http://profootballhof.com/history/release.jsp?release_id=1264 http://www.nfl.com/players/playerpage/187395 After 9 pass attempts Chad Pennington will be 7th on the NFL's all time QB rating list with a 89.7 career rating or whatever it is at after the game. It takes 1500 to qualify and Chad has 1491.
They really should redo the formula to reflect the fact that they have changed the rules to make passing easier. Notice how many guys in the top 20 are still active players.
You are partially right. The game has changed too. Back in the day, you went up top and that was about it. Look at Namath's stats as evidence. You ran the ball, A LOT. Now it's a passing game. Part is the rule changes, part is just the speed at WR.
I never really liked how passer ratings put too much emphasis on completion %. The only reason Chad is ranked that high is because he's thrown 5000 4yd dump-off passes.
but completion perccentage and td to int is a huge part of it....so the running didnt really hurt...I think its more because its impossible to play db now
Yeah, back in the day you could basically knock down WRs whenever, now it's no contact after 5 yards, forget knocking them down anywhere. The modern V-O-line format wasn't allowed until fairly recently, it used to be completely horizontal. It was harder being a QB back in the day. I don't know what their QB ratings are, but guys like Montana, Young, Aikman, Bradshaw, Elway, Kelly and a bunch of others were really good QBs, better than Peyton Manning, Drew Bledsoe etc. Favre is kind of at the very transition, he was amazing early on in his career, and then the rules changed to make it easier, and he didn't really excel as much as he did comparatively to earlier in his career.
1978 was an important year. There were significant rule changes before the 1978 season. They were put in place to open up the passing game and cut down on injuries. 38 quarterbacks had a single-season passer rating of 100 or higher. (And it is passer rating as opposed to QB rating. The rating does not reflect leadership and other intangibles that play into effective quarterbacking. Also, the rating doesn't take into account rushing yardage by the QBs. The rating measures passing efficiency more than anything else.) 27 of the 38 instances occurred after the 1978 rule changes. Here are the 11 pre-1978 ones: 1960- Milt Plum, Browns, 110.4 1945- Sammy Baugh, Redskins, 109.9 1943- Sid Luckman, Bears, 107.5 1966- Bart Starr, Packers, 105.0 1971- Roger Staubach, Cowboys, 104.8 1963- Y.A. Tittle, Giants, 104.8 1968- Bart Starr, Packers, 104.3 1976- Ken Stabler, Raiders, 103.4 1959- Charlie Conerly, Giants, 102.7 1976- Bert Jones, Colts, 102.5 1966- Len Dawson, Chiefs, 101.7
Interesting info, thanx for the research. I think that does tell you alot about how the game has changed. I believe though, the most impressive ones in the list are later on, in the 60's and 70's. Prior to then, I don't believe defenses were as well prepared, and the NFL in general was less competitive. Is there anyway you could post the particular changes that were made after the 77' season? Though it was later on, the Al Toon rule was pretty necessary to keep guys like him from getting bashed in the head.
changes for the 1978 season: -pass blockers allowed to extend arms and open hands -defenders can bump receiver only in first 5 yards After a healthy number of 1000 yard receivers in the 1960s (75 total), 1000 yard receivers were scarce from 1970-77. 1970- (4)- Gene Washington, Marlin Briscoe, Dick Gordon, Gary Garrison 1971- (1)- Otis Taylor 1972- (2)- Harold Jackson, John Gilliam 1973- (1)- Harold Carmichael 1974- (2)- Cliff Branch, Drew Pearson 1975- (1)- Ken Burrough 1976- (3)- Roger Carr, Cliff Branch, Charlie Joiner 1977- (0)
I understand that QB Rating is a flawed statistic and drastically favors players like Pennington, but it is impressive that before this season he would have been 5th on the list, 0.2 behind Montana.
