The Best of the Rest

Years that I do not cover in depth in the manuscript. By process of elimination, you can now tell which years I do cover in depth. 

In all of these, I agree with the AP selection.

2014: Aaron Rodgers (341-520-4381-38-5). A lot of quarterbacks had standout years in 2014. Tony Romo and Ben Roethlisberger had career years and Drew Brees was his usual self; Peyton Manning had the last great half-season of his career. But Rodgers outperformed them all.

2010: Tom Brady (324-492-3900-36-4). Surprisingly, the first unanimous All-Pro QB and MVP was this season. In the MVP voting, Favre had swiped a vote from Brady in 2007, Vick from Manning in 2004. Philip Rivers (4710 yards on 8.7 per attempt, 30 TD) could theoretically have challenged him, but Brady’s interception rate was just too low.

2005: Peyton Manning (305-453-3747-28-10). It’s kind of amazing that only one of Manning’s All-Pro/MVQB seasons is in this section.
With the possible exception of 2012, his other awarded seasons were all either dominant (2004, 2013), overlooked (2000, 2006) or controversial (2003, 2008, 2009). In 2005, Brady had more yards, and Carson Palmer more touchdowns, but all the important stats pointed to Manning, who was sitting out of a lot of fourth quarters as the Colts won a number of games easily thanks to Manning’s own play as well as the best defense of his career. It was Manning’s only year playing from 1999-2014 with fewer than 4000 passing yards.

2001: Kurt Warner (375-546-4830-36-22). In some ways, Kurt Warner’s 2001 campaign was even better than 1999. He completed more passes at a higher percentage for more yards, total and per attempt, against a more difficult slate of defenses. He faced no real competition in awards voting in either year.

1996: Brett Favre (325-543-3899-39-13). Favre’s second straight year with more touchdowns than anyone not named Dan Marino had ever thrown in a season to that point. In a year that was so weak at quarterback that Gus Frerotte (3453 yards, 12 touchdowns, 79.3 rating) got a Pro Bowl nod, no one else really stood out. Mark Brunell did lead the league in both passing yards (4367) and yards per attempt (7.84), the first player to do that since Marino in 1984.

1995: Brett Favre (359-570-4413-38-13). Probably the best season of Favre’s career. A lot of mediocre quarterbacks like Scott Mitchell and Erik Kramer had their career years in 1995, but they did not match Favre’s production.

1994: Steve Young (324-461-3969-35-10). Young’s closest rival for the award was Dan Marino, but Marino winning the award would have been a lot like the selection of Brees over Manning in 2006—clearly inferior, but a great comeback story. Marino tore up his knee in 1993, then came back in 1994 with his best season since ’86. But he was no match for Young’s record-setting season.

1992: Steve Young (268-402-3465-25-7). Young was almost as good in ’92 as he would be in ’94, if not even slightly better. By the end of the season, Young had made Joe Montana—who was still on the team—a healthy scratch, and finally convinced the 49ers to trade #16.[1]

1989: Joe Montana (271-386-3521-26-8). We’ve made a big fuss about Montana’s ’87 and ’90 All-Pro awards, but you can’t deny him in ’89. Jim Everett, who had 4310 yards and 29 TD while leading 5 fourth quarter comebacks, came closest.

1988: Boomer Esiason (223-388-3572-28-14). When you average more than 9 yards per attempt, it’s hard not to win All-Pro or MVQB. Esiason was at 9.21, the most for a QB with more than 200 attempts since Lynn Dickey in 1983, and still the 14th highest all time.[2] Jim Everett had a strong year with more yards (3964) and touchdowns (31) than Esiason and took two fewer sacks despite throwing 129 more times. Esiason still finished well ahead of Everett in ANY/A, at 7.79 vs. 6.56. This was also the year Marino was sacked only 6 times all season, including none in the last 10 games, but he threw 23 interceptions vs. 28 touchdowns.

1986: Dan Marino (378-623-4746-44-23). The Dolphins defense kept them at 8-8 despite Marino’s 44 touchdowns. No real rival presented himself to Marino. Boomer Esiason, with 24 TD for the 10-6 Bengals and effectively the same ANY/A as Marino but on 145 fewer dropbacks, probably came the closest. Montana was coming off three straight seasons from 1983-85 that would have competed for MVQB in 1986, but this was the year he missed 8 games and threw just 8 touchdowns with 9 interceptions.

