Tag Archives: Vikings

Stat of the Day, Sept. 15, 2014

The Redskins’ highlight reel is pretty short since Joe Gibbs first retired in 1993. Two playoff wins, to be exact — one less than in their ’91 championship season. Even their 41-10 win over the Jaguars on Sunday was marred by injuries to Robert Griffin III (serious) and DeSean Jackson (less so), which tells you all you need to know about the franchise’s Overall Karma.

But the victory did produce one cool stat. The Redskins became just the second team since 1940 to (a.) score 40 points; (b.) rack up 10 sacks and (c.) outgain their opponent by more than 300 yards (in their case, 301 — 449-148). The other team? The ’61 Bears in their season finale against the expansion Vikings. Here’s the box score of that game if you want to look it over.

A couple of things jump out at you. First, the quarterback the Bears sacked 10 times was Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton. Yes, Scramblin’ Fran was more like Scrambled Eggs Fran on that day. But he picked himself up off the ground, again and again, and threw four touchdown passes, one in each quarter. Has any quarterback ever thrown four TD passes in a game in which he was sacked 10 times? Not that I can find. This was one tough guy. (Oh, and by the way, he was a rookie that year.)

Second, another Hall of Famer, the Vikes’ Hugh McElhenny, opened the scoring with an 81-yard punt return for a touchdown. Hurryin’ Hugh was just two weeks shy of his 33rd birthday. How many players that old have had a punt return that long for a TD? Answer: three. (The others were the Raiders’ 35-year-old Tim Brown in this game and the Redskins’ 33-year-old Eric Metcalf in this game.) So at the time, McElhenny was the oldest — and would remain so for almost four decades.

The most interesting thing about this game, though — for our purposes, anyway — can’t be found in the box score. One of George Halas’ assistants on that Bears’ coaching staff, you see, was George Allen. And who is the general manager of the Redskins team that just whacked the Jaguars? His son, Bruce. You can’t make this stuff up. Only two 40/10/300 games in the last 75 seasons, and they’re both in the Allen family.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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About Adrian Peterson . . .

As you’re pondering the child-abuse charge brought against the Vikings’ Adrian Peterson, check out this passage from a story that ran in Sports Illustrated in 1964. The speaker is Hall of Fame wide receiver Tommy McDonald, who grew up on a farm in Roy, N.M.


“If I needed a whipping, Dad would let Mother whip me. But when he really wanted to get a point over to me, he would take me out himself. He used to just grab me by one hand, and we would go in a little circle, and I would get the old strap.”


File this one, I suppose, under: Times Sure Have Changed. (And aren’t we all glad they have?)

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Cordarrelle Patterson and the Snowflake Theory

A snowflake fell in St. Louis on the first Sunday of the NFL season. Not the shoveling kind; the Dave Kindred kind. “At every game, if you’re paying attention, you’ll see something you’ve never seen before,” the esteemed sportswriter once wrote. “It’s my Snowflake Theory. Every game is somehow different from every other game ever played.”

Often, of course, these snowflakes are barely visible to the naked eye, of little consequence in the course of human events. Sometimes, though — when we get lucky — they’re big, fluffy things, happenings that are discussed, analyzed, marveled at and even laughed about long after the clock hits zeroes.

Which brings us to Cordarrelle Patterson, the Vikings’ multi-purpose wide receiver. Patterson, you may have heard, rushed for 102 yards in the Vikes’ 34-6 win over the Rams. No wide receiver — in the modern era, at least — had ever had a 100-yard rushing game. Before that, the best rushing performance by a wideout was 86 by the Seahawks’ Joey Galloway. (He got them all on one play, a touchdown run against the Jaguars as a rookie in 1995.)

Patterson had a quiet offensive day otherwise, though — three catches for 26 yards — so we’re still waiting for a wideout to rack up 100 yards receiving and 100 yards rushing in the same game. That’s the Holy Grail — like 49ers’ Colin Kaepernick flirting with an unthinkable 300 yards passing/200 yards rushing game against the Packers in the 2012 playoffs. (He settled for 263 and 181, which is ridiculous enough.)

