This is the second installment of my Grand List, or: the top 1,000 pro football players in history. ^[1]Get it? Grand, like a thousand? Please validate me. The section will cover players 989-965. I’m not particularly interested in writing a treatise on each player. If you are interested in that sort of thing, I highly recommend Brad Oremland‘s series on the 125 best players ever. I’m quarantined and starting to lose my mind, so you’ll be lucky to get a full paragraph for anyone. Send complaints to DeleteSansReading@gmail.com.

Previous articles in the series

The Grand List, part 1: Includes honorable/special mentions and players 1000-990.

Without further clamor…

The List, Continued

989. Hunk Anderson (1922-1925)
Offensive Guard, Defensive Line
Chicago Bears, Cleveland Indians

The brevity of his career keeps him from ranking higher on this list. Anderson played just four years, but his blocking was so dominant that he was still chosen for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s all decade team. Hunk wasn’t that big, but he was strong and played with a level of aggression few could match. His most important trait was probably his mind. He had a deep repertoire of blocking techniques that served him well on the field and in his subsequent role as a celebrated assistant coach and champion head coach.

988. Bill Walsh (1949-1954)
Center
Pittsburgh Steelers

No, not that Bill Walsh. This is the standout Steel City center. His career was brief, but his play was consistently good and effective. Walsh was the pivot man in a single wing offense, meaning his role required complex blocking responsibilities and often physically demanding assignments. He handled them with aplomb and even filled in on defense when called upon.

987. Jack Manders (1933-1940)
Kicker, Running Back (pre-modern)
Chicago Bears

Automatic Jack was one of the premier kickers of his generation and was a solid halfback. He was an excellent big game player, scoring 11 of Chicago’s 23 points in a 1933 title win over the Giants, as well as two touchdowns in the team’s 1937 loss to Washington. Manders was a two time champion who led the league in scoring twice and ranked in the top 5 five times.

986. Sam Koch (2006-Present)
Punter
Baltimore Ravens

Whether bailing out a lackluster offense or gaining a little more field for a great offense, Koch has been stellar at his job. The 2014 season was probably his best, when he boasted a 43.3 net and a +22 inside 20-touchback differential, but he has had several great years. For his career, he has five times as many punts inside the 20 than he has touchbacks, giving him one of the top ratios ever. He also has maintained consistently high gross and net punting averages despite playing outdoors in a cold weather city. If you want a cherry on top of that sundae, Koch is also one of the better placekick holders the game has seen.

985. William Henderson (1995-2006)
Fullback
Green Bay Packers

A career Packer, Henderson embodied the Midwest understated,. hardworking mentality. He earned Pro Bowl/all pro honors just once, but he was just as good in less celebrated seasons. An excellent lead blocker, he led the way for Dorsey Levens and Ahman Green to post incredible rushing seasons. He also excelled in pass pro while blocking for the notoriously unpredictable Brett Favre. What sets him apart from other great blocking fullbacks is his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield.

984. Joe Guyon (1919-1927)
Running Back (pre-modern)
Canton Bulldogs, Oorang Indians, Cleveland Indians, New York Giants, Rock Island Independents, Kansas City Cowboys, Union Quakers of Philadelphia

A member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, one of Guyon’s main claims to fame is that defenders who had to tackle both him and a past-his-prime Jim Thorpe credited the former with being harder to handle. Some said Thorpe brought the fans to the gates while Guyon made the plays. Usually lined up as a wingback, he was a tough as nails runner who was even better at delivering crushing blocks. He was also an excellent defender who was  hard hitter and a playmaker, like an antediluvian Kenny Easley. Guyon started and ended on a high note, winning championships in his first and last years as a pro.

983. Al Mahrt (1913-1922)
Quarterback (pre-modern)
St. Mary’s Cadets/Dayton Gym-Cadets/Dayton Triangles

Mahrt was known by contemporaries as a gifted and natural tackler, capable of reeling in shifty runners in the open field or bringing down power backs head on. His hit on Joe Guyon in a 20-20 tie against Canton was the Bednarik-Gifford shot of its era. However, Mahrt’s primary accomplishment was his mastery of the forward pass. Writers described his arm as both strongest and most accurate of his day (or as accurate as you can be throwing around the old piece of cabbage they used to use). He was a three time champion player-coach prior to the NFL’s inception, and he earned one APFA all pro nod in the twilight of his career.

982. Rob Moore (1990-1999)
Wide Receivers
Arizona Cardinals, New York Jets

Moore’s inclusion on the list may come as a surprise, given the brevity of his true peak, but you’ll find as the list progresses that the good-but-not-great group of receivers to which he belongs is a large and tightly packed one. What sets him apart from some receivers with similar career numbers is the fact that he had one monster season (1997), in which he led the league with 1584 receiving yards and earned a first team all pro nod. He finished his career ranked 19th in receiving yards, but he has since fallen to 55th in the wake of the 21st Century Passing Explosion.

981. Bill Brown (1961-1974)
Running Back
Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears

Boom Boom Brown was a big, sturdy fullback who was especially adept at short yardage rushing and catching passes out of the backfield. He was a three-time all pro and a four-time Pro Bowler in his thirteen seasons in the Great White North. At the time of his retirement, Brown ranked 12th in both rushing yards and yards from scrimmage. His best season was a marvelous 1964 offensive that saw him pick up 866 yards on the ground and another 703 through the air (at an impressive 14.6 yards per reception), with 16 of Minnesota’s 37 offensive touchdowns.

980. Paul Lowe (1960-1969)
Running Back
Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers, Kansas City Chiefs

Lowe was the AFL’s second leading rusher, with 4995 yards, and was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s All-AFL Team. He had a short and sweet career, with just five healthy seasons full of explosive, highlight reel type plays. Lowe was excellent in his first playoff game, gaining 165 yards and a touchdown on just 21 carries in a championship loss to the Oilers. He was also an exciting boom or bust passer on trick plays, completing less than half his passes but gaining 15.5 yards per attempt on 21 tries.

979. Wayne Millner (1936-1945)
End (pre-modern)
Boston/Washington

People who dive into the stats will often look at Millner’s receiving production and label him a bogus Hall of Fame selection. ^[2]I was once in this camp before doing more research. If you look at him solely as a receiver, then that makes sense (his 1937 championship performance notwithstanding). However, in an era when blocking was coveted, Millner was among the finest at the end position. He also happened to be superb defender. While not particularly large, he was strong. And fast – capable of chasing backs out wide or running down plays from behind. Two things hurt his legacy: WW2 and the Jerry Rice Problem. Millner missed three prime years in the Navy, and he missed out on postseason honors because he played the same position as a contemporary legend – Don Hutson. ^[3]Turn a few of his six All-NFL honorable mentions into first or second team nods, and his career starts looking much better.

978. Luke Johnsos (1929-1936)
End (pre-modern)
Chicago Bears

An accomplished coach after his playing career, the Professor used his natural understanding of the game to his advantage on the field. His smarts, combined with his height (6’2″ in an era that wasn’t common) and speed, made him a scary matchup for pre-modern secondaries. At one point, he was the official career leader in receptions and receiving yards. However, because his career began before the NFL kept official records, his achievements prior to 1932 are largely undocumented and unrecognized by the league he helped advance.

977. Red Badgro (1927-1936)
End (pre-modern)
New York Giants, New York Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers

Athletically sound with a relentless motor, the New York legend was a four-time all pro and major player on squads that won one title game and lost another. In the loss, Badgro became the first player to score a touchdown in an NFL championship game, a 29 yard aerial with his fire-red mane blowing in the wild winds of Wrigley Field. His title win came when his 8-5 crew began a Giants tradition of upsetting great teams in the season’s final game – this time against the undefeated Chicago Bears. Like Millner, Badgro was an excellent blocker and a skilled defenseman.

976. Dick Bass (1960-1969)
Running Back
Los Angeles Rams

Bass wasn’t big but could block well, both as a lead and in pass pro. More importantly, he was a playmaker on both offense and special teams. While he made the first of his three Pro Bowls in 1962, his 1961 season was his most interesting. As a little-used runner, he had the longest run of the season. He also had the league’s longest punt return – an ill-advised 90 yarder that looked like a great idea in hindsight. Oh, Bass led the league in kickoff return average, too, and managed to do so without even scoring a touchdown. Along with halfback Jon Arnett, he was a small glimmer of hope in a dismal era of offense for the Rams.

