard 22-6 .786
Matt Hasselbeck 29-8 .784
Aaron Rodgers 20-7 .741
Matt Schaub 17-7 .708
Michael Vick 17-7 .708
Matt Cassel 12-5 .706
Eli Manning 19-8 .704
Jason Campbell 11-5 .688
WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG FOR A TRIVIA QUESTION: What is considered a “perfect passer rating?” 150, 158.3, 140, or 145.5? Answer at end of blog.
How do these active QBs above compare to some of the NFL’s best? Here’s how some of the retired QB’s fared in regular season games when they had a 100 or higher Passer Rating in a game (the list includes those QBs who passed for 250 or more TDs in their career)
Retired Quarterbacks W-L Pct.
Johnny Unitas 37-0 1.000
Drew Bledsoe 38-2 .950
Brett Favre 99-9 .917
Joe Montana 64-6 .914
Warren Moon 40-4 .909
John Elway 54-10 .844
Dan Fouts 35-7 .833
Fran Tarkenton 62-15 .805
Dave Krieg 46-12 .793
Dan Marino 53-14 .791
Sonny Jurgensen 31-13-3 .691
Vinny Testaverde 32-17 .653
TRIVIA ANSWER: A perfect passer rating is considered to be 158.3.
Did you know? Only three quarterbacks have passed for three or more “perfect games” in their career… Peyton Manning (4), Ben Roethlisberger (3) and Kurt Warner (3)
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