Here’s some Stat Candy for you:

WIDEOUTS WITH 100 YARDS RECEIVING, 50 RUSHING IN A GAME SINCE 1960

Date Player, Team Opponent Rec Rush
11-12-95 Joey Galloway, Seahawks Jaguars 5-114-2 1-86-1
9-20-82 James Lofton, Packers Giants 4-101-0 1-83-1
11-5-06 Javon Walker, Broncos Steelers 6-134-2 1-72-1
1-16-83 James Lofton, Packers Cowboys 5-109-1 1-71-1
10-11-87 Kelvin Edwards, Cowboys Eagles 6-100-0 1-62-1
12-5-76 Freddie Solomon, Dolphins Bills 5-114-1 1-59-1

Note: Figures are receptions (or rushing attempts), yards and touchdowns.

Kind of thought Percy Harvin would be in this group. But Harvin’s top rushing total in a 100-yard receiving game is 45 in ’09 vs. the Bears. In fact, he’s rushed for as many as 50 yards just once — on a day he was held to 42 receiving.

Still, Percy strikes me as the kind of player who has a snowflake or two in him. He and Cordarrelle both. This gets me thinking about other snowflakes, other singular single-game events — or, at the very least, exceedingly rare events. The list I came up with:

● Intercepting a pass and scoring a safety. In modern times, the only player who has this double on his resume is James Harrison. Against the Chargers on Nov. 16, 2008, the Steelers linebacker sacked Philip Rivers in the end zone, caused a fumble that was recovered by tackle Marcus McNeill, then tackled McNeill in the end zone for the two points. Later Harrison picked off a pass and ran 33 yards to the Pittsburgh 43. I don’t remember anybody making a big deal of this. And in addition to being highly unusual, it happened in a single quarter (the second). What got more attention — for whatever reason — was that the game produced the first 11-10 final score in NFL history. (Thanks to James’ heroics, Pittsburgh eked it out.)

● 100 rushing yards and 100 punt-return yards. Bears Hall of Famer Gale Sayers did this the same day he tied the NFL record by scoring six touchdowns against the 49ers (Dec. 12, 1965). He was 9 for 113 rushing (long: 50) and 5 for 134 running back punts (long: 85). No one else has managed it since.

● Throwing an interception and intercepting a pass. A Steelers rookie named Tony Dungy chalked up this exploit on Oct. 9, 1977. At safety, the future Bucs and Colts coach picked off a Dan Pastorini throw for the first interception of his pro career. As if that weren’t enough, he also served as Pittsburgh’s emergency quarterback in the fourth quarter — after Terry Bradshaw and Mike Kruczek got hurt — and threw a pair of INTs. (He’d been a QB in college at Minnesota.) Maybe Bill Belichick could let Julian Edelman try this. Edelman, the all-purpose Patriot, has seen action at DB in addition to playing receiver and was a quarterback at Kent State.)

● Three touchdown catches and a punt-return TD: Az-Zahir Hakim, Rams, vs. Bengals, Oct. 3, 1999. TD receptions (all from Kurt Warner): 9, 51 and 18 yards. Punt return: 84. Five players since 1960 have had three (or more) touchdown grabs and also scored a rushing TD — all backs — but only Hakim has accomplished this particular combo. And it’s getting harder to do with all the specialization now.

● 100 punt-return yards with a punt-return TD and 100 kickoff-return yards with a kickoff-return TD. Walter Payton’s younger brother, Eddie, had a game like this for the Vikings against the Lions on Dec. 17, 1977. Kick returns: 5 for 184 with a 98-yard score. Punt returns: 3 for 105 with an 87-yard score.

● 150 yards from scrimmage and 150 yards on punt and kickoff returns. Since 1960, it’s been done as many times in the playoffs (2) as in the regular season. Go figure. The postseason guys:

Darren Sproles, Chargers, Jan. 3, 2009 vs. Colts: 150 yards from scrimmage (105 rushing, 45 receiving), 178 return yards (72 on punts, 106 on kickoffs). He also scored the winning touchdown in overtime on a 22-yard run.