975. Larry Centers (1990-2003)
Fullback
Arizona/Phoenix Cardinals, Washington, Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots

Centers excelled as a traditional “lineman in the backfield” fullback and could have potentially made this list for his blocking. He didn’t have the size of a Moose Johnston or Lorenzo Neal but was a technician who used leverage and angles to stop defenders at the second level. While his blocking was great, his best trait was his top flight receiving. He was the rare fullback who was also his team’s third down back, and his ability to protect the QB or catch the ball would make him a coveted back in today’s game. Centers finished his career with 6797 receiving yards, including 634 per season from 1993-2001. ^[4]His receptions weren’t just empty checkdowns either. His 1995 outing saw him end the year with 355 DYAR, which is the sixth highest total by a running back in the Football Outsiders era … Continue reading

974. Doak Walker (1950-1955)
Running Back, Defensive Back, Kicker
Detroit Lions

After becoming a college superstar, Walker graduated to the pros and literally did it all. He starred on offense and defense, he kicked and punted, and he returned kicks and punts. ^[5]He also threw the ball, but he wasn’t particularly good at it. The golden boy played five healthy seasons and finished each of those years with a first team all pro selection. A guy who would be at home in a modern offense, Walker made the most of limited touches and put up big numbers as a receiving back. He led league in points scored in his first and last seasons.

973. Tony Richardson (1995-2010)
Fullback
Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings

Richardson was on the small side for a blocking fullback, but he attacked linebackers play after play for 242 games. He made up for his relative lack of size with superior speed and agility compared to his peers. Early in his career, he had a few solid seasons as a runner and receiver, even posting a thousand yard season. He followed that by lead blocking for Priest Holmes in one of the greatest stretches of running back play in history, blocking for a rookie Adrian Peterson, and blocking for a run-heavy attack for the Jets. ^[6]Richardson help a 31 year old Thomas Jones set a career mark in rushing yards.

972. Norb Sacksteder (1914-1925)
Running Back (pre-modern)
Dayton Triangles, Detroit Heralds, Detroit Tigers, Canton Bulldogs

A somewhat obscure name, Sacksteder was one of the first star offensive playmakers in pro football history. He was an excellent open field runner who combined top end speed with elite agility, like a precursor to Hugh McElhenny. Always a threat to score, historians estimate most of his touchdowns were longer than 50 yards. Though most of his accomplishments came before the NFL’s inaugural season, Sacksteder did play in the first-ever game between two NFL teams and was an excellent scatback for the 1922 champion Bulldogs.

971. Larry Craig (1939-1949)
Fullback (pre-modern)
Green Bay Packers

Craig was perhaps the finest blocking back of his era, clearing the way for names like Hinkle, Fritsch, and Canadeo. He only touched the ball 24 times on offense, and he actually scored more touchdowns on defense (one) than he did on offense (none). Powerfully composed, Craig did the dirty work in the Lambeau offense, swatting away hapless defenders like flies at a barbecue. His strength help make him a nightmare as a defensive end, able to put blockers on their heels seemingly at will. Craig’s play at end was a boon not just to the defensive line, but to the defense as a whole, as it meant moving Hutson to his more natural position as a defensive back.

970. Tony Canadeo (1941-1952)
Running Back (pre-modern)
Green Bay Packers

Canadeo was not much of a receiver, but he could run and pass well. He wasn’t that fast or that shifty, but he was sturdy and hard to tackle. This enabled him to excel in short yardage situations, as well as runs up the gut in general. As a passer, he had above average efficiency and was his team’s primary passer (and leading rusher) in 1943. That season, he trailed only legends Sid Luckman and Sammy Baugh in yards and touchdowns. Canadeo was also a solid defensive back who finished his career with 9 interceptions, as well as a contributor on special teams. He missed two years of his prime while serving in the Navy and the Army, which has to be taken into account when looking at his numbers and accolades.

969. Charley Trippi (1947-1955)
Running Back (pre-modern), Punter
Chicago Cardinals

Trippi was an explosive runner who put up consistently high rushing averages without breaking a ton of big plays. Instead, the three-time all pro just gained solid yardage seemingly every time he touched the football. Splitting carries in a committee backfield, he did post eye-popping totals, but he was always a headache for defenses when given the chance. He was a decent receiver early on before eschewing the role almost entirely. By his fifth season, began throwing the ball more than he caught it, though he wasn’t a very effective passer. Trippi was a decent punter and an excellent punt returner. With kickoff return duties as well, he led the league in all purpose yards in 1948 and 1949.

968. Father Lumpkin (1929-1937)
Fullback (pre-modern)
Portsmouth Spartans/Detroit Lions, Brooklyn Dodgers

Long before the pancake became part of the football vernacular, Father Lumpkin was putting grown men flat on their backs. At 6’2″ and 210 pounds, he was mighty figure in the early days of the league, barreling down on defenders with no helmet and a granite chin. As the designated lead blocker on most rushing plays, Lumpkin took his role seriously – he would bemoan any play that didn’t see him demolish multiple men at the second level. As a defensive fullback, he was an exceptional run defender who helped the Lions field one of the great defenses of any era in their first year in Detroit.

967. Whizzer White (1938-1941)
Running Back (pre-modern)
Detroit Lions, Pittsburgh Pirates

White would probably be in the Hall of Fame had he decided to stick to sports. Rather than continuing as a running back, he opted to move on to a role that matters: after receiving two Bronze Stars as an intelligence officer in the Navy during WW2, he finished his law degree from Yale on his way to becoming an associate justice for the SCOTUS. As a player, White was a shifty runner who led the NFL in rushing yards twice and punt return yardage once (the lone season he returned punts). He was also a decent punter and a pretty good defensive back. ^[7]He was a terrible passer, so it’s not like the guy was perfect.

966. Ward Cuff (1937-1947)
Kicker, Running Back (pre-modern)
New York Giants, Chicago Cardinals, Green Bay Packers

Statistics from the era are archaic, but from the numbers we do have, as well as from contemporary accounts, Cuff was the best kicker of his day. He was also a very good slashing runner, usually boasting a high rushing average and leading the league twice in the metric. Cuff was equally adept as a receiver, though playing in the thirties and forties hurt his opportunities to show off his pass catching talents. He was a very good defensive back with a nose for the football. In 1938, he returned an interception 96 yards for a score, and in 1941, he returned four picks for a league high 152 yards.

965. Michael Vick (2001-2015)
Quarterback
Atlanta Falcons, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers

A controversial selection, Vick was generally inaccurate as a passer, but he was capable of amazing plays with both arms and legs. Able to generate incredible torque and launch the ball with just a flick of his wrist, he could fit the ball into windows most quarterbacks wouldn’t even test. He is the fastest and most natural runner ever at the quarterback position. ^[8]Compared with someone like Robert Griffin, who had world class speed but was not a natural as a ball carrier. Vick missed two years of football because of his infamous role in a dogfighting ring, disappointing a fanbase and securing the eternal ire of many. He served his time and came back with a renewed love of the game, working under the tutelage of Andy Reid to produce his best season as a passer and earn a Bert Bell Award.

 

You may have heard that the NFL just celebrated its centennial season. To honor that, I decided to take on a project with the scope grand enough to match the occasion. Previously, I have undertaken large projects like the GridFe Hall of Fame and the Retro Awards project, ^[1]The latter of which was based off decades of prior research and thousands of hours of direct-focused research., and I wanted to build on what I’ve learned from those endeavors to create something everyone loves and hates at once: a big, fat list. In this case, the top 1,000 players in history.

This is my list. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It’s going to be a little different from others you have seen. There will be kickers, punters, blocking fullbacks, returners, and special teamers. You’ll see players from pro football’s Paleolithic era, antedating the NFL itself. With the exception of specialists, positional value won’t play much part here. Neither will fame – if I think an unheralded guy was better than the traditional favorite, I’m going against the grain.

Before we get into the list proper, I want to name a few honorable mentions and special mentions (listed by their offensive roles, when applicable).

Honorable Mentions

Quarterback: Jim McMahon had all the physical tools you could want, and he probably would have made the list had he been able to stay healthy. The Chicago defense deservedly gets the lion’s share of the credit, but the Bears were always a better team when McMahon was at the helm of the offense. Jack Kemp wasn’t exactly efficient, but he was a winner and was one of the best natural athletes to play the position. He had a cannon arm and was one of the best scramblers ever. Jeff Garcia was a gutsy player who dominated the CFL and thrived everywhere he went in the NFL. A classic West Coast passer with wheels, he was one of the more exciting quarterbacks to watch in recent memory.

Running Back: Keith Lincoln was a stout fullback with the speed to break big plays. He could pass, kick, and return as well, and his versatility was invaluable to the champion Chargers.

Fullbacks: Sam Gash and Mack Strong didn’t scare anyone with the ball in their hands, but they were two of the finest blocking fullbacks the game has ever seen. Gash didn’t start getting Pro Bowl attention till he switched teams, and Strong didn’t get love until Shaun Alexander became a household name, but both were incredible well before the public paid notice.

