Adam Steele is back, this time with some playoff support stats for eight more quarterbacks. You can view all of Adam’s posts here.

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Two weeks ago, I published a study detailing the playoff supporting casts of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. Today I’m going to look at eight more notable quarterbacks under the same microscope. Below are the career tables for each QB, in no particular order.

Aaron Rodgers:

Drew Brees:

Eli Manning:

Joe Flacco:

Ben Roethlisberger:

Kurt Warner:

Russell Wilson:

Philip Rivers:

And now, a comparison of all 10 quarterbacks in this study:

Remember those days when the talking heads repeatedly asked, “Is Joe Flacco elite?” I have your answer: He’s not. Outside of his miracle 2012 run to the championship, Flacco has been mediocre at best in the postseason, being dragged to numerous wins by the Ravens’ elite defense and special teams. ^[1]Chase note: As somewhat of a counter to this, Flacco was pretty bad in the playoffs early in his career and pretty good recently. That “improvement” gets lost in the averages, although … Continue reading Flacco has been an average QB during the regular season and an average QB in the playoffs, and frankly a perfect example of why win/loss record is a ridiculous method for evaluating quarterbacks. His AFC North rival, Ben Roethlisberger, has had a playoff career with any eerily similar trajectory to Tom Brady’s – backed by an elite supporting cast in the early years, then hung out to dry in the second half of his career. Russell Wilson appears to be on a similar track as Brady and Roethlisberger, with the Legion of Boom carrying him to a number of playoff wins at the beginning of his career. It seems inevitable that Seattle’s defense will heavily regress at some point (we already saw signs in 2015), and Wilson will be asked to carry the Seahawks on his back. Even if he continues to improve as a QB, his playoff record will likely decline in the process.

Kurt Warner compiled a 9-4 playoff record with negative support overall, and only benefited from positive support in four out of 13 games. Warner is the rare case of a QB whose playoff record truly is a reflection of his performance, which was excellent by any measure. Despite the ugly -6.01 support average, Aaron Rodgers has had positive support in nearly half of his playoff games, with two complete defensive meltdowns dragging his average down. Philip Rivers has been consistently letdown by his teammates in the playoffs, most memorably by Marlon McCree in 2006 and Nate Kaeding in 2009. He’s been a great regular season QB and a decent playoff QB, but Rivers simply hasn’t benefited from enough lucky breaks to elevate his legacy. Maybe he’ll pull and Elway or Manning and walk out on top in his late 30’s.

I’m fascinated by the case of Drew Brees, as his career highlights the absurdity of how we judge the legacies of great quarterbacks. Brees has been absolutely shafted in the playoffs by terrible defenses; I would venture to guess that historically speaking, only Dan Marino has suffered from more pitiful playoff support than Brees. As a result, despite being a full time starter for 14 years, Brees has amassed “only” six playoff victories and one SB championship. That’s less than half of Manning’s win total and less than 1/3 of Brady’s. Yet somehow, Brees has generally escaped criticism from the same people who tear down other QB’s for their lack of playoff success. Why? In terms of QB legacies, losing in the playoffs is considered a major black mark, and the dreaded one-and-done is branded as a nearly unforgivable sin. Brees has incurred a mere five playoff losses and only gone one-and-done on a single occasion, so he really hasn’t had any memorable postseason failures. Of course, his playoff record ignores the elephant in the room – Brees has failed to qualify for the playoffs in eight of his 14 seasons!

Common sense tells us that losing in the first round of the playoffs is a bigger accomplishment than missing the playoffs entirely. However, common sense evaporates in the backwards world of QB legacy discussions. In Brees’ case, his legacy has benefited immensely from watching the playoffs at home so many times. Here’s a thought experiment: Imagine that instead of missing the playoffs eight times, Brees dragged each of those mediocre teams to the postseason, only to lose in the wild card game every year. He would have a dismal 6-13 record including a ghastly nine one-and-dones. Despite accomplishing more than he has during his actual career, Brees would likely be excoriated as the most prolific choker and underachiever in NFL history. How preposterous is that? In my opinion, QB playoff W/L record is the single worst “statistic” in all of sports, and countless legacies have been unfairly elevated or damaged as a result of its widespread use.

I’d love to hear your thoughts!