Ed Podolak, Chiefs, Dec. 25, 1971 vs. Dolphins: 195 yards from scrimmage (85 rushing, 110 receiving), 155 return yards (153 on kickoffs, 2 on punts). This was the famous Christmas Day game, the one that went into the sixth quarter. Snowflakes (single-game division) that haven’t fallen yet:

● Catching a touchdown pass and returning an interception for a TD. Or to put it another way: Scoring on a pass on both sides of the ball. Nobody in the modern era (read: since 1960) has done it. Surprised? So am I — a little. Especially since Deion Sanders and Roy Green (among others) swung between defensive back and receiver and Mike Vrabel snuck out for 12 TDs as a goal-line tight end when he wasn’t backing up the line (and picking off 11 passes).

● 100 yards rushing, 100 receiving and 100 returning. Again, nobody in the modern era has done it. The Browns’ Greg Pruitt came closest on Nov. 23, 1975 against the Bengals (121 rushing, 106 receiving, 77 returning). A snowflake that hasn’t fallen in decades, but seems bound to with all these quarterbacks running around:

● 50 yards passing, 50 yards rushing and 50 yards receiving. The only player to do it in the last 50 years is Walter Payton, who had 50 passing, 81 rushing and 55 receiving against the Lions on Dec. 22, 1985. Nowadays, though, one of the Mobile QB Brigade — Colin Kaepernick, Cam Newton, Russell Wilson, Robert Griffin III — seems more likely to pull it off. Somebody just needs to catch the defense napping.

Now, you can question the significance of some of these feats, and I respect that. But regardless of how you feel, you have to admit: We’re not talking about walking and chewing gum here. If we were, players would do this stuff a lot more regularly.

Fear not, by the way. Pro Football Daly will keep an eye peeled for any future snowflakes and dutifully report them. It’s one of our hobbies.

Or to put it another way: Snowflake Fever — catch it.

1 Which reminds me: In Week 1 of that First Sack Season, the Browns’ Chip Banks began his NFL career with a three-sack day against the Seahawks. No rookie in the 31 years since has made a better Week 1 debut, sack-wise (though the Titans’ Carlos Hall tied Banks with three against the Eagles in 2002).

Sources: pro-football-reference.com, The ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia.

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Hysteria in Redskinsland

Now that was fast. Seems like just yesterday Robert Griffin III was the Future of the Franchise and one of the best young quarterbacks the NFL has seen. Now a segment of the population — commentators included — are wondering whether his eye-popping rookie season was a mirage, whether he’s merely another overhyped, self-absorbed player who, in a true meritocracy, wouldn’t even be the Redskins’ starter.

The Shawshank Redemption is full of great voiceovers, and one of my favorites is when Red (Morgan Freeman) is talking about Andy’s escape from prison. Near the end, he says, “Andy did like he was told, buffed those shoes [of the warden’s] to a high mirror shine. The guards simply didn’t notice [him walking back to his cell in them]. Neither did I. I mean, seriously, how often do you really look at a man’s shoes?”

I found myself thinking of that line earlier this week when Washington Post columnist Jason Reid started ripping Griffin’s shoes — and his socks, too. On the opening day of training camp, RG3 “separated himself from everyone else on the field,” Reid wrote,

by wearing a black sock and a black cleat and a white sock and a white cleat. Griffin explained it was something he has done since college to represent the “yin and the yang. White and black working together. We’re all brothers. We’re doing it together” Okay. Whatever.

But Griffin’s ineffectiveness and feud with the Shanahans led to the relationship being detonated. How could Griffin think it would be a good idea to stand out from his teammates on a day that marked a new beginning for the group? And Griffin’s insistence on clinging to his college days is tripping him up in the pros.

Reid is obviously willing to go the extra mile, to “really look at a man’s shoes” (not to mention his socks). In fact, if the Redskins lay another dinosaur egg this year, and Griffin has anything to do with it, I fully expect a three-part Post series on “The shoes (and socks) that sank a season.” Or maybe it’ll just be two parts — one for the shoes and one for the socks.

I ask you: As well known as RG3 is — Heisman Trophy winner, NFL offensive rookie of the year, endorsements up the wazoo, more jersey sales in a season than any player in league history — do you really think he was trying to attract more attention to himself and stand apart from his teammates? Something tells me he’s already got the Attention Thing covered.

