It’s hard not to be amazed by the seasons that Colin Kaepernick, Robert Griffin III and Russell Wilson had as first-year starters in 2012. It’s playing around with the cut-offs to an absurd degree, but prior to 2012, only six men in NFL history had ever:
Averaged 7.9 yards per attempt on at least 200 passes
Average at least 5.0 yards per carry on at least 50 rushes
Bobby Layne is one of only two Lions quarterbacks to make the Pro Bowl. Matthew Stafford isn’t the other, but the answer to today’s trivia question is.
Greg Landry made his only Pro Bowl in 1971, when he threw for 2,237 yards (averaging 8.6 yards per attempt) and 16 touchdowns, while also rushing 76 times for 530 yards (7.0 YPC average) and 3 touchdowns.
Well, I thought I had it, but I should have realized Randall Cunningham would be far too easy. Once looking at the first hint and seeing that I was wrong, I went through a whole series of guys who I just didn’t think could be right (including Bobby Douglass–I thought there was no way that he could have averaged 7.9 y/a and wasn’t sure he ever threw 200 passes) and couldn’t come up with even a good guess until the final hint, when I did guess correctly without any confidence at all in the guess.
That was a good question. It wasn’t impossible, but it wasn’t easy, either.
If you asked for all six guys I would have gone with Tarkenton, Staubach, Landry, Culpepper and Vick and then maybe would’ve been stumped by Rodgers. I would not have thought Young averaged 7.9 yards per attempt in any of his Buccaneers years.
Tarkenton was a regular starter his rookie year.
56 rushes, 5.5 avg
280 passes, 7.1 ypa
Staubach was a regular starter in 1971. He had one start in 1969 and three starts in 1970, so I guess we are to look at 1971 here.
41 rushes, 8.4 avg
211 passes, 8.9 ypa
Landry started half the Lions games in 1969 and six in 1970, but if we consider 1971 to be his first year as the regular starter then he qualifies here.
Landry in 1971-
76 rushes, 7.0 avg
261 passes, 8.6 ypa
Culpepper started all 16 games in his second season and his two numbers were 5.3 and 8.3.
Young started five games in 1985 and 14 in 1986. His ypa was under 7 in each season.
It looks like Tarkenton, Landry and Culpepper qualify.
Staubach, Young, Vick and Rodgers fall short one way or another.
Or I did not read the question correctly.
I would not have gone with Cunningham (if asked to name all six) because that 1986 Eagles offense stunk. Mike Quick and Kenny Jackson didn’t catch enough passes to help Ron Jaworski and Cunningham in the YPA department. The offense was mostly about short passes and getting sacked. I remember the late afternoon they played vs the Giants in New Jersey. Both QBs did nothing in the game. I do not quite recall whether Jaworski was pulled for poor play or a rough shot he took on a sack y Lawrence Taylor. I am pretty sure it rained in that game or at least in the 4th quarter. It was a dreary game all the way through for the Eagles.
Got Landry on 2nd hint. Thought Staubach with the 1971 hint. But he only started fully 10 games as he finished the season and Dallas wins the SB. He had > 7.9 passing but did not reach the 50 carries mark (had 41). He did lead the league in passing! Fun question and nice to hear about Greg Landry of Detroit (plus you had another good trivia question- which two Detroit QB’s ever made the Pro Bowl?)
I took this to mean those were the only quarterbacks to record those numbers in the same year during any point in their careers. I checked each one’s year totals and it seems Tarkenton had two years with those numbers (64 & 65), Culpepper had 2 years (2,000 & 2004), Rogers had 2 years (2009 & 2010), Cam Newton had 2 years (2011 & 2012)…but Steve Young easily had the most of anybody with 5 years. 1991 – 279 att. – 9.0 av., 66 runs – 6.3 av./ 1992 – 402 att.- 8.6 av., 76 runs – 7.1 av.,/1993 – 462 att.-8.7 av., 69 runs – 5.9 av./1994- 461 att.-8.6 av., 58 runs – 5.1 av./and 1998 – 517 att. – 8.1 av., 70 runs – 6.5 av. I’ve looked at other major quarterbacks such as Cunningham, Douglass, Staubach, Elway, Montana etc. and haven’t found any who qualify for all the variables such as the minimum 200 pass attempts & 50 carries.
