99 Stats Until Kickoff (#76) Colin Kaepernick goes from less than a half season as starting QB to the Super Bowl
From May 30 and every day until September 5… the start of the 2013 NFL season… Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ will publish “99 Stats Until Kickoff” a daily dose of NFL stats that will get you ready for the 2013 NFL season.)
Despite only nine career regular starts at quarterback (seven regular season and two playoff), the legend of second-year San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick continued to grow as the 2012 season came to a close. With a start at QB in the Super Bowl after only seven regular-season starts, Kaepernick’s legend certainly could have skyrocketed with a Super Bowl win, but the Ravens had other ideas.
But just taking the field as the 49ers QB was enough to put Kaepernick in special company. Consider this: Kaepernick became the fifth starting QB in Super Bowl history with less than half of his team’s regular-season starts at that position. Kaepernick started seven of the 49ers 16 games, replacing an injured Alex Smith in the 10th game of the year. He led the 49ers to a win over Chicago and never relinquished the starting position. San Francisco went 5-2 in the games he started at QB.
Kaepernick’s seven starts in the regular season is not, however, the fewest by a Super Bowl quarterback in that season. A pair of NFC QB’s had only two regular starts in the year that they started the Super Bowl. Washington’s Doug Williams started only two regular season games (Washington lost both games) for the Redskins in the 1987 season replacing Jay Schroeder, but he started at QB for the Redskins when they went on to win the Super Bowl that year. Williams was the MVP of that game.
New York Giant Jeff Hostetler in 1990 started only a pair of regular season contests for the “G-Men” replacing an injured Phil Simms. The Giants won the Super Bowl that year.
Here’s a look at the five QBs who started less than half their teams regular-season games in a year when they started at QB in the Super Bowl.
Season, QB, team, regular-season starts at QB
1972: Bob Griese, Miami (five regular-season starts)
1979: Vince Ferragamo, L.A. Rams (five regular-season starts)
1987: Doug Williams, Washington (two regular-season starts)
1990: Jeff Hostetler, N.Y. Giants (two regular-season starts)
2012: Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco (seven regular-season starts)
Note: Two more Super Bowl starting quarterbacks started only seven games in the regular season before their Super Bowl start: Len Dawson and Terry Bradshaw. For both Dawson and Bradshaw, those seven starts represented exactly half of the 14 games their teams played that season.
One more note: Of the 94 starting QBs in the 47-year history of the Super Bowl, 47 (exactly half) started all of his team’s regular-season games that season.
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99 Stats Until Kickoff: (#27) Aaron Rodgers 50-plus sacks can’t stop him from another 100+ Passer Rating Season
From May 30 and every day until September 5… the start of the 2013 NFL season… Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ will publish “99 Stats Until Kickoff” a daily dose of NFL stats that will get you ready for the 2013 NFL season.)
(Photo credit: elviskennedy)
As the Green Bay Packers starting QB the past five seasons, Aaron Rodgers has definitely set a standard that will be hard to duplicate when he hangs up his #12 uniform. Whether it’s TD passes, a career passer rating over 100, or a 52-26 regular season record as the Packers starting QB, Rodgers has put some eye-opening numbers on his professional football resume.
Here’s another one to consider: Rodgers this year became the first QB in NFL history to have two seasons where he was sacked 50-plus times but compiled a passer rating of 100 or more in that season. This year Rodgers was sacked 51 times and had a passer rating of 108. In 2009, Rodgers was sacked 50 times yet still had a season passer rating of 103.2.
Nine times there have been NFL quarterbacks who were sacked 50 or more times in a season yet the QB was able to compile a passer rating of 90 or above. With his 108 passer rating this year with 51 sacks, Rodgers now has the highest season passer rating of any NFL QB with 50-plus sacks.
Here’s a look at the QBs who have had a passer rating of 90 or above in a season when they were sacked 50-plus times.
Quarterback, season, passer rating (sacks)
1. Aaron Rodgers, 2012, 108 (51)
2. Aaron Rodgers, 2009, 103.2 (50)
3. Ben Roethlisberger, 2009, 100.5 (50)
4. Steve Bartkowski, 1983, 97.6 (51)
5. Ken O’Brien, 1985, 96.2 (62)
6. Steve Beuerlein, 1999, 94.6 (50)
7. Tony Eason, 1984, 93.4 (59)
8. Jeff George, 1997, 91.2 (58)
9. Craig Morton, 1981, 90.5 (54)
Rodgers this season became the 13th QB in NFL history to get sacked 50 or more times in two or more seasons. Here are those 13 QBs:
50-plus sack seasons, QBs
4: Randall Cunningham
3: Mark Brunell, Ken O’Brien, Phil Simms
2: Steve Beuerlein, Drew Bledsoe, David Carr, Tim Couch, Jeff George, Jon Kitna, Dave Krieg, Neil Lomax, Aaron Rodgers
Did you know:
* Rodgers was the only QB to get sacked 50 or more times this season. No QB was sacked 50-plus times last year. The only QB to get sacked 50-plus times in 2010 was Jay Cutler of the Bears who was sacked 52 times.
* David Carr holds the NFL record with 76 sacks in 2002 when he was the Houston QB.
* Rodgers’ 39 touchdown passes this season is the most by a QB who was sacked 50 or more times in a season. The previous high was 36 by Steve Beuerlein in 1999.
* Rodgers’ 67.2 percent pass completion rate this season is the highest of any QB who was sacked 50 or more times in a season. The previous high was 66.6 percent by Ben Roethlisberger in 2009.