But moving along . . . we all know how good Griffin’s first season was. Here’s the list of rookie quarterbacks, in the first 94 years of the league, who’ve had 3,000 passing yards, completed 65 percent, thrown for 20 TDs and had a 100 rating:

Robert Griffin III, Redskins, 2012 (3,200, 65.6, 20, 102.4)

That’s it. And remember, he missed a game — against a lousy Browns club. His stats could have been better.

But never mind that. Exactly how bad was he last season, in terms of where he is in his career? Well, for a 23-year-old, he actually played pretty well. My research turned up just five QBs who, at that age, equaled or exceeded RG3’s numbers in the aforementioned four categories (3,203 yards, 60.1 percent completions, 16 TDs, 82.2 rating):

Year Quarterback, Team Yards Pct TD Rating W-L
2011 Matthew Stafford, Lions 5,038 63.5 41 97.2 10-6*
2008 Matt Ryan, Falcons 3,440 61.1 16 87.7 11-5*
2000 Daunte Culpepper, Vikings 3,937 62.7 33 98.0 11-5*
1999 Peyton Manning, Colts 4,135 62.1 26 90.7 13-3*
1984 Dan Marino, Dolphins 5,084 64.2 48 108.9 14-2*

*made playoffs

Granted, Griffin’s stats put him at the low end of this group, but it’s interesting how every other quarterback made the playoffs — and won at least seven more games than RG3 (3-10) did. Do you suppose some of it might have been because the Redskins defense was a few bricks shy of the Great Wall of China?

Oh, and none of these QBs was coming off a blown-out knee — in January — that turned his offseason into one long rehab session and kept him from taking a single snap in an exhibition game.

We seem to have reached the stage where we think of football players as cartoon characters. They run through a screen door, break into 1,000 pieces, and in the next frame they’re supposed up and running again.

It’s not easy to come back from an ACL/LCL injury as quickly as Griffin did, even with all the advancements in sports medicine. Example: Tom Brady tore up his knee in the Patriots’ 2008 opener and missed the entire season. Even though he had four more months to heal than RG3 did, he clearly wasn’t himself when he returned to the lineup in ’09. Indeed, his rating dropped 21 points, from 117.2 (in ’07) to (96.2). How many points did Robert’s rating drop last year? 20.2.

You’ll be pleased to know, though — well, those of you who don’t belong to the Kirk Cousins Fan Club — that Brady’s rating shot back up to a league-leading 111 the next season. Also, let’s not forget: Tom was a 10th-year player in ’09, not a second-year guy like Griffin was last season. The offense he was stepping back into was as comfortable as an old pair of cleats (both black). RG3, on the other hand, was trying to morph into a more conventional pocket passer a year ago – for self-preservation’s sake. In many ways, it was a whole new world for him.

Reid chided him for demanding “changes in the offense he was not ready to execute.” Yeah, but part of that was because he was too busy picking up the 1,000 pieces he’d broken into to spend the necessary time on the practice field. Beyond that, though, if Griffin didn’t insist on changes, who would have? Mike Shanahan had already shown his willingness to leave RG3 in the game, hobbling around as if he had a peg leg, until his knee finally gave out. (And then Shanny makes a grandstand play and sits Robert for the final three games of last season — for His Own Good. Sorry, Mike, but your humanity is 11 months late.)

What tends to be overlooked about young quarterbacks these days is how incredibly exposed they are. They play sooner — and younger — than ever before because (a.) they’re allowed to turn pro earlier, and (b.) the college game prepares them better. Some of these kids shouldn’t be wearing helmets, they should be wearing incubators.

They’re exposed, too, because they become such a part of their team’s (and the NFL’s) marketing plan. They’re just Out There, in public, all the time. And mobile QBs like Griffin are further exposed because they’re counted on to run the ball . . . and to take the hard knocks that go with it.

Yet some expect them to act with the maturity of a veteran, the equilibrium of the Dalai Lama and selflessness of Mother Teresa. Good luck with that. To paraphrase Forrest Gump’s mom, “Twenty-three is as 23 does.”

If you go by passer rating, RG3 is one of the Top 5 under-25 quarterbacks of all time. (And as you’re looking at the following list, keep in mind: He has another season to add to his totals. He doesn’t turn 25 until February.)

