Quarterback Committees Trivia

by Chase Stuart on June 6, 2015

This week, WorstQBCommiteesEver became a trending topic on twitter. There are lots of ways go about answering that question — using Relative ANY/A would be a good start — but that’s also kind of boring.

You know what was a really bad committee? The 2011 Colts. Curtis Painter started 8 games, Dan Orlovsky started 5, and Kerry Collins even chipped in with 3. You know all the numbers, but how’s this for a drive-it-home bullet: none of those three ever started another game again in the NFL.

Some really bad quarterback committees would fail this test, with the ’05 49ers being one of the more egregious examples. That team saw Cody Pickett started two games (0 future starts), Ken Dorsey started 3 (3 future starts), Tim Rattay start 4 (2 future starts), and Alex Smith start 7 (98-and-counting). The fact that Smith continued to get work and eventually turned into a competent starter shows the drawback of this method, but it doesn’t make it any less fun.

Less extreme would be the 1974 Falcons, with Bob Lee (8 starts, 5 future), Pat Sullivan (4, 1), and Kim McQuilken (2, and somehow 5). That team had an ANY/A of -0.02, yet McQuilken and Sullivan were back with Atlanta in ’75 (Lee’s future starts came during his general time as a backup with the Vikings). Or even the ’92 Seahawks, where Stan Gelbaugh (8 starts, 1 future), Kelly Stouffer (7, 0), and Dan McGwire (1 start, 3) split the duties for one of the worst offenses ever. But both Gelbaugh and McGwire would start for the Seahawks in future seasons.

I looked at all NFL teams from 1970 to 2012 ^[1]For example, the 2013 Rams would technically qualify as of today, but that doesn’t mean they meet the spirit of this post. Some cushion here is needed. where the main quarterback started less than 11 games. And, believe it or not, just four teams had a quarterback committee situation where none of those players ever started another game.

One, of course, is the 2011 Colts. The other 3?

Trivia hint 1	Select Show
The years were 1988, 1977, and 1970.

Trivia hint 2	Select Show
Those teams went 4-12, 2-12, and 2-12.

Trivia hint 3	Select Show
Over the next two years, those teams drafted Andre Ware, Doug Williams, and Jim Plunkett the following offseason.

Click 'Show' for the Answer	Select Show
The ’88 Lions, ’77 Bucs, and ’70 Patriots join the ’11 Colts (who drafted Andrew Luck the following year) as the only teams in the modern era with a QBBC where none of those quarterbacks ever started another game in the NFL. For Detroit, Rusty Hilger started 9 games, while Chuck Long started seven. Hilger was a bad quarterback with the Raiders from ’85 to ’87 and an even worse one with the Lions, completing just 41.2% of his passes and averaging an anemic 5.1 Y/A. He threw just one more pass in his NFL career, with the Colts in ’91. Long was Detroit’s first round pick in ’86, but he struggled immediately, and led the NFL in interceptions in ’87. He was given one last shot in ’88 but was a train wreck. He would throw just ten more passes in his career. For his career, Long posted a 4-17 record with a 3.90 ANY/A. Tampa Bay split the duties three ways, with Gary Huff starting six times, and Jeb Blount and Randy Hedberg each started four games. Huff was a terrible quarterback with the Bears — 7-21, 16 TDs, 50 INTs — before a one-year stint as a really bad quarterback with the Bucs. He threw just 36 more passes in his career, yet it was Huff who recorded the only wins that year, the first two wins in franchise history. And he actually played pretty well in those games, too. Blount was a second round pick in ’76 out of Tulsa, but he was sacked on 16.8% of his dropbacks and threw 7 interceptions and no touchdowns in four starts with the Bucs in ’77. Hedberg, an 8th round pick out of Minot State, somehow opened the season as the team’s starter, after Huff went down with an injury and Hedberg played well in the preseason. In the first two games of the year, Tampa Bay scored just six points, and Hedberg went 14/39 for 117 yards with three interceptions. His last action in the NFL came in week 12 of the ’77 season, when he went 4/15 for 36 yards with 2 picks. The Patriots gave Joe Kapp — fresh off an NFL championship-winning season with Minnesota — 10 starts in 1970, with Mike Taliaferro taking the other four. Kapp went 12-1 as the Vikings starter in ’69 with Minnesota and the Vikings historically great defense, before going 1-9 with Boston in ’70. After throwing 3 TDs and 17 INTs with the Patriots, Kapp’s NFL career was over. Taliaferro played decently well in ’69, but struggled significantly in ’70, averaging a terrible 3.8 NY/A. He would throw 33 more passes in the NFL, all for the Bills in 1972.

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The ’88 Lions, ’77 Bucs, and ’70 Patriots join the ’11 Colts (who drafted Andrew Luck the following year) as the only teams in the modern era with a QBBC where none of those quarterbacks ever started another game in the NFL.

For Detroit, Rusty Hilger started 9 games, while Chuck Long started seven. Hilger was a bad quarterback with the Raiders from ’85 to ’87 and an even worse one with the Lions, completing just 41.2% of his passes and averaging an anemic 5.1 Y/A. He threw just one more pass in his NFL career, with the Colts in ’91. Long was Detroit’s first round pick in ’86, but he struggled immediately, and led the NFL in interceptions in ’87. He was given one last shot in ’88 but was a train wreck. He would throw just ten more passes in his career. For his career, Long posted a 4-17 record with a 3.90 ANY/A.

Tampa Bay split the duties three ways, with Gary Huff starting six times, and Jeb Blount and Randy Hedberg each started four games. Huff was a terrible quarterback with the Bears — 7-21, 16 TDs, 50 INTs — before a one-year stint as a really bad quarterback with the Bucs. He threw just 36 more passes in his career, yet it was Huff who recorded the only wins that year, the first two wins in franchise history. And he actually played pretty well in those games, too. Blount was a second round pick in ’76 out of Tulsa, but he was sacked on 16.8% of his dropbacks and threw 7 interceptions and no touchdowns in four starts with the Bucs in ’77. Hedberg, an 8th round pick out of Minot State, somehow opened the season as the team’s starter, after Huff went down with an injury and Hedberg played well in the preseason. In the first two games of the year, Tampa Bay scored just six points, and Hedberg went 14/39 for 117 yards with three interceptions. His last action in the NFL came in week 12 of the ’77 season, when he went 4/15 for 36 yards with 2 picks.

The Patriots gave Joe Kapp — fresh off an NFL championship-winning season with Minnesota — 10 starts in 1970, with Mike Taliaferro taking the other four. Kapp went 12-1 as the Vikings starter in ’69 with Minnesota and the Vikings historically great defense, before going 1-9 with Boston in ’70. After throwing 3 TDs and 17 INTs with the Patriots, Kapp’s NFL career was over. Taliaferro played decently well in ’69, but struggled significantly in ’70, averaging a terrible 3.8 NY/A. He would throw 33 more passes in the NFL, all for the Bills in 1972.

There are other (and better) ways to measure the worst quarterback committees ever, but these four stand out as a unique brand of terribleness.

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References
↑1	For example, the 2013 Rams would technically qualify as of today, but that doesn’t mean they meet the spirit of this post. Some cushion here is needed.

Tagged as: Weekend Trivia

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