Consider the following example. The Colts gain possession at the 20-yard line. Andrew Luck is in shotgun and throws a strike to Reggie Wayne, who catches it at the 30, runs 15 yards, and gets tackled at the 45-yard line. Luck gets credited with 25 passing yards and Wayne records 25 receiving yards. Wayne is […]
Over at Footballguys.com, I look at a different method to project receiving yards. The number of receiving yards a player produces is the result of a large number of variables. Some of them, like the receiver’s ability, are pretty consistent from year to year. But other factors are less reliable, or less “sticky” from year […]
On June 15, 2012, I launched Football Perspective. Since that day, Football Perspective has posted a new article every single day. This the site’s 445th post, so I won’t blame you if you’ve missed an article here or there. At the top of every page is a link to the Historical Archive, a page that […]
Football Perspective turns one tomorrow. To celebrate, Doug Drinen has come up with a contest centered around the following picture. Question 1: Explain what this is a picture of. Question 2: Make a case to your real or hypothetical significant other that this is worthy of being printed, framed, and hung on your wall. GRAND […]
#10: Tie: Mike Williams – linebacker, 1986 (Pittsburgh); Michael Williams – tight end, 2013-current (Detroit) Nine Mike Williamses have played in the NFL. A Tulsa linebacker of the same name was drafted by the Steelers in the 12th round of the 1986 Draft but never appeared in a game. In April, the Lions selected Alabama […]
Back in 2006, Doug Drinen came up with the Dungy Index, a way to measure a coach’s performance in the regular season relative to expectations. Because Doug understands regression to the mean, he was impressed by Tony Dungy’s ability to continue to string together 12-win seasons year after year.1 But Doug didn’t want to just […]
Entire books have been written about the West Coast Offense. Friend of the program Chris Brown has an excellent primer on some of the principles of the system. Due to time constraints, this post is not going to dissect a voluminous playbook, translate Spider 3 Y Banana into English, or discuss the role of motions […]
The Simple Rating System is a set of computer rankings focused on only two variables: strength of schedule and margin of victory. I published weekly college football SRS ratings each week last season, and you can read more about the SRS there. Last month, Jason Lisk of the Big Lead took the Las Vegas point […]
When I ask a question in the title of a post, I usually have an answer. But not this time. From 2000 to 2012, 163 different quarterbacks started 16 games. I thought it might be interesting to check out their splits based on the Game Script of each game. I grouped each quarterback’s statistics in […]
In light of the Patriots nearly breaking the NFL record for plays, and the promise of up-tempo offenses in Philadelphia (under Chip Kelly) and Denver (Adam Gase), it’s easy to think that the number of plays run per team is about to reach historic levels. But that seems really unlikely. The graph below shows the […]
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, I thought I had it, but I should have realized Randall Cunningham would be far too easy. Once looking at the first hint and seeing that I was wrong, I went through a whole series of guys who I just didn’t think could be right (including Bobby Douglass–I thought there was no way that he could have averaged 7.9 y/a and wasn’t sure he ever threw 200 passes) and couldn’t come up with even a good guess until the final hint, when I did guess correctly without any confidence at all in the guess.
That was a good question. It wasn’t impossible, but it wasn’t easy, either.
Thanks.
I got this one instantly.
If you asked for all six guys I would have gone with Tarkenton, Staubach, Landry, Culpepper and Vick and then maybe would’ve been stumped by Rodgers. I would not have thought Young averaged 7.9 yards per attempt in any of his Buccaneers years.
Something seems amiss.
I have gone on to review the numbers.
Tarkenton was a regular starter his rookie year.
56 rushes, 5.5 avg
280 passes, 7.1 ypa
Staubach was a regular starter in 1971. He had one start in 1969 and three starts in 1970, so I guess we are to look at 1971 here.
41 rushes, 8.4 avg
211 passes, 8.9 ypa
Landry started half the Lions games in 1969 and six in 1970, but if we consider 1971 to be his first year as the regular starter then he qualifies here.
Landry in 1971-
76 rushes, 7.0 avg
261 passes, 8.6 ypa
Culpepper started all 16 games in his second season and his two numbers were 5.3 and 8.3.
Young started five games in 1985 and 14 in 1986. His ypa was under 7 in each season.
Vick in 2002-
113 rushes, 6.9 avg
421 passes, 7.0 ypa
Rodgers in 2008-
56 rushes, 3.7 avg
536 passes, 7.5 ypa
It looks like Tarkenton, Landry and Culpepper qualify.
Staubach, Young, Vick and Rodgers fall short one way or another.
Or I did not read the question correctly.
I would not have gone with Cunningham (if asked to name all six) because that 1986 Eagles offense stunk. Mike Quick and Kenny Jackson didn’t catch enough passes to help Ron Jaworski and Cunningham in the YPA department. The offense was mostly about short passes and getting sacked. I remember the late afternoon they played vs the Giants in New Jersey. Both QBs did nothing in the game. I do not quite recall whether Jaworski was pulled for poor play or a rough shot he took on a sack y Lawrence Taylor. I am pretty sure it rained in that game or at least in the 4th quarter. It was a dreary game all the way through for the Eagles.
Vick qualifies in 2010 with 8.1 y/a on 372 passes, and 6.8 on 100 rushes.
Oh I see the confusion.. I don’t think Chase meant it to be rookies (or first year starters) only.
Uhh wait a minute. Tarkenton’s YPA was 7.1 so he does not qualify either as far as how I am interpreting this query.
Think I figured it out now.
It is at any point in the fellow’s career. I got thrown off by the “first year starter” phrase in the opening sentence.
Tarkenton did have a 5.0/7.9 season at one point in his career.
When I got Landry as an answer I was actually wrong because he did not have a 5.0/7.9 season in his first season with extended playing time.
Got Landry on 2nd hint. Thought Staubach with the 1971 hint. But he only started fully 10 games as he finished the season and Dallas wins the SB. He had > 7.9 passing but did not reach the 50 carries mark (had 41). He did lead the league in passing! Fun question and nice to hear about Greg Landry of Detroit (plus you had another good trivia question- which two Detroit QB’s ever made the Pro Bowl?)
The 1st hint gave me Landry. I figured Douglass couldn’t hit the Y/A threshhold.
I took this to mean those were the only quarterbacks to record those numbers in the same year during any point in their careers. I checked each one’s year totals and it seems Tarkenton had two years with those numbers (64 & 65), Culpepper had 2 years (2,000 & 2004), Rogers had 2 years (2009 & 2010), Cam Newton had 2 years (2011 & 2012)…but Steve Young easily had the most of anybody with 5 years. 1991 – 279 att. – 9.0 av., 66 runs – 6.3 av./ 1992 – 402 att.- 8.6 av., 76 runs – 7.1 av.,/1993 – 462 att.-8.7 av., 69 runs – 5.9 av./1994- 461 att.-8.6 av., 58 runs – 5.1 av./and 1998 – 517 att. – 8.1 av., 70 runs – 6.5 av. I’ve looked at other major quarterbacks such as Cunningham, Douglass, Staubach, Elway, Montana etc. and haven’t found any who qualify for all the variables such as the minimum 200 pass attempts & 50 carries.