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QB success a key to NFL playoff victories
Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a sports statistics blog published with a focus on stats that go beyond the numbers.
Joe Montana (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
You don’t have to be a football expert to know that having a quarterback at the top of his game can go a long ways to leading a team to a successful season. In fact, many teams in the past have seen their QB single-handedly lead their team to a title.
Case in point: One of the indicators of QB success has been the Passer Rating. The value of this formula has been enthusiastically debated, but for the sake of this blog, let’s assume that Passer Rating is a valuable tool to evaluating NFL quarterbacks. Since 1966, the start of the Super Bowl era, there have been 219 quarterbacks who have had a Passer Rating of 100.0 or higher in a playoff game. Of those 219 games, the QB’s team has won 192 of those games, a winning percentage of .877. You can certainly make the point that a good QB performance (100.0 or better) in a playoff game will lead to victory and advancement in the post-season.
Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers last weekend became the 15th QB since 1966 to have five or more playoff games with a 100.0 or higher Passer Rating. Rodgers’ Passer Rating was 104.9 in the Pack’s win over the Minnesota Vikings. Baltimore’s Joe Flacco was the only other QB last weekend to have a 100-plus Passer Rating as he had a 125.6 Passer Rating in their win over the Colts.
Here’s a look at the 15 QB’s since 1966 that have had five or more playoff games with a Passer Rating of 100 or higher.
Playoff games with 100-plus Passer Rating (since 1966), QBs
12: Joe Montana
10: Brett Favre
9: Troy Aikman
7: Tom Brady, Terry Bradshaw
6: Roger Staubach
5: Drew Brees, Jake Delhomme, John Elway, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Dan Marino, Aaron Rodgers, Ken Stabler, Steve Young
Here’s a few more stats regarding Passer Rating in the playoffs:
* Since 2000, there have been 77 playoff games where a QB had a Passer Rating of 100.0 or higher. Those teams have won 65 of the 77 games, a winning percentage of .844.
* Only two quarterbacks since 1966 have had a Passer Rating of 100 or higher and lost two playoff games: Joe Montana and Warren Moon.
Let’s look at the other end of the scale… QBs who had terrible games, a Passer Rating under 50 in a playoff game. Since 1966, there have been 190 playoff games where the QB had a Passer Rating under 50 in that game. Those teams have won only 24 of the 190 games, a winning percentage of only .126.
The last quarterback to win a playoff game with a Passer Rating under 50 was Ben Roethlisberger. On January 23, 2011 in the Steelers 24-19 win over the New York Jets, Roethlisberger had a Passer Rating of 35.5.
Five quarterbacks have had four or more playoff games with a Passer Rating under 50. Craig Morton tops the list with five such games. Mark Brunell, Pat Haden, Ron Jaworski and Jim Kelly each had four.
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Tom Brady joins John Elway at top of Super Bowl starts by QB list
John Elway... Image via Wikipedia
Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a biweekly blog published every Wednesday and Sunday with a bonus “SIX STATS…” posting every Friday.
Recently, blog follower (and Boston sports fan) Dave Dryer wondered about multiple appearances by quarterbacks in the Super Bowl. Specifically, Dave wanted to know how Tom Brady making his fifth Super Bowl start in 11 years compared with other QBs who have started multiple Super Bowls.
For the record:
* Brady’s five Super Bowl starts ties him with Denver’s John Elway for most Super Bowl starts by a QB.
* Brady’s 11-year timespan from first to last Super Bowl start ranks second on the list.
* Nine quarterbacks started back-to-back Super Bowl games: Elway (twice), Brady, Terry Bradshaw (twice), Joe Montana, Roger Staubach, Jim Kelly (three times; he actually started four consecutive Super Bowls), Troy Aikman, Bob Griese (twice; he actually started three consecutive Super Bowls), Fran Tarkenton, Bart Starr, Joe Theismann, and Brett Favre.
* Longest gap between Super Bowl starts by a QB? Eight years. Elway started Super Bowl 24 and the Super Bowl 32. Kurt Warner had a seven-year gap between consecutive starts (he started Super Bowl 36 and Super Bowl 43), Craig Morton also had a seven-year gap (he started Super Bowl 5 and Super Bowl 12).
Here’s a look at the 19 quarterbacks who have made (or will be making, in the case of Eli Manning) two or more starts in a Super Bowl. Also noted is the year of their first start and the year of their “last” start (Brady, Roethlisberger and Eli & Peyton Manning are still active and may get a chance to start another Super Bowl; plus you never know if Favre will suddenly want to play again later this decade).
Quarterback Super Bowl starts First/Last SB start Years
John Elway 5 1987/1999 13
Tom Brady 5 2002/2012 11
Joe Montana 4 1982/1990 9
Roger Staubach 4 1972/1979 8
Terry Bradshaw 4 1975/1980 6
Jim Kelly 4 1991/1994 4
Kurt Warner 3 2000/2009 10
Ben Roethlisberger 3 2006/2011 6
Troy Aikman 3 1993/1996 4
Fran Tarkenton 3 1974/1977 4
Bob Griese 3 1972/1974 3
Craig Morton 2 1971/1978 8
Eli Manning 2 2008/2012 5
Jim Plunkett 2 1981/1984 4
Len Dawson 2 1967/1970 4
Peyton Manning 2 2007/2010 4
Bart Starr 2 1967/1968 2
Joe Theismann 2 1983/1984 2
Brett Favre 2 1997/1998 2
(Thanks, Dave, for a great suggestion!)
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