1983: Joe Theismann (276-459-3714-29-11). Theismann beats out Montana and Marino. All three of them were great, but my favorite stat line in ’83 belongs to Lynn Dickey: 289-484 for 4458 yards and 32 touchdowns; the same numbers with fewer than 29 interceptions would have made for a very strong MVQB case. Green Bay’s 48-47 Monday night win over Washington on October 17, 1983 is one of the great shootouts of all time. Dickey and Theismann combined for 785 passing yards in the game.

1982: Dan Fouts (204-330-2883-17-11). Naming an MVQB in this strike-shortened season was almost an oversight, but Fouts is a clear choice and dominated all the statistics for a 6-3 Chargers team. If Montana’s 49ers had done better than 3-6, he might have put up a claim to the title, although Fouts’ numbers were better regardless. Fouts, Montana, and Terry Bradshaw tied for the league lead with 17 touchdowns (and each of them also threw exactly 11 interceptions). But Fouts’ greatest competition was once again probably from Anderson, who set an NFL record with a 70.6 completion percentage for a 7-2 Bengals squad. This season saw Fouts average the most yards per game of his career at 320, which would have been 5125 over a full season.

1974: Ken Stabler (178-310-2469-26-12). The first of two straight years where Kenny Anderson led the NFL in both yards and yards per attempt.[3] But he was sacked on 10% of dropbacks, twice as often as Stabler. As a result, Stabler had the better ANY/A. Both missed a game. Oakland was 11-2 when Stabler started; Cincinnati 7-6 with Anderson. The Raiders scored 355 points vs. just 283 for the Bengals.

1973: John Hadl (135-258-2008-22-11). Roger Staubach rivaled Hadl; he had better passing numbers across the board, except he got sacked a whopping 43 times on just 329 dropbacks and thus fell well short of Hadl in ANY/A despite being the first-ever league leader in passer rating. Roman Gabriel also put up a strong season for the 5-8-1 Eagles.

1970: John Brodie (223-378-2941-24-10). Fran Tarkenton led a 9-5 Giants squad that won 9 of its last 11 games with 2777 yards and 19 touchdowns. But Brodie had better numbers across the board, including being sacked just 8 times, and led San Francisco to a 10-3-1 campaign and its first playoff berth in 13 years.

1969: Roman Gabriel (217-399-2549-24-7). Gabriel and Jurgensen were actually co-1st Team All Pro in 1969, but the only stats Jurgensen beat Gabriel in were yards and yards per attempt. Jurgensen had fewer touchdowns, more interceptions, and took far more sacks.

1968: Earl Morrall (182-317-2909-26-17). Morrall was the best passer in the league in 1968—second in yards, first in touchdowns, and second in both rating (93.2) and AY/A behind Bart Starr. Starr put up a 104.3 rating in 9 starts for the 6-7-1 Packers in Lombardi’s first year of retirement, but threw for 1300 fewer yards; Green Bay was 4-5 in Starr’s starts.

1966: Bart Starr (156-251-2257-14-3). Starr was always very efficient, but there was usually a quarterback who put up equal or better numbers on far more attempts. In 1966, that didn’t happen, and it was also one of Starr’s best years. Don Meredith and Frank Ryan also had some very good seasons in 1966, combining for 5779 yards, 53 touchdowns, and 18 wins in 27 games. After the season, Starr would set season highs with 304 yards and 4 touchdowns in the NFL Championship matchup with Meredith’s Cowboys, a 34-27 Packers win.

1965: Johnny Unitas (164-282-2530-23-12). Johnny U could move the football. His average career completion went for 14.2 yards, comparable to those AFL bombers—Namath averaged 14.7 in his career, Daryle “Mad Bomber” Lamonica 14.9 per. In 1965, Unitas averaged 8.97 yards per attempt, his second straight year averaging 9+ (after rounding). John Brodie threw 30 touchdowns, 7 more than anyone else, in 13 games, for a 7-6-1 49ers squad that lost the game he missed.