Wide Receivers: Hulking Dick Plasman was a pretty good receiver for his era, but it was his work as a defensive end that gets him the honorable mention. His claim to fame is being the last player to play without a helmet, but he was known by his peers for his temper and ability to disrupt the line of scrimmage. Alyn Beals didn’t generate a ton of yardage, but he was a touchdown machine. He led the AAFC in receiving touchdowns all four years of the league’s existence and is the all-time AAFC touchdown leader. Beals retired after the 1951 season because he could make more money running a liquor store.  Haven Moses was a dangerous big play threat for both the Bills and the Broncos. Diminutive Ernest Givins operated superbly in the run and shoot system, gaining separation with seeming ease and playing well in space with the ball in his hands. Julian Edelman reminds me of watching Scooby Doo as a child. The gang of meddling kids spent 80% of the episode running in circles, only to come up big in the end, thwarting the masked investor keen on lowering the price of real estate by dressing as a werewolf. Edelman rarely played a full 16 game schedule, and he surpassed 70 yards per game once in a season he played at least 12 games. Then January comes around, and he starts making crazy people on ESPN say he belongs in Canton. Jarvis Landry is an odd pick, given his actual production. However, his ability to gain separation and earn targets at a high rate on a wide variety of different routes is among the best in recent memory. He doesn’t choose the routes he gets to run, and he doesn’t choose whether he gets the target, but he almost always makes himself the best option for his quarterback.

Tackles: Len Grant had a short career, but he was good to great in each season. He would have likely made the list had he not been struck by lightning and killed at age 32.

Guards: Buckets Goldenberg may have been a better pure blocker than his more celebrated contemporary Walt Kiesling. Short and compact, he packed a punch in his man blocks.

Centers: Vince Banonis was a solid center and an excellent defensive tackle for the Chicago Cardinals. His career was interrupted by World War II, but he returned to newfound media acclaim and championship glory. Ed Flanagan was a terrific run blocker who anchored several solid lines for the Lions. Clyde Smith was arguably better at the position than Hall of Famer Alex Wojciechowicz, but his short career hurts him here.

Safety: Sean Taylor. What could have been. Taylor was one of the most gifted athletes ever to roam the secondary. He took a few years to put it all together and master the nuances of the role, but by age 23 he already looked like the future of the position. His life was tragically cut short before he reached the heights he seemed to be destined to achieve.

Kickers: Jeff Wilkins was a great long ball kicker and one of the all-time greats at placing onside kicks. Rob Bironas had a big leg and superb accuracy. He seemed to come up big in the biggest moments.

Punters: Rich Camarillo was successful wherever he went. His ability to mitigate return efforts contributed to his consistently excellent rankings in net yards per punt. Shane Lechler is the most decorated punter ever, and his big leg came in handy on those offensively impotent Oakland squads. His inability to limit returns or keep the ball out of the end zone keeps him off the main list. Mike Scifres had some of the highest highs and lowest lows of any punter. His placement on coffin corners was pure art, but his inability to avoid blocks was often disastrous.

Returners: George McAfee was a solid threat on offense and a pretty good defensive back. He also boasts the top punt return average in history (officially, but not actually). Travis Williams was a shooting star, not just in the brevity of his career but also in the explosiveness of his game. Terry Metcalf was more of a field position guy than a scorer, and his contributions on offense earn him an honorable mention over someone like Tamarick Vanover. Terry’s son, Eric, was a stud punt returner and effective slot receiver. Dave Meggett was a shifty scatback who was a good kickoff returner and a great punt returner. Brian Mitchell led the league in all purpose yards four times and still trails only Jerry Rice in career output. Desmond Howard broke punt returns in 1996, and he was effective in other years and for other teams as well. Dante Hall earned the nickname Human Joystick with his memorable returns that featured sharp cuts, abrupt stops, and uncanny acceleration.

Special Mentions

I thought I’d be a cheeky bastard and include these players in the proper list, but I realized that would be unfair to the more recent, better players. Still, with an eye to the past, I’d feel like the project was incomplete without mentioning these fellows.

In 1892, Pudge Heffelfinger accepted $500 to play a football game for the Allegheny Athletic Association. In doing so, he became the first professional football player (that we know of).

At a reported 250 pounds, Bob Shiring was a behemoth in his era. He was a crushing blocker at the pivot position, and he all but destroyed opposing strategies when lined up on the defensive front. Contemporary accounts inform us that Shiring commonly ragdolled any poor soul tasked with lining up against him.

Charles Follis was the first black professional football player on record, signing a contract with the Shelby Blues in 1904. He is also the subject of my favorite football article I have ever written.

Follis’s one-time teammate Peggy Parratt was a coveted player because of his ability to throw the ball. In 1906, Parratt threw the first forward pass in the history of professional football, starting a trend of pearl clutching and traditionalist hand-waving that continues over a century later.

While Parratt threw the first recorded professional pass, Knute Rockne and Massillon teammate Gus Dorais paved the way for using the pass as an integral part of an offensive game plan. The Dorais to Rockne connection was vital to the success of the Tigers.

The List Proper

Having given respects to the men who helped build the game, as well as those who narrowly missed the list, it is now time to get to the top thousand. I’ll cover the first eleven, a portion of the list populated entirely by specialists. This was the part of the list where I said “it’s my list, and I’ll cop out if I want to.” I wanted to recognize great special teams guys and return men, but I also didn’t feel like trying to do the mental gymnastics of explaining a guy who can barely earn playing time on offense or defense somehow outranks a regular starter who also contributed on special teams. Thus, the first eleven includes five special teamers and six returners. I can deal with it if you can.

1000. Bill Bates (1983-1997)
Dallas Cowboys

The beloved Cowboy was a decent safety and a good nickel linebacker early in his career, notching 12 interceptions and 16 sacks before turning 30. However, special teams is where he cemented his legend. Long after he ceded his starting role on defense, Bates continued to bring leadership by example, impressing coaches and teammates alike with his effort on the field and commitment in the film room. As a coverage guru, he was a consistent tackler, averaging almost a tackle per game over his 217 games. While he didn’t make many box score stuffing plays (1 forced fumble and 3 recoveries), Bates was instrumental in giving opponents worse field position.

999. Hank Bauer (1977-1982)
San Diego Chargers

Bauer’s career lasted just six seasons, but he managed to cram a ton of frenzied play into his brief time on the field. As a tough short yardage specialist on offense, he had years where he averaged 3.6 and 1.3 yards per carry while scoring 9 and 8 touchdowns. Nothing special. But on special teams, he was on another level. He wasn’t a playmaker, but he was a great blocker on return teams and an otherworldly tackler on coverage units. He finished his career with 147 special teams tackles, including an NFL record 51 in 1981. In his last season, Bauer averaged two coverage tackles per game, despite playing the last six games of the season with the broken neck that ultimately ended his career.

998. Ivory Sully (1979-1987)
Los Angeles Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Detroit Lions

Sully saw a lot of action as a member of the Rams’ deep squad of great defensive backs, often replacing a linebacker in Ray Malavasi’s innovative dollar defense. But he really made his mark as a special teamer. He didn’t have the consistently high tackle numbers of a guy like Bauer, but he arguably made big plays at a higher rate than any other specialist in history. Sully forced six fumbles, recovered four fumbles, blocked four punts, and blocked three kicks.

997. Michael Bates (1993-2003)
Carolina Panthers, Seattle Seahawks, Cleveland Browns, Washington, Dallas Cowboys, New York Jets

Bates was a world-class athlete, earning a bronze medal in the 200 at the 1992 Olympics. He used his blazing speed to make an impact as both a returner and a special teams ace. Bates led the league in kickoff return average twice and finished his career with 9348 yards, good for 7th all time. His five scoring returns put him 9th on the kickoff touchdown list. However, he was even better as a specialist. Despite bouncing around from team to team, he was a productive tackler wherever he went, and he was a top notch playmaker as well. Prior to injury, he posted 9 forced fumbles, 3 recoveries, and 4 blocked kicks in 136 games.

996. Steve Tasker (1985-1997)
Buffalo Bills, Houston Oilers

Tasker is the consensus pick for the greatest core special teams player of all time. His legend is such that he was even a Hall of Fame semifinalist purely for special teams play. While I wouldn’t go as far as to induct a player with 909 career yards from scrimmage and a forced/recovered fumble tally that matched Jared Allen‘s 2006 season, I do think it’s fair to recognize him as the best at his role. Early in his career, he was a playmaking machine. He posted 74 of his 111 career tackles, forced all five of his fumbles and notched all six of his kick blocks before turning 30. Until last year, his seven Pro Bowl selections were the most ever for a special teamer. ^[2]And by ever, I mean since it became an option in 1984. Last year, Patriots standout Matthew Slater earned his eighth Pro Bowl nod. Slater is in the Bill Bates mold, holding his own as a coverage … Continue reading

995. Billy Johnson (1974-1988)
Houston Oilers, Atlanta Falcons, Montreal Alouettes, Washington

The next two players were tough to separate, and I switched them back and forth a few times. White Shoes was a top notch punt returner and a pretty good kickoff returner. He led the league in punt return average twice and finished his career with a solid 11.8 yard average and 6 touchdowns. With slow and steady offensive production and a solid kick returning role early in his career, Johnson amassed 10785 all purpose yards. But it was his big play threat on punts that landed him on the NFL’s All-Century Team.

