The Worst Team Passing Attacks In NFL History

by Chase Stuart on May 9, 2019

Yesterday, I noted that in 2018, Josh Rosen produced one of the least valuable passing seasons ever. One reason that Rosen had so much negative value attributed to his stats is because he took 80% of all Arizona dropbacks last year. So while Rosen was bad, the results look different if we examine things on the team level.

In fact, two other Cardinals passing attacks were worse. In 2012, Arizona had three passers with over 180 dropbacks — John Skelton, Kevin Kolb, and Ryan Lindley — and a fourth (Brian Hoyer) with 57 dropbacks. Collectively, the group averaged 3.42 ANY/A (compared to 3.68 in 2018). The league average was 5.93 that season (and 6.32 last year), and Arizona had a whopping 666 pass plays that season. As a result, the 2012 Cardinals finished 1,672 adjusted net yards below average, the second worst in NFL history. (The 1999 Cardinals, with Jake Plummer, also check in as slightly worse than the 2018 Cardinals; more on them in the table below).

The worst? That honor belongs to the 1992 Seahawks, behind Stan Gelbaugh and Kelly Stouffer. That season, Seattle averaged just 1.70 ANY/A in a season where the league average was 4.88 ANY/A. Over 543 attempts, this means Seattle was 1,728 adjusted net yards below average.

The table below shows the worst 200 passing attacks by this measure.

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Rk	Team	Year	DB	ANY/A	LgAvg	VALUE	Top Passer
1	SEA	1992	543	1.7	4.88	-1728	Stan Gelbaugh (53%)
2	ARI	2012	666	3.42	5.93	-1672	John Skelton (32%)
3	BUF	1968	444	0.5	4.22	-1652	Dan Darragh (48%)
4	SDG	1998	603	2.58	5.31	-1647	Craig Whelihan (56%)
5	ATL	1974	406	-0.02	3.91	-1597	Bob Lee (50%)
6	CAR	2010	534	2.85	5.73	-1537	Jimmy Clausen (62%)
7	BUF	1984	648	2.64	5	-1535	Joe Ferguson (58%)
8	OAK	2006	555	2.67	5.38	-1505	Andrew Walter (58%)
9	DET	2009	628	3.26	5.65	-1499	Matthew Stafford (64%)
10	PIT	1965	416	1.44	5.01	-1483	Bill Nelsen (65%)
11	ARI	1999	603	2.77	5.18	-1451	Jake Plummer (68%)
12	ARI	2018	547	3.68	6.32	-1445	Josh Rosen (80%)
13	CLE	2017	624	3.63	5.91	-1417	DeShone Kizer (82%)
14	SFO	1978	477	1.08	4.03	-1405	Steve DeBerg (67%)
15	BUF	2018	540	3.74	6.32	-1395	Josh Allen (64%)
16	PHI	1998	590	2.95	5.31	-1389	Bobby Hoying (44%)
17	CHI	2004	537	3.08	5.63	-1373	Chad Hutchinson (34%)
18	JAX	2014	628	3.97	6.14	-1362	Blake Bortles (84%)
19	BOS	1970	434	1.07	4.16	-1338	Joe Kapp (57%)
20	STL	2009	587	3.37	5.65	-1335	Marc Bulger (44%)

Showing 1 to 20 of 200 entries

As always, please leave your thoughts in the comments.

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