1964: Johnny Unitas (158-305-2824-19-6). Unitas averaged 9.26 yards per attempt with a 1.97 interception percentage, becoming the first QB ever to throw 300 passes in a season with at least 9 Y/A and an INT% of 2 or better.[4] It took nearly 50 years for anyone to duplicate the feat. Only Rodgers in 2011, Foles in 2013, and Ryan in 2016 have done it since Unitas, and none of them managed the feat by getting 17.9 yards per completion.[5] Starr and Tarkenton also had great years, but Unitas was clearly the best QB in ’64.

1962: Y.A. Tittle (200-375-3224-33-20). Tittle broke the TD pass mark shared by Unitas and Jurgensen with a 6-touchdown performance in the final game of the season, a 41-31 win over Dallas. Bart Starr had his first great season with 2438 yards, 12 touchdowns to just 9 interceptions, and 8.6 yards per attempt.

1961: Sonny Jurgensen (235-416-3723-32-24). Jurgensen averaged 266 yards per game for a 10-4 squad, a super-impressive feat for 1961, and tied Unitas’ record with 32 TD passes. Jurgensen’s Eagles put up at least 21 points in every loss. Jurgensen did have some statistical rivals, especially fellow MVQB winners Brown, Plum, and Brodie, but none put together a compelling case in ’61.

1959: Johnny Unitas (193-367-2899-32-14). Remember my random obsession with stat line aesthetics? I love the one Unitas put up in 1959. New York’s Charlie Conerly had a pretty good case to deny Unitas his third straight MVQB, putting up a 102.7 rating at the age of 38, but Conerly attempted only 194 passes.

1958: Johnny Unitas (136-263-2007-19-7). Unitas actually missed three games this season, but was clearly the best quarterback when he was on the field. Billy Wade threw for 2875 yards for the 8-4 Rams, but had 18 TD vs. 22 INT, compared to Unitas’ 19-7 ratio. NFL history wasn’t very deep by that point[6], but Unitas’ interception rate of 2.66% was the second lowest ever through 1958, trailing only Sammy Baugh’s 2.20% in 1945—a mark Conerly broke in ’59.

1955: Otto Graham (98-185-1721-15-8). Graham was only 10th in the league in pass attempts, but his passer rating of 94.0 was 23 points higher than his nearest competitor, Ed Brown.

1953: Otto Graham (167-258-2722-11-9). Graham’s 10.55 yards per attempt are still the highest in NFL history for a passer with at least 250 throws.

1951: Otto Graham (147-265-2205-17-16). Graham’s best NFL seasons came in the odd-numbered years. In his final year wearing the number 60, Graham became the first quarterback named to an Associated Press All-Pro team. 1951 was Bobby Layne’s best statistical season (2403 yards, 26 TD to lead league; 67.6 passer rating, 14% above league average), but not good enough to beat Graham.

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[1] Norm Snead and Jim Plunkett also wore #16 for the 49ers. Montana is a much better association.

[2] “For single seasons, from 1920 to 2016, requiring Pass Attempts >= 200, sorted by descending Yds/Pass Att,” accessed February 28, 2017, http://pfref.com/tiny/km1oO.

[3] Unbelievably, Anderson is the only quarterback to ever do that. The full list of such seasons—leading the league in both yards and yards per attempt—since 1951 is: Graham in 1953, Van Brocklin in ’54, Unitas ’57, Jurgensen ’62, Namath ’72, Anderson ’74-75, Fouts ’82, Dickey ’83, Marino ’84, Brunell ’96, Warner 2001, Brady ’07, and Rivers in 2010.

[4] “For single seasons, from 1920 to 2016, requiring Yds/Pass Att >= 9 and Pass Intercept. % <= 2, sorted by descending Pass Attempts,” accessed February 28, 2017, http://pfref.com/tiny/izj8t.

[5] No one else has even averaged 15 yards per completion with a 2.5% interception rate on that many attempts. Milt Plum’s 1960 season, with 250 attempts, comes closest. “For single seasons, from 1920 to 2016, requiring Pass Attempts >= 300 and Pass Intercept. % <= 2.5 and Passing Yds >= 15 * Passes Completed, sorted by ascending Year,” accessed February 28, 2017, http://pfref.com/tiny/VFVs3.

[6] 1958 was the NFL’s 26th season keeping statistics. 1933 was as many years before ’58 as 1991 was from 2016.