Years Quarterback, Team Att Comp Pct Yds TD Int Rating
2012-13 Russell Wilson, Seahawks 668 428 64.1 5,480 45 16 102.1
2012-13 Nick Foles, Eagles 582 364 62.5 4,590 33 7 101.0
1983-86 Dan Marino, Dolphins 1,492 911 61.1 11,975 102 45 96.6
1999-01 Daunte Culpepper, Vikings 840 532 63.3 6,549 47 29 91.6
2012-13 Robert Griffin III, Redskins 849 532 62.7 6,403 36 17 91.5

(Minimum: 500 attempts.)

Griffin is also the No. 3 under-25 QB for rushing yards. (And again, he has another season to add to his total.)

Years Quarterback, Team Yards
2001-04 Michael Vick, Falcons 2,223
2011-13 Cam Newton, Panthers 2,032
2012-13 Robert Griffin III, Redskins 1,304
1985-87 Randall Cunningham, Eagles 1,250
1999-01 Donovan McNabb, Eagles 1,201

Griffin’s productivity — for his age — ranks way up there. Really, how much more can he do? So his detractors tend to focus on other stuff (e.g. his relationships with teammates, his handling of social media, his alleged family-sized ego and, yes, even his shoes and socks).

Reid went as far as to suggest that RG3 seek out Doug Williams, now a personnel executive with the Redskins, for counsel. “A good mentor,” he wrote, “could teach Griffin much of what he lacks. Luckily for Griffin, the ideal person for the job works in the same office.”

Hoo boy. There wasn’t social media in Williams’ day, but maybe you recall the classy way he handled his divorce in 1989. These are the first few paragraphs of a story he fed the Post’s Tom Friend:

While Redskins quarterback Doug Williams was flattening his NFL opponents the past two seasons, his wife, Lisa, was delivering “the worst sack I ever had in my life,” Williams says. Their next date is Friday in court, where her lawyer says she’ll give her side of the story.

Williams says Lisa Robinson was after his money, fooled him into matrimony, and later let herself get pregnant against his wishes. “She knew I didn’t want a baby,” he says.

The Washington Redskins quarterback couldn’t have been a more eligible bachelor when they were wedded in June 1987, but he says he is convinced now that she masked her personality to win him, later ignored his 6-year-old daughter, Ashley (from his previous marriage), and then robbed him last month while he was working at Redskin Park. . . .

Williams later recanted all this. In court, he testified he’d had affairs with other women during the marriage, and in a statement he said, “Very often during emotionally difficult situations such as I have recently experienced, occasionally improper things are said and done. . . . Any allegations concerning my wife since we separated were said in anger, and to her, her family and friends, I apologize.”

After the split, the Post assigned a Style section writer to get the wife’s version of events (and basically clean up the mess). Near the top of Donna Britt’s piece were these words: “[W]ith her T-shirt, makeup-free face and curly nest of auburn hair, Robinson, 26, looks like a TV-commercial prototype for a young mother busy with bottles, bibs and keeping inedible objects from her baby’s mouth. She does not remotely resemble a heartless gold digger — the ‘con artist’ and ‘thrill-seeker’ who gave Williams ‘the worst sack I ever had in my life’ as he told The Washington Post six weeks ago.”

And Doug back then was, what, a callow youth of . . . almost 34?

Then there was the scene, a couple of years before, when Williams “broke down crying in an interview” after being told Jay Schroeder was being restored as the starting quarterback. Reid has already made it clear he finds Griffin a little too Joe College, a little immature. We can only imagine how he would have reacted if Robert had teared up when Shanahan benched him in favor of Cousins.

At any rate, there are probably better mentors for Griffin than Williams. One might be former teammate London Fletcher, the new CBS analyst, who, during a radio appearance on the Junkies, refuted the notion the QB wasn’t popular in the locker room.

“Robert is probably the most-liked player on the team, or one of the most well-liked players on the team, when I was there, because he’s engaging,” Fletcher said. “He’s charismatic. . . . He was humble. . . . He’s handled himself like that the two years I was there with him, and I’m sure he continues to handle himself that way.”