994. Rick Upchurch (1975-1983)
Denver Broncos

White Shoes got the honor of making the official centennial team, but Upchurch bests him on this list. As direct contemporaries, the Broncos standout boasted the superior punt return and kickoff return average, in addition to two more punt return touchdowns on fewer tries. Relative to the rest of the league, Upchurch created more value at his peak while posting just one below average season in his career. I’m not giving much consideration to offensive and defensive production in this installment, but it is worth mentioning that Upchurch also contributed more consistently on offense.

993. Josh Cribbs (2005-2014)
Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, Indianapolis Colts

An effective gadget player on offense, as well as a solid gunner on coverage teams, Cribbs really made his name as a return man. He was good – sometimes very good – fielding punts, but he is one of the very best of all time at returning kickoffs. His 2007 campaign may be the greatest the game has ever seen, and he surrounded that consistently excellent seasons. In terms of return efficiency, he was well above average over the third most kickoff returns of any player in history. Cribbs also boasts the record for career kickoff return scores, with eight.

992. Cordarrelle Patterson (2013-present)
Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots, Chicago Bears

With league efforts to legislate kickoff returns out of existence, Patterson has managed to fly under the radar as one of the all time great kickoff returners. Were he to play in an era that featured more returns, he would probably get the credit he has earned. He has played seven seasons, and his kickoff average ranks have been: 1, 6, 1, 1, DNQ, 3, and 2. The year he didn’t qualify, he missed the league minimum by one return and was nearly a full yard higher than the official leader. His 29.9 yard average ranks second in history in career average, just above Lynn Chandnois (29.6) and below Gale Sayers (30.6). The former returned 92 kicks, while the latter returned 91. Patterson has returned 204 and counting. He didn’t do much to pad his résumé on offense, but he has bolstered his value as a standout special teamer.

991. Mel Gray (1984-1997)
Detroit Lions, New Orleans Saints, Houston Oilers, Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Express

In 2014, Chase published articles on the best kickoff returners and best punt returners in history. Gray came out as the top kickoff returner and the fifteenth ranked punt returner. ^[3]I disagree with using a 15 yard touchdown bonus for kickoff returns. If we use the 20 yard bonus from ANY/A as the standard, then we should probably make a kickoff return touchdown worth about 45 … Continue reading He wasn’t the terrifying big play threat that some others were, though he did score six touchdowns on kickoffs and another three on punts. What made Gray great was his ability to generate positive field position for his teams, year after year, without ever having a down year. Despite playing during a low point for league-wide kick return success, Gray’s raw numbers are among the best ever. Once you account for era, he’s clearly at the top of the pack.

990. Devin Hester (2006-2016)
Chicago Bears, Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens

There have been many good – even great – return men throughout history. Few have ever managed to strike fear in opposing squads to such an extent that they actually gameplanned around a returner. ^[4]Jack Christiansen on punts and Gale Sayers on kickoffs come to mind, but it’s not a long list. Hester didn’t just score return touchdowns at an unprecedented rate, he actually scared punters and kickoff specialists into kicking away from him and often making unforced errors. Like Gray, he was one of the few who excelled at both kickoffs and punts. Hester made an immediate impact, helping his inept offense with five return scores as a rookie and another six in his second season. He finished his career as the punt return touchdown king, and he threw in a ninth place rank in kickoff scores for good measure. Gale Sayers and Deion Sanders agree: Hester is the greatest, most explosive returner ever to play.

 

On Monday, November 2nd, 1964, the country was talking about Lyndon Baines Johnson and Barry Goldwater, as the upcoming presidential election was just one day away. The NFL world was talking about Jim Brown, who a day earlier had become the first player to rush for 10,000 yards, and the Baltimore Colts, who had just won their 7th straight game. Fans of the AFL were talking about the Buffalo Bills, who had won yet again to bring their 1964 record to a perfect 8-0.

But if you look closely, there was some attention being paid to old George Blanda, the Houston Oilers quarterback who set a new pro football record by throwing 68 passes in a losing effort against those Bills. You might be wondering how did a 37-year-old quarterback in 1964 get away with throwing 68 passes? At the time, the single-game record by pass attempts by a team or player was 60, set by Davey O’Brien with the Philadelphia Eagles back in 1940. In the ensuing 23-and-a-half seasons, no team had hit 60 pass attempts again, and then Blanda and the Oilers threw 68 times on November 1st, 1964. In the next 24 seasons, no quarterback threw more than 62 passes in a game.

So, what happened on November 1st 1964 in western New York?

Let’s begin with the opponent. Blanda had a lot of success against the Bills in 1963: in two wins, he completed 30 of 56 passes for 475 yards with 6 TDs and 1 interception, back when those numbers were truly outstanding. [continue reading…]

In the early days of the NFL, a player needed to be at least five yards behind the line of scrimmage in order to be eligible to pass.  Beginning in 1933, that rule was eliminated, making a pass legal at any point behind the line of scrimmage.  The next year, a slimmer and more aerodynamic football was introduced to make life easier for passers.

In the 1937 NFL championship game, trailing for much of the game, the Redskins and Sammy Baugh set a single-game record with 40 pass attempts against the great Chicago Bears.  Baugh led the team on a great comeback and secured the title for Washington in a 28-21 victory.

But playoff games have a tendency to make teams move outside of their comfort zone; in the regular season no team even hit the 35-pass attempt mark until 1939.  On October 15th of that season, the Chicago Cardinals were obliterated by the Chicago Bears, 44-7. Playing with a terrible game script, the Cardinals finished 10 of 37 for 162 yards with no touchdowns and 6 interceptions. Hardly a blueprint for future offenses,  it was a record-setting game nonetheless.  The next season, the Detroit Lions also threw 37 times in a loss to the Bears in mid-November. The following week, the Philadelphia Eagles, led by Davey O’Brien, faced that same dominant Bears team and threw a (regular season) record 38 times in a losing effort.  In case you haven’t picked up on it, the Bears were very good in the late ’30s.

By 1940, the passing game began to take off, at least compared to the ground-and-pound days of the 1930s.  In the Eagles opener, the team threw 40 times in a loss to the Packers, setting a new record in the regular season. A month later, as the Rams trailed the Packers, the team threw a record 42 times!  This was a real shootout: Green Bay won by throwing 37 passes of their own, with remarkable success.

Two weeks later, O’Brien’s Eagles matched that number in a loss to Brooklyn.  Another two weeks later, Brooklyn faced Baugh’s Redskins and jumped out to an early lead.  Washington responded with — are you sitting down? — 47 passes in a comeback that fell just short.  It was a historic performance: Baugh set a new record with 23 completions on 44 attempts.

As the 1940 season concluded, the Redskins looked like the best team in the NFL.  They were 9-2 entering the final game of the season, and had just defeated the second-best team (the Bears) two weeks earlier.  The worst team in the NFL?  That would be Davey O’Brien’s Philadelphia Eagles, who began the season 0-9, and then eeked by with a 7-3 victory against the struggling Pittsburgh Steelers. [continue reading…]

In general, more passing yards should be better than fewer passing yards. But we know that due to Game Script, teams that are trailing late in games throw much more frequently — and can rack up the passing yards — than teams with a lead.

So, if you know nothing else other than that a team threw for more passing yards than its opponent, would you guess that team won or lost?

And how would you guess that answer would change over time?

For the first question, let’s look at 2019. Last season, the team that threw for more gross passing yards went 136-119-1, so that’s a small but clear edge for the team that threw for more passing yards.  In the graph below, I’ve shown the number of passing yards by each winning team (in blue) and its opponent (in orange) in each game.  The X-Axis shows the difference between the passing yards for the winning team and the passing yards for the losing team. There are a few more dots to the right side of the graph than the left, which is because the winning team more often than not threw for more yards.  This is a fun graph, because it also lets you see how many games are in each category based on the size of the difference.

[continue reading…]

Twelve years ago, I wrote a four part series detailing the history of the black quarterback.

Six years ago, I updated that article; today, a further update as the NFL just concluded its 100th season. And while for the last 52 of those seasons, at least one black quarterback was in the NFL, the roles and treatment of black quarterbacks have varied greatly over the last five decades.

The history of black quarterbacks in professional football is complicated. The New York Giants did not have a black quarterback throw a pass until 2007, when Anthony Wright became the first to do so; 10 years later, Geno Smith became the first and only black quarterback to start a game for the Giants. But as far back as 1920, Frederick Douglass “Fritz” Pollard was the tailback of the Akron Pros; a year later, he was promoted to player/coach, and became the first black head coach in NFL history. Pollard helped the Pros win the championship in the NFL’s inaugural season. ^[1]At the time, the NFL went by the name the American Professional Football Association. It was not known as the NFL until 1922. The Pros ran the single-wing, and Pollard was the player lined up behind the center who received the snaps. At the time the forward pass was practically outlawed, so Pollard barely resembles the modern quarterback outside of the fact that he threw a few touchdown passes during his career. ^[2]In addition to his NFL exploits, Pollard also achieved a great deal of fame for leading Brown to back-to-back road wins over the powerhouse schools of the time, Yale and Harvard, in 1916. He would … Continue reading And, of course, it was a time of significant discrimination: Pollard and end Bobby Marshall were the first two black players in professional football history.

