unoriginal
In the Starting Line-Up
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OK, those statistics are pretty straight forward. His INTs are high, but perhaps I don't give enough credence to my own point about how only good quarterbacks can accumulate a lot of INTs because only they would play enough games for this to happen. Consider me illuminated.
Thank you kindly.
I think it's possible to believe a player belongs in the Hall of Fame, as I believe about Favre, while still believing he's overrated. But for a Hall of Famer to be overrated, the media would REALLY, REALLY have to fawn over him a lot to rate him so highly.
Yes, as I was saying....
I was responding to godef, who said specifically he felt Brett Favre was a borderline Hall of Fame candidate based on his carelessness with the football, and he felt his INT record (evidence of the above) offset his TD record (evidence of success). So I compared his TD/INT ratio with the last four first-ballot Hall of fame quarterbacks. Favre compares favorably, especially considering he plays in the most inhospitable home environment of the four.
In addition to TD/INT, which is more a measure of a passer's scoring success, I like comparing ATT/INT, which measures how careful that quarterback is with the football. Here for you now are the same quarterbacks, organized by ATT/INT ratio:
Code:
Name Att Int %
Warren Moon 6823 233 3.41
Brett Favre 8648 281 3.25
John Elway 7250 226 3.12
Dan Marino 8358 252 3.02
Steve Young 4149 107 2.58
[B]lower % is better[/B]
Given that (I suspect) the NFL average is something like 1 pick every 60 attempts, and .5% difference means one more pick per 200 attempts, the only thing the above numbers can really be said to show is that Steve Young was a more accurate passer than Warren Moon.
Here are some assorted non-HoF quarterbacks with substantial stats:
Code:
Name Att Int %
Dave Krieg 5311 199 3.75
Jim Everett 4923 175 3.55
Boomer Esiason 5205 184 3.54
Phil Simms 4647 157 3.38
R. Cunningham 4289 134 3.12
Drew Bledsoe 6717 206 3.06
Brad Johnson 4236 117 2.76
Rich Gannon 4206 104 2.47
[B]lower % is better[/B]
You'll note Favre fits right in between Simms and Cunningham, right in the middle of what you'd expect from a quarterback.
And finally, here's the two Hall-of-Famers to-be:
Code:
Name Att Int %
Tom Brady 3456 82 2.37
Peyton Manning 5269 151 2.87
I think the opinions on this Pats board are screwed up vis á vis Brett Favre the crazy gunslinger because Brady has been historically and incomprehensibly judicious in distributing the football. Brady's ATT/INT ratio makes him a meaningfully more accurate quarterback than just about anyone not named Rich Gannon, Steve Young, or Brad Johnson.
Finally, as to your point about hype, I don't feel announcers are any more complementary to Favre than they were to Marino, Young, or especially Elway. Just about the only one of the Hall of Famers I listed that wasn't "overhyped" was Moon. Looking at this stats and at his teams you can somewhat understand why.
I imagine the anger over Favre that permeates Pats message boards is because Favre's career is the only one of the five that overlaps Brady's. If Elway was still playing no doubt people here would be somehow *****ing about how overhyped he was too.