The NFL is all about survival — for any player — but it was especially so for Fletcher, a 5-foot-10 (maybe), 245-pound (maybe) linebacker. Griffin is getting a crash course in that right now, a tutorial in Weathering the Storm. He’s far from a finished product — at 24, how could he be? — and he has a new coach, Jay Gruden, and a new offense to learn. But the early returns are promising. That is, if you’re not the kind who reads a lot of symbolism into shoes and socks.

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Thoughts on the Logan Mankins trade

For me, there are two surprises in the following chart. The first is that only eight rookie tight ends in NFL history have had 50 or more receptions. The second is that every one of them went in the first 40 picks of the draft except for Tim Wright, the guy the Patriots just acquired from the Bucs for six-time Pro Bowl guard Logan Mankins. Wright, who played his college ball at Rutgers, was passed over by all 32 teams a year ago.

ROOKIE TIGHT ENDS WHO HAVE CAUGHT 50 OR MORE PASSES

Year  Tight End, Team Rec Yds Avg TD Round-Pick
1988  Keith Jackson, Eagles 81 869 10.7 6 1-13
2002  Jeremy Shockey, Giants 74 894 12.1 2 1-14
1961  Mike Ditka, Bears 56 1,076 19.2 12 1-5
2008  John Carlson, Seahawks 55 627 11.4 5 2-38
1973  Charle Young, Eagles 55 854 15.5 6 1-6
1998  Cam Cleeland, Saints 54 684 12.7 6 2-40
2013  Tim Wright, Bucs 54 571 10.6 5 Undrafted
2010  Jermaine Gresham, Bengals 52 471 9.1 4 1-21

That’s right, no Rob Gronkowski (42 receptions). No Jimmy Graham (31). No Tony Gonzalez (33). No Kellen Winslow Sr. or Jr. (30 combined in their first season). No Shannon Sharpe (7). Maybe this Wright kid is better than we think. (Of course, before today, when the deal was announced, how often did he even cross our minds?)

At the every least, Wright provides low-cost Gronk Insurance in the event the all-world tight end is slow coming back from knee surgery. When No. 87 was out of the lineup last year, the Patriots’ supercharged offense seemed more like a stick shift. Wright also creates significant cap space in case the Pats want to hang onto Darrelle Revis, whose 2015 option is a gargantuan $20 million. Mankins, after all, had the Pats’ second-highest cap number after Tom Brady; Wright, meanwhile, like most undrafted free agents, subsists on gruel.

Still, trading a guard with Mankins’ resumé . . . how often has that happened? Well, I dug up one similar example back in the ’70s. (Which isn’t to say there might not be others.) I also found a couple of guards who were dealt after being voted to five Pro Bowls — and two more who were sent packing after being voted to three. The particulars, chronologically:

Walt Sweeney, Chargers to Redskins (January 1974) — A nine-time Pro Bowler in San Diego (1964-72), Sweeney joined George Allen’s Over the Hill Gang at the age of 33. He started for two seasons in Washington before calling it a career. The Chargers received fourth-, fifth- and sixth-round picks spread over three drafts.

Ed White, Vikings to Chargers (July 1978) — White had made three Pro Bowls in Minnesota and would make another in San Diego. Though already 31, he ended up playing eight more seasons (which Mankins might try to do just out of spite). The Vikes, in return, got Rickey Young, who caught 88 passes in his first year with them, a record for running backs (since broken).

Joe DeLamielleure, Bills to Browns (September 1980) — Hall of Famer DeLamielleure, then 29, had been selected for five Pro Bowls in Buffalo and added a sixth in Cleveland. The Bills came away with second- and third-round picks.

R.C. Thielemann, Falcons to Redskins (August 1985) — Atlanta needed a wideout. Washington wasn’t sold on its right guard. So the 30-year-old Thielemann, a three-time Pro Bowler with the Falcons, was swapped Charlie Brown, who was coming off an injury-marred season after tying for the NFC lead in receptions in ’83. R.C. was just a spoke in the wheel with the Redskins, but he did start on their ’87 championship team.

Kent Hill, Los Angeles Rams to Houston Oilers (September 1986) — This was the trade, two games into the season, that enabled L.A. to obtain the rights to unsigned QB Jim Everett, the third pick in the ’86 draft (who had no desire to sit behind Canton-bound Warren Moon). Hill, part of a mega-package that included DE William Fuller and two No. 1s, was 29 and had gone to five Pro Bowls. He played that year and one more in Houston and then retired.