As told by Sean Lahman, at least one African American played in the NFL in every year from 1920 to 1933, although Pollard was the only one resembling a quarterback. ^[3]It wasn’t just African Americans that had full access during this era: Jim Thorpe coached and starred in a team composed entirely of Native Americans called the Oorang Indians in 1922 and 1923. Beginning in 1934, that there was an informal ban on black athletes largely championed by Washington Redskins owner George Marshall. It wasn’t until 1946 that black players were re-admitted to the world of professional football, when UCLA’s Kenny Washington ^[4]Who occupied the same backfield with the Bruins as Jackie Robinson. and Woody Strode were signed by the Los Angeles Rams; in the AAFC, Bill Willis and Marion Motley were signed by Paul Brown’s Cleveland Browns that same season.
[continue reading…]

Brad Oremland is a sportswriter and football historian. You can follow him on Twitter @bradoremland.

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This week, the NFL and the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced 15 new members of the PFHOF, the 2020 Centennial Hall of Fame Class. There is a backlog of qualified candidates, so the Centennial class was a good idea. The selection committee included many qualified and knowledgeable voters: coaches Bill Belichick and John Madden; Hall of Fame players with excellent coaching or executive credentials, Dick LeBeau and Ozzie Newsome; executives Gil Brandt, Joel Bussert, Carl Peterson, Bill Polian, and Ron Wolf; historians Joe Horrigan and Chris Willis; and journalists Jarrett Bell, John Clayton, Frank Cooney, John Czarnecki, Rick Gosselin, Elliot Harrison, Ira Kaufman, Jeff Legwold, John McClain, Gary Myers, Sal Paolantonio, Dan Pompei, Charean Williams, and Barry Wilner. I wish they had more people directly involved with the league, and fewer journalists, but I understand why they shaped the committee the way they did, and it was essentially a good panel.

The results of the voting, unfortunately, do not reflect that.

The selections included:

• Two head coaches: Bill Cowher and Jimmy Johnson.
• Three contributors: Steve Sabol, Paul Tagliabue, and George Young.
• 10 players: WR Harold Carmichael, OT Jim Covert, S Bobby Dillon, S Cliff Harris, S Donnie Shell, OT Winston Hill, DT Alex Karras, T Duke Slater, WR Mac Speedie, and DE Ed Sprinkle.

Let’s start with the good: [continue reading…]

The 2014 season marked a new era of passing efficiency. And since the 2014 season, the passing game has remained extremely efficient. However, there were a lot of quarterback injuries in 2019: we spent most or all of the season without Andrew Luck, Ben Roethlisberger, Cam Newton, and Alex Smith; as a result, pass efficiency, as measured by Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt, was slightly down in 2018 compared to 2019.

The graph below shows each team’s ANY/A in 2018 (X-Axis) and 2019 (Y-Axis).

[continue reading…]

Derrick Henry and the Titans just dethroned the defending Super Bowl champions, in Foxboro, in the Wildcard round of the playoffs. Henry, who led the NFL in rushing yards during the regular season, rushed 34 times for 182 yards and 1 touchdown. Henry also caught one pass for 22 yards, finishing the day with 204 of the Titans 272 yards of offense.

That’s right: Henry himself accounted for exactly 75.0% of the Tennessee offense on Saturday night, the second-largest percentage by a single player in a playoff win in NFL history. Among players with at least 100 yards of offense, only four other players had accounted for even 70% of a team’s total yards in a playoff game:

• In 1981, the Giants beat the Eagles 27-21, as Rob Carpenter rushed 33 times for 161 yards and caught 4 passes for 32 yards.  Carpenter had 193 of New York’s 275 yards that day (70.2%).
• In 1976, the Vikings defeated the Rams 24-13, in a game that featured an early special teams touchdown for Minnesota and then a whole lot of Chuck Foreman. The great running back finished with 199 yards from scrimmage on only 20 touches, giving him 74.5% of Minnesota’s 267 yards of offense that day.
• In 1971, Washington lost to the 49ers, 24-21, but don’t blame Larry Brown.  The running back would go on to win the AP MVP award the following season, but as a precursor to that performance, Brown rushed 27 times for 84 yards and caught 6 passes for 62 yards and a touchdown, giving him 146 of Washington’s 192 yards of offense.  Brown had 76.0% of the team’s output that day in a losing effort.
• In the 1985 playoffs, the Rams shut out the Cowboys, 20-0, in a game that Eric Dickerson dominated. The Hall of Fame back rushed 34 times for 248 times and 2 touchdowns, and while he lost 4 yards on his lone reception, Dickerson still had 244 of Los Angeles’s 316 yards of offense.  That gave Dickerson a record 77.2% of his team’s offensive production.

[continue reading…]

Brad Oremland is a sportswriter and football historian. You can follow him on Twitter @bradoremland.

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Yesterday, I began looking at the greatest dynasties in pro football history were represented on the NFL 100 team. Today, we pick back up with the top 13 dynasties.

t9. Decatur Staleys/Chicago Bears, 1920-27
73-17-16 (.811), 1 championship, 0 title appearances
20 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: George Halas
Other HOFers: Ed Healey, George Trafton

Not a dynasty. They rate well by my system, but the system wasn’t designed for the 1920s. These were the first eight years of the NFL’s existence — actually in 1920 the league was called the APFA: American Professional Football Association. Teams not only played variable numbers of games, they regularly played against teams who weren’t even in the league. In 1921, the Louisville Brecks, Muncie Flyers, New York Brickley Giants, and Tonawanda Kardex combined to go 0-7, getting outscored by a total of 172-0.

Only four of the 12 NFL teams in 1927 were still in the league five years later. The Bears, Giants, and Packers combined to outscore their opponents 459-161 that season. In this environment, it was easy for real teams to pad their records, but the Bears only won one championship. Furthermore, ties weren’t counted towards winning percentage, so when the Bears went 6-1-4 in 1924, that counted as an .857 record, worth three dynasty points. I’m sorry, but there’s no way going 6-1-4, with two draws each against the Racine Legion and the Rock Island Independents, should earn as many dynasty points as the 2010 Patriots or the 2011 Packers.

I include this team for the sake of completeness, but subjectively, it wouldn’t make my top 30, to say nothing of tied for 9th.

t9. Green Bay Packers, 1936-43
65-19-3 (.774), 2 championships, 3 title appearances
20 dynasty points
NFL 100 Members: Curly Lambeau, Don Hutson
Other HOFers: Arnie Herber, Clarke Hinkle

Like the Joe Gibbs Dynasty in Washington, this team would actually benefit from a longer period than eight years: they were NFL champions in 1944. At a time when everyone played both offense and defense, the Packers had two great QBs (Cecil Isbell and Herber), a fullback who retired as the league’s all-time leading rusher (Hinkle), two very good linemen (Buckets Goldenberg and Bill Lee), a Hall of Fame coach (Lambeau), and Don Hutson.

Hutson was more than revolutionary; he was an anomaly. It is an understatement to say that he shattered records. Around the same time, Sammy Baugh redefined ideas about what passers could do, but Hutson was so outstanding that no one even thought to replicate what he was doing. In an 11-year career, he led the NFL in receptions eight times, in receiving yards seven times, and in receiving touchdowns nine times. He was also an excellent defensive player, with 30 interceptions in the six seasons the stat was kept. He led the league in 1940 and led in INT return yards in 1943. He was also a pretty good kicker, with nearly 200 extra points made. Like his contemporary Baugh, there’s a compelling argument that he is the greatest football player who ever lived.

Hinkle was an NFL 100 finalist as a linebacker. He was a terrific all-around player (#106) and a worthy NFL 100 finalist, but I don’t think there’s any single position at which he felt like he should be a finalist. I suppose linebacker was the best fit. [continue reading…]

Brad Oremland is a sportswriter and football historian. You can follow him on Twitter @bradoremland.

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Like many of you, I’ve been following the release of the NFL’s 100th Anniversary All-Time Team with interest. American football is a team sport, and great players, by definition, are those who make their teams better. I was curious how the NFL 100 team relates to the greatest dynasties in pro football history, and what follows is an examination of that subject.

This will be very similar to an article I wrote last year, Top 30 NFL Dynasties and the Hall of Fame. If you’ve read that, you can skip this introduction on how I rate and define dynasties. The usual definition of a “dynasty” is something to the effect of a succession of rulers. To me, sports dynasties are measuring sticks. If you wanted to win a World Series in the 1940s, you had to beat the Yankees. In today’s NFL, someone has to beat the Patriots. And so on. And to be the measuring stick, to establish a legacy that might merit that word, dynasty, you have to sustain greatness: you need a series of great teams — a succession of rulers. [continue reading…]

The NFL has announced its final All Century team. The full list below, but a few notes first.

1) The player with the shortest career was Gale Sayers (6 years, 68 games).

2) The player with the longest career was Adam Vinatieri (24 years, 365 games).

3) The Lombardi Packers had 12 or 13 Hall of Fame players (in addition to a Hall of Fame coach, of course), depending on whether you want to include Emlen Tunnell.  The great safety played with the Giants from ’48 to ’58, but finished his career with 3 years in Green Bay.  The last game of his career came, as a backup, in the first championship victory for Green Bay.  Tunnell made the #NFL100 team, but he’s not thought of as a Lombardi Packer.

In fact, other than the coach, Forrest Gregg was the only of the 12 Hall of Fame players on those great Packers teams to make the All-Century team.  That’s…. interesting, to say the least.

4) What do Ronnie Lott, Brett Favre, and Ed Reed have in common?  They are the only players on the team to play for the Jets.  Lott was there in  ’93 and ’94, Favre in ’08, and Reed in ’13.  Joe Namath, Don Maynard, Joe Klecko, and Curtis Martin are probably the best four Jets in history, but I don’t think any were all that close to making this team.  Martin and Klecko weren’t even finalists at their position.

5) The Jets were the least-represented team on the #NFL100, at least among teams that have been around for awhile.

• The Jaguars and Panthers entered the NFL in 1995.  Combined, the teams have only one player-season — Reggie White in 2000 with Carolina.
• The Jets began playing pro football in 1960, but have only the four player-seasons mentioned above.
• The Saints have only five player-seasons: three from Doug Atkins and two from Earl Campbell, in both cases at the end of those players’ careers.
• The Texans have six, with Reed playing there in 2013 and Shane Lechler there from ’13 to ’17.
• The Bengals have 13, all coming from Anthony Munoz.  Every other team has at least 20.

6) The 1963-1966 Colts had 6 players make the All-Century team: QB Johnny Unitas, RB (and receiver) Lenny Moore, WR Raymond Berry, TE John Mackey, OG (and tackle) Jim Parker on offense, and DE Gino Marchetti on defense.  All six were on the Colts all four years other than Marchetti, who retired in ’65 and then returned for a final season in ’66.  In addition, those Colts teams also had Bob Vogel at LT, who was at the start of his 5-time Pro Bowl career.  And while Mackey entered the league in ’63, the Colts also had another Hall of Fame in Art Donovan until ’61, when Unitas, Moore, Berry, Parker, and Marchetti were still with Baltimore.

Those ’56 to ’63 Colts had a ridiculous amount of talent.

7) 1967 (Willie Lanier and Jan Stenerud in Kansas City, Ken Houston in Houston, Alan Page in Minnesota, and Gene Upshaw in Oakland) and 1983 (Eric Dickerson in Los Angeles, John Elway and Dan Marino in Denver and Miami, Bruce Matthews in Houston, and Darrell Green in Washington) each brought 5 top 100 players into pro football. That’s the most of any season. A lot of seasons had zero players, but 1992 and 1993 were the rare back-to-back seasons with zero players. The 1992 draft, in particular, was devoid of top-level talent.

The graph below shows how many of the All-Century players were active in each season.  The peak was 1971, with 28. [continue reading…]

The NFL released the 22 finalists at the quarterback position for the #NFL100 all-century team.  The list was relatively unsurprising: Sammy Baugh, Sid Luckman, Otto Graham, Bobby Layne, Norm Van Brocklin, Johnny Unitas, Bart Starr, Fran Tarkenton, Joe Namath, Roger Staubach, Terry Bradshaw, Dan Fouts, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, John Elway, Steve Young, Troy Aikman, Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Aaron Rodgers.

The list also had a somewhat modern tilt to it, effectively ignoring the first 15 years of the NFL’s history, and with little representation of passers before World War II.  It also dips in 1980, as Namath, Tarkenton, and Staubach all retired in the late ’70s, and Montana was the only Hall of Fame QB to enter the league in the nine-year period fro 1974 to 1982.  Finally, it dips at the end, in part because those players are still building their Hall of Fame careers.

[continue reading…]

Jameis Winston has played 15 games so far this season, and he’s thrown for 4,908 yards, with 31 touchdowns and 28 interceptions.  He is going to run away with the INT crown, is a good favorite to win the passing yards crown, and will likely finish anywhere from 1st to 3rd in passing touchdowns. Winston also is in a tight race with two half-season guys — Matthew Stafford and Ryan Tannehill — to win the yards per completion crown.  Oh, and he leads the NFL right now in sacks taken, too.

Some of this is a function of him leading the NFL in pass attempts (he’s also played 15 games, while most teams play their 15th game today).   But Winston is also just extreme in almost every fun stat, which is why I decided to revisit my Fun QB Index with some tweaks.

Here are the rules for being fun:

• Passing a lot.
• A high yards per completion average.
• Touchdowns.
• Interceptions.

So here’s the simple formula I came up with:

Fun = [ (Yards per Completion – 10.0) * Completions, plus 45 x INTs, plus 45 x TDs ] / Games Played

This isn’t a rate stat, which means you get more credit for passing more often…. except when it comes to yards per completion.  There, you only get credit for your yards per completion above 10.0.

Let’s use this formula for Winston.  He’s completed 367 of 602 passes for 4,908 yards, a 13.37 yards per completion average.  So he gets credit in the YPC component of the formula for (3.37 * 367), or 1,237 yards.  With 59 combined TDs/INTs, that gets him another 2,655 yards.  That gives him 3,892 fun yards, which is an average of 259.5 yards per game of fun.

Now, that probably means nothing to you in the abstract. But here is how the 2019 quarterbacks look when you run them through the same formula: [continue reading…]

Field goal rates have been improving significantly over the last several decades. And while field goal success rate isn’t the best stat because it treats field goals of all distances equally, it’s remarkably consistent at the league level: the field goal success rate was between 84.0% and 84.7% over each of the last five years prior to 2019.

But this season, the league’s field goal rate has dropped significantly to 80.9%.  But what’s truly remarkable is what’s happening with the Titans.  The graph below shows the field goal success rate for every team in every year from 1974 (the year the goal posts were moved) to 2019.  See if you can spot the 2019 Titans.

[continue reading…]

Previous Passing Stats:

• Week 1
• Week 2
• Week 3
• Week 4
• Week 5
• Week 6
• Week 7
• Week 8
• Week 9
• Week 10
• Week 11
• Week 12
• Week 13
• Week 14

It finally happened: last night, Drew Brees threw 4 touchdown passes, to pass Peyton Manning and to move into first place on the all-time passing touchdowns list. A few years ago, Bryan Frye detailed the history of the passing TD crown, from Benny Friedman to Manning.  Manning held the record for a little over 5 years, while Brees may not hold the record for very long at all if Tom Brady gets his way.  The shortest reign belongs to Bobby Layne, who held it for just over a year.

Oh, and Brees also set a record for the best completion in NFL history by a quarterback with more than 10 passes (trivia note: Kurt Warner holds the record, at 10, for most passes in a game without an incompletion).  Brees completed 29 of 30 passes, and he did that without taking a sack, either (Warner took two in his 10/10 game).  In the list of games with just one incompletion, everyone with more than 18 pass attempts had at least four sacks.  To complete 29 passes on 30 dropbacks is remarkable.  Only Steve Young (here)  and Warner (here) have had a game with 20+ attempts and less than three combined sacks and incomplete passes.

The table below shows the week 15 passing stats. The top passers of the week were Jameis Winston, Drew Brees, Lamar Jackson, and Russell Wilson, which is hardly surprising… but Dwayne Haskins also cracked the top group, along with Dak Prescott and Patrick Mahomes. The full week 15 passing stats below. [continue reading…]

Previously: Running Backs; Defensive Ends; Defensive Tackles

As you know, the NFL is announcing its top 100 players in league history as part of the league’s 100-year anniversary. The nominating committee selected 12 outside linebackers ^[1]There are three players with labeling issues to discuss here: Chuck Bednarik, Clarke Hinkle, and Junior Seau (who isn’t on the above list). We will get to them at the end of this article. as finalists, and with the exception of the lone active player (Von Miller), every player is in the Hall of Fame. For the final team, 6 outside linebackers were chosen. The table below shows the finalists and those selected for the official team: [continue reading…]

Previously: Running Backs; Defensive Ends

As you know, the NFL is announcing its top 100 players in league history as part of the league’s 100-year anniversary. The nominating committee selected 17 defensive ends as finalists, and with the exception of three non-eligible players (Peppers, Watt, Ware) every player is in the Hall of Fame. For the final team, 7 defensive ends were chosen. The table below shows the finalists and those selected for the official team:

The Great Decade

Is it really possible that the 4 best defensive tackles in history were all in their primes at the start of the 1970s?

Bob Lilly entered the NFL in 1961. Merlin Olsen joined a year later. Alan Page was drafted in 1967, and Joe Greene was picked two years later.

When Brad Oremland did his series on the greatest defensive tackles in history, he ranked these four as the top four ever: he ranked Page at 30, and put Greene at 16, Olsen at 13, and Lilly at 12. As Brad noted:

Associated Press first-team All-NFL defensive tackles, 1964-75: (1964) Bob Lilly and Henry Jordan, (1965) Bob Lilly and Alex Karras, (1966) Bob Lilly and Merlin Olsen, (1967) Bob Lilly and Merlin Olsen, (1968) Bob Lilly and Merlin Olsen, (1969) Bob Lilly and Merlin Olsen, (1970) Merlin Olsen and Alan Page, (1971) Bob Lilly and Alan Page, (1972) Joe Greene and Mike Reid, (1973) Joe Greene and Alan Page, (1974) Joe Greene and Alan Page, (1975) Curley Culp and Alan Page. That’s seven selections for Lilly, five for Olsen, five for Page, three for Greene (he added a fourth in 1977), and four for everyone else combined.

That’s a mean vertical leap.

Lilly, Olsen, Page, and Greene were more or less contemporary, competing with one another for honors — Lilly, Olsen, and Page especially, since they all played in the NFC. Lilly, for instance, almost certainly would have been first-team All-Pro in 1970 if Olsen and Page hadn’t both been in their primes at the same time. The All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors showered upon these players actually undersell how dominant they were. I tend to be skeptical about claims that all the greatest players were from the same era, especially when that era is the ’60s and early ’70s — but Lilly, Olsen, Page, and Greene really were the most outstanding defensive tackles in the history of professional football. Until Aaron Donald logs a couple more seasons, only Randy White is really even close.

In Sean Lahman’s Pro Football Historical Abstract, he ranks Olsen was the best defensive tackle ever, Lilly as the second-best, Green as his third-best, and Page as his fifth-best. Only Randy White — who, yes, has a very strong claim to being a top-5 DT ever — breaks the chain, as Lahman ranks White (drafted by the Cowboys in ’75 months after Lilly retired) fourth.

John Turney ranked the top 4-3 DTs ever last summer. Turney ranked Lilly as the best ever, followed by Greene, Olsen, and Page, and then White a tier below but in fifth place.

Bryan Frye put Page, Lilly, Greene, and Olsen on his personal DT Mt. Rushmore. At this point, I’d like to remind you that Page is typically ranked 4th among this group, and Frye noted that Page was the best DT in the league for 4 different seasons, with the other three all active those years.  In ’73, Page was the Defensive Player of the Year according to both the Professional Football Writers of America and the Newspaper Enterprise Association (Dolphins safety Dick Anderson, who led the NFL in interceptions and pick sixes, won the AP award). In 1971, Page won the AP MVP award — not the Defensive Player of the Year award, but the MVP award.  In 1970, Page was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Year (in a conference featuring Lilly and Olsen) by the NEA, and easily being named a consensus first-team All-Pro.  He was better that year than a 2nd-year Greene (who lost out on the AP’s All-AFC team to Jets DT John Elliott).  And in 1969, Page was one of the stars of arguably the greatest defense of all time.  He also was the NFC Defensive Player of the Year in 1974, although Greene was the AFC DPOY and overall DPOY.  So Page, playing in the most star-studded DT of all time, was the best defensive tackle in the league 3 or 4 times, and is typically the least-heralded of the bunch.  When the #NFL100 committee put together this list, only two defensive tackles were unanimous selections: Lilly and Page. Greene and Olsen should have been, too.

So yes, it really is possible that the four best defensive tackles all played in the same era.  Strange, but true. [continue reading…]

Previously: Running Backs

As you know, the NFL is announcing its top 100 players in league history as part of the league’s 100-year anniversary. The nominating committee selected 17 defensive ends as finalists, and with the exception of three non-eligible players (Peppers, Watt, Ware) every player is in the Hall of Fame. For the final team, 7 defensive ends were chosen. The table below shows the finalists and those selected for the official team:

For years, the defensive end position was a perfect place for a Mount Rushmore designation. While historians rarely agree on everything, many agreed that there were four defensive ends who separated themselves from every other player to play the position.

We begin with Colts great Gino Marchetti, who was a first-team All-Pro selection in 9 straight seasons from 1956 to 1964. He is one of the most decorated defensive players in league history, and had the ultimate respect of opposing coaches and players. Those who saw him had no question that he was the best defensive end of his time.

In 1969, a recently-retired Marchetti was named as the defensive end on the century on the NFL’s 50th anniversary team. In 1994, Marchetti was joined by Reggie White and Deacon Jones as the three defensive ends on the 75th anniversary team. Marchetti was the first true pass rusher in NFL history, coming to age in the 1950s as the passing game was becoming more specialized. He was a sack artist who was great against the run, making him about as perfect as it gets at defensive end. Marchetti was the rare first ballot Hall of Fame choice at the position, one of just five to earn that honor (the others being the other three members of DE Mt. Rushmore, and Jason Taylor, who was ignored by the 100th anniversary committee). [continue reading…]

Drew Brees had yet another remarkable game today. The 40-year-old threw five touchdown passes and rushed for another on a sneak from the 1-yard line. The future Hall of Famer has now thrown 537 touchdowns in his regular season career, rushed for another 23, and even caught one (from LaDainian Tomlinson back in 2003).

That gives Brees 561 career touchdowns, the most in regular season history.

Most career total touchdowns:

1. 561 – Brees (537 passing, 23 rushing, 1 receiving)
2. 558 – Tom Brady (536 passing, 22 rushing)
3. 557 – Peyton Manning (539 passing, 18 rushing)

Back in the 2018 offseason, I wrote that Brady and Brees were in a close race to dethrone Manning as the all-time career passing touchdowns king. Both players finished the 2015 season tied with 428 career touchdown passes. They finished the 2017 season tied again with 488 career touchdown passes. And after week 14 of the 2019 season, Brees is up on Brady 537-536. Brees is about year and a half younger than Brady, and is playing better this season; the odds are Brees will be the one who ultimately retires as the all-time passing touchdowns king. But it’s still a toss-up as to who breaks Manning’s record first, even if today Brees set a similar record that almost nobody noticed.

Coming up next: Brees and the Saints host the Colts on Monday Night Football in week 15, and Brees will be a strong favorite to throw passing touchdowns 539 and 540 in that game.  A home game on primetime? Yes, Brees will be gunning for the record books. That said, the Patriots face the Bengals the day before, and I wouldn’t put it past Brady to throw 4 touchdowns in that game, too, being the first to break the record.  This may turn into a McGwire/Sosa race after all.

As you probably know, the NFL is announcing its top 100 players in league history as part of its 100-year anniversary. The nominating committee selected 24 running backs as finalists, and with the exception of active RB Adrian Peterson, every player is in the Hall of Fame. For the final team, 12 running backs were chosen. The table below shows the finalists and those selected for the official team:

[continue reading…]

We knew the Washington Redskins would be awful this year, and the New York Giants are playing down to poor expectations, too. Both teams are 2-9 through 11 weeks, with one of those wins being a head-to-head Giants victory. The other three wins?

• The Giants beat Tampa Bay, 32-31, when the Bucs missed a 34-yard field goal at the final gun.
• The Redskins beat Miami, 17-16, when the Dolphins failed on a 2-point conversion attempt with 6 seconds remaining.
• Washington beat Detroit (playing backup Jeff Driskel), 19-16, with a game-winning field goal in the final 20 seconds.

The strength of the division was supposed to be Dallas and Philadelphia, but that hasn’t quite worked out, either. The Eagles have been big disappointments, particularly on offense (the team ranks in the bottom 10 in yards, yards per pass attempt, and turnovers): Philadelphia is just 5-6, and 4-5 outside of NFC East play. The Cowboys have played really well against bad teams and rank in 8th in both points per game and points per game allowed; and yet Dallas is just 6-6, with all 6 wins coming against teams with losing records. The Cowboys are 2-6 outside of the division, and have lost as touchdown favorites to both the Jets and Bills.

Altogether, the NFC East is just 9-24 this season in non-division games, easily the worst mark in the NFL. And this is despite the division drawing the AFC East, projected to be the worst division in football (again) this year. In fact, the AFC East has the second-best record among the 8 divisions, but there’s a chicken-or-egg situation going on here: does the AFC East have a good record because it’s good, or because it’s playing the NFC East? The AFC East is 10-4 against the NFC East so far this season. [continue reading…]

Ravens second-year quarterback Lamar Jackson has become the NFL’s most exciting player.  Jackson is combining rushing quantity at the quarterback position at a level that we’ve never quite seen before — at least, not in the NFL.  Jackson is tied for 5th in the NFL with 46 rushing first downs, but the Ravens a hardly a one-man show.  Starting running back Mark Ingram is also one of the 12 players in the NFL with 40+ rushing first downs, and backup Gus Edwards is one of the 16 players in the NFL with at least 30+ rushing first downs.

Baltimore has amassed 129 rushing first downs already this year; the 2018 Ravens set the modern record with 153 first downs last season, and this year’s team will smash that mark.  The most dominant rushing team in history was the 1978 Patriots, who rushed for a record 3,165 yards and also picked up a record 181 first downs.  Both of those marks are in jeopardy, as the 2019 Ravens are on pace to finish with 3,369 rushing yards and 188 first downs.

How insanely good are the Ravens at picking up first downs? The graph below shows each team this season, and the number of passing first downs (X-Axis) and rushing first downs (Y-Axis) from each offense. [continue reading…]

There have been 13 games this season where a team has allowed 100 or fewer passing yards. The San Francisco 49ers have caused 5 of those games.

Through 11 games, San Francisco has allowed just 1,506 passing yards. That’s the fewest by any team through 11 games since the 1989 Minnesota Vikings, and it’s the second lowest amount for any team after 11 games since 1980.

This year, the average team is gaining 235 passing yards per game, which is of course net of sack yards lost. The 49ers are allowing just 137 passing yards per game to opponents, for well, a variety of reasons:

• The 49ers have caused opponents to lose 348 yards due to sacks this year, the most in the NFL.
• The 49ers are allowing just 9.4 yards per completion, the lowest rate in the NFL.
• The 49ers have sacked opponents on 11.8% of dropbacks, the best rate in the NFL.
• The 49ers are allowing a 60.0% completion percentage, tied for the 2nd-best rate in the NFL. That’s why San Francisco is allowing just 4.0 net yards per pass attempt, the lowest in the NFL.
• Despite the 49ers usually playing with a lead, opponents appear afraid of throwing on San Francisco, probably because it is so hopeless.
• And yes, they’ve had some help: a driving rainstorm in a game against Washington, and a run defense that is actually quite porous. Teams have actually been more efficient running against San Francisco than throwing against that defense.

So how good is this pass defense through 11 games once you account for era — at least, in terms of preventing passing yards? Well, maybe the best ever? San Francisco is allowing 98.5 fewer passing yards per game than league average through 11 games, which is the best performance by any pass defense since 1950. The table below shows the top 100 pass defenses by this metric:
[continue reading…]

Players who are in their first three years in the league are responsible for a whopping 45% of all receiving yards this season. That is a new high in the modern era, and since the new CBA was signed in 2011, we have seen a trend of younger players being responsible for more receiving yards.

[continue reading…]

Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson, Lamar Jackson, Dak Prescott, and Deshaun Watson are all having great years, and all five players are in the running for the 2019 MVP award. Right now, Mahomes has been the most efficient of the group, but the story of the 2019 season isn’t about great passing offenses…. but the fact that great passing offenses aren’t the story of the 2019 season. (As an aside, Kirk Cousins and Minnesota are quietly number two in ANY/A this season).

The best passing offense, in terms of Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt, belongs to the Chiefs. So far this season, Kansas City is averaging 8.81 ANY/A, and the league as a whole is averaging 6.27 ANY/A.   So the Chiefs are averaging 2.54 ANY/A more than the average team this year.  That’s great, but what is noteworthy is that it is NOT that noteworthy this year.

The Jets passing offense is more extreme than the Chiefs passing offense.  New York is averaging an anemic 3.34 ANY/A this season, which means the Jets Relative ANY/A on offense is -2.93.  So we could say that the Jets passing offense is the most extreme this season of the 32 passing offenses.

But guess what: opponents facing the Bengals are also more extreme than Chiefs!  So far this season, Cincinnati is allowing a remarkable 8.99 ANY/A to opposing quarterbacks, which means [Insert Bengals Opponent] has been better at passing this year than Kansas City.  At -2.72 ANY/A, the Bengals pass defense is truly awful.

But wait, there’s more.  The Patriots pass defense is even more extreme than the Bengals pass defense. New England is allowing just 1.70 ANY/A this season, which is +4.57 ANY/A better than average!

The graph below shows how each team ranks in both offensive ANY/A (X-Axis) and defensive ANY/A (Y-Axis) relative to league average.  The best teams would be up and to the right, but that’s a generally empty box.  The worst teams are down and to the left, and we do have three teams there.

So while the passing attacks in Kansas City et al. are having great years, they aren’t more extreme than the Jets pass offense, the Bengals pass defense, or the Patriots pass defense.  And that is pretty unusual.  I went and calculated the best and worst passing offenses and defenses, as measured by Relative ANY/A, in each year since 1970.  Usually, extreme offenses are the biggest outliers, and in the positive direction.  In 22 of those seasons, the most extreme unit was the best passing offense; in 13 years, the worst passing offense was the most extreme.  The other 14 years were split evenly between the best and worst passing defenses. Take a look: [continue reading…]

Previously:

• Week 1 Game Scripts
• Week 2
• Week 3
• Week 4
• Week 5
• Week 6
• Week 7
• Week 8
• Week 9

In 1974, the Bengals — the Paul Brown/Bill Walsh/Ken Anderson Bengals — were running the West Coast Offense to perfection. Anderson completed a whopping 64.9% of his passes that season, setting a post-WWII record. But in the team’s final game of the season, with Anderson injured, the team turned to unheralded Wayne Clark at quarterback. Unfortunately, the schedule makers had the team’s final game in Pittsburgh, against the famed ’74 Steelers defense.

The Bengals were blown out, of course, and lost 27-3. Cincinnati trailed by at least 17 points at halftime, after three quarters, and at the end of the game. Naturally, this is a Game Script that would call for a lot of passes, but here’s the twist: the Bengals ran 41 times and passed just 8 times! Clark completed only 3 of those passes for 23 yards, with 2 of them going to TE Bruce Coslet — yes, that Bruce Coslet — for 24 yards; the third completion was a 1-yard loss to the running back.

Running 40 times in a game where you trail by 17 after the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarters should sound weird to you. In fact, this Bengals game was the only time since the merger that all those factors were met. I say was, because that was the case until Sunday, when the modern Bengals pulled off the same trick.

Cincinnati rushed 40 times, and Joe Mixon had 30 carries, in a game where the Bengals trailed 14-0 after the 1st quarter, 28-10 at halftime, and 49-10 after three quarters. How do you call 40 rushing plays in a game where you are getting blown out? One answer is that Cincinnati was starting Ryan Finley for the first time in his career, although Finley did not play all that poorly. The other answer is that the Bengals just didn’t care.

My favorite drive was with 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Cincinnati took over at its own 25, trailing 42-10. Yes, down by 32 with 20 minutes to go is not a good situation, but most teams would at least try to put some points on the board. Here’s what happened.

Play 1: Mixon run left tackle for 0 yards.
Play 2: Pass to Mixon 1 yard ahead of the line of scrimmage; Mixon gains 13 yards of YAC.
Play 3: Mixon run right tackle for 3 yards.
Play 4: Mixon run left guard for 1 yard.
Play 5: 3rd-and-6, Finley pass, sack, fumble, returned for touchdown.

Maybe the Bengals knew what they were doing calling all those running plays.

The table below shows the week 10 Game Scripts, headlined by the Ravens +21.6 Game Script. [continue reading…]

Baltimore quarterback sensation Lamar Jackson is averaging 226.2 passing yards per game and 78.0 rushing yards per game so far this season.  That is… well, remarkable.  In fact, in the history of pro football, there has only been one player in NFL history to average 75 rushing yards and 75 passing yards per game: Orban “Spec” Sanders, playing for the New York Yankees in the AAFC in 1947.

The graph below shows the passing yards per game (X-Axis) and rushing yards per game (Y-Axis) for every player who played in at least 6 games from 1932 to 2018.  As you can see, Sanders really stands out.  For reference, I’ve also included Jackson’s 2019 season to date — he, too, is a pretty notable outlier. [continue reading…]

The 1996 Green Bay Packers were one of the best teams in league history for a variety of reasons. They are one of just two teams since the merger to lead the league in both points scored and points allowed, joining the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins. ^[1]The Packers accomplished this feat against an essentially league-average schedule, while the Dolphins were one of three teams since the introduction of the playoffs who managed to go an entire … Continue reading

But the most historically notable performance from the Packers that season didn’t come from Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre. Nor was it from Hall of Fame defensive end Reggie White. In fact, it wasn’t anybody from either the offense or the defense. No, the Packer who really broke football in 1996 was their return specialist, Desmond Howard.

In 2014, Chase used a simple method to rank every punt returner in history. He took punt return yards, added a 15-yard bonus for any touchdown, divided by total return attempts, subtracted the leaguewide per-return average, and then multiplied by the number of returns to generate a sort of “value over average returner”. By that measure, Howard’s 1996 was, indeed, the most valuable season by a punt returner, though the difference between Howard (330 value) and second-place Patrick Peterson (321 value) was small, and if you pro-rated his performance to sixteen games, Billy “White Shoes” Johnson would come even closer still (328 value).

But for several reasons, Chase’s simple analysis underrates Desmond Howard’s 1996 campaign. I believe with the proper context, Howard’s 1996 season isn’t just the top punt return season in history, it’s possibly further ahead of second place than any player at any position has ever been ahead of the second-best historical season in any statistic.

To make my case, I’ll compare Howard’s season to the next-best seasons by Chase’s methodology, Devin Hester‘s 2007 and Patrick Peterson’s 2011