As for Everett, he didn’t win the Super Bowl in Los Angeles, but after moving to the Saints he did leave us with this memorable clip:

Anyway, yeah, this Mankins trade is extremely rare. I wouldn’t want to be the team that comes out on the short end of it.

Sources: pro-football-reference.com, NFL.com

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Matthew Stafford: No. 5 all time

While the Lions were unraveling again last season, Matthew Stafford broke into the Top 5 in a (deservedly) obscure category. He now has the fifth-highest passer rating in NFL history among quarterbacks with losing records as starters (minimum: 2,000 attempts).

In so doing, Stafford bumped a grateful Neil Lomax, who posted a 82.7 rating while going 47-52-2 in the regular season with the Cardinals from 1981 through ’88.

Note that all five quarterbacks listed below played (or are still playing) in the 2000s. No surprise there. With the rules increasingly tilted toward the offense, ratings keep going up and up. As a result, the league has never had losing QBs who’ve thrown the ball more proficiently. (How’s that for a distinction?)

TOP 5 CAREER RATINGS FOR QBS WITH LOSING RECORDS AS STARTERS

Rating Quarterback Teams Years Record Playoffs Pro Bowls
87.8 Daunte Culpepper Vikings, 3 others 1999-2009 41-59, .410 2-2, .500 3
85.9 Carson Palmer Bengals, 2 others 2004-2013 64-73, .467 0-2, .000 2
86.0 Trent Green Chiefs, 3 others 1997-2008 56-57, .496 0-2, .000 2
84.4 Marc Bulger Rams 2002-2009 41-54, .432 1-2, .333 2
83.1 Matthew Stafford Lions 2009-2013 24-37, .393 0-1, .000 0

(Minimum: 2,000 attempts.)

Interesting, no? The first four played in multiple Pro Bowls, but only two won a playoff game. (Combined postseason record, Stafford included: 3-9.)

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Heck, Warren Moon got voted into the Hall of Fame despite being sub-.500 as a starter (105-108, playoffs included). The same goes for Sonny Jurgensen (69-73-7). And the Hall is better for it. It shouldn’t just be a collection of Guys Who Were Fortunate Enough To Play For Winning Teams. (I’ll always remember Moon, first and foremost, as the quarterback whose defense couldn’t hold a 35-3 second-half lead.)

Let’s hope Stafford chalks up a few more W’s down the road and doesn’t turn into another Jeff George (46-78, .371, 1-2, 80.4). That would be a shame for everybody but Jeff, who’s probably tired of being singled out like this and would love some company.

Sources: pro-football-reference.com, NFL.com

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Jamaal Charles: Mr. 5.58

Through six NFL seasons, one of which he essentially missed because of a knee injury, Jamaal Charles’ per-carry average stands at 5.58. This just happens to be the all-time record for a running back with 1,000 or more attempts. Whether the Chiefs Pro Bowler can stay at this level, or even close to it, remains to be seen, but it’s a significant accomplishment regardless. After all, it’s hard enough to average 5 yards for a single year, never mind over a six-year stretch. Tony Dorsett, a breakaway back like Charles, never did it (high: 4.84 as a rookie in 1977). Eric Dickerson, another speed guy, did it just once.

Granted, there are many ways to measure a running back, and yards per carry probably isn’t as telling as some others. But as Hall of Famer Joe Perry once told me, “I always thought what mattered most was what you did with the ball when you got it” — and Joe took great pride in his 4.82 career mark (5.04 if you count his two years in the rival All-America Conference). So a little respect, please, for rushing average, one of the redheaded stepchildren of football stats.

At the moment, only one back in NFL history has finished his career with 1,000 carries and a 5-yard average: Jim Brown. If you include guys who only cleared the 750- or 500-carry threshold, a few more make the list — but just a few.

1,000 CARRIES, 5-YARD AVERAGE, CAREER

Running back, Team(s) Years Att Yds Avg
Jamaal Charles*, Chiefs 2008-13 1,043 5,823 5.58
Jim Brown, Browns 1957-65 2,359 12,312 5.22

750 CARRIES, 5-YARD AVERAGE, CAREER

Running back, Team(s) Years Att Yds Avg
Mercury Morris, Dolphins/Chargers 1969-76 804 4,133 5.14
Gale Sayers, Bears 1965-71 991 4,956 5.00

500 CARRIES, 5-YARD AVERAGE, CAREER

Running back, Team(s) Years Att Yds Avg
Bo jackson, Raiders 1987-90 515 2,782 5.40
Bobby Mitchell, Browns/Redskins 1958-68 513 2,735 5.33
Dan Towler, Rams 1950-55 672 3,493 5.20
C.J. Spiller*, Bills 2010-13 590 3,021 5.12
Tommy Wilson, Rams/Browns/Vikings 1956-63 508 2,553 5.03

*active

An awfully small club, isn’t it? And I’m fudging a bit on Mitchell, who switched to receiver with the Redskins and might not have had 500 carries as an Actual Running Back. So if you want to throw him out, go ahead. That would get us down to eight backs, two of them active.

Most of the eight are readily identifiable. Brown and Sayers (as well as Mitchell) are Hall of Famers. Bo Jackson was one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century. And Morris played on two title teams with the Dolphins, including the 17-0 bunch. As for the others, Towler was a terrific fullback who led the league in rushing in 1952, and Wilson at one time held the NFL record for rushing yards in a game (223 vs. the Packers in ’56, his rookie season). Charles and Spiller, I suspect, you’re well acquainted with.

Per-carry averages tend to decline as a player ages (along with everything else, I might add). The longer your career, the less likely you are to average 5 yards. Lenny Moore, for instance, was averaging 5.01 after 10 seasons (964 attempts) but tailed off to 4.84. Hugh McElhenny was at 4.99 through 1,002 carries but finished at 4.70. More recently, the Panthers’ DeAngelo Williams was at 5.04 when he hit 1,000 . . . but has since dropped to 4.84. It makes you appreciate Tiki Barber, who averaged 5.15 in his final two seasons with the Giants at the ages of 30 and 31.

The record book says Barry Sanders averaged 5.0 for his illustrious Lions career, but that’s rounded up. His real average was 4.9866. Sorry, but we don’t round up here at Pro Football Daly, not for something as important as this. Five-Point-O is Five-Point-O, not Four-Point-Nine-Eight-Six-Six.

And how’s this for heartbreak? Sanders was averaging 5 going into his last NFL game in 1998 — 5.0043 to be precise. Alas, he was held to 41 yards in 19 attempts by Ray Lewis and Co., and his average fell to the aforementioned 4.9866. In fact, you can pinpoint the play he went under 5 to stay: his fourth carry of the day, a third-and-6 from the Detroit 41, when Ravens defensive end Keith Washington nailed him for a 3-yard loss. (Though he did rally with back-to-back gains of 31 and 6 in the third quarter to get to 4.9951.)

In case you’re curious, .9866 = 35.5 inches. In other words, Sanders came up half an inch short, per carry, of the Five-Point-O Club. (And if football is a “game of inches,” it’s even more a game of half-inches.) Half an inch, by the way, translates into 41 yards (spread over 3,062 attempts).

Going into this season, the Vikings’ Adrian Peterson is sitting at 4.98, so he also has a chance to join the group. The question is whether, at 29, his rushing average will head north or south. His 4.54 per carry a year ago was the second-lowest of his career.

Whatever your opinion of Charles, there’s no denying he’s putting together a nice resumé. Last season he became just the sixth back — NFL or AFL — to score 12 rushing and 6 receiving touchdowns in a season. The company he keeps:

12 RUSHING AND 6 RECEIVING TOUCHDOWNS IN A SEASON

Year Running Back, Team Rush TD Rec TD
2013 Jamaal Charles, Chiefs 12 7
2001 Marshall Faulk, Rams 12 9
2000 Marshall Faulk, Rams 18 8
1975 Chuck Foreman, Vikings 13 9
1975 O.J. Simpson, Bills 16 7
1965 Gale Sayers, Bears 14 6
1962 Abner Haynes, Texans (AFL) 13 6

That’s twice now I’ve mentioned Charles in the same breath with Sayers. What do you suppose it means?

Sources: pro-football-reference.com, The Pro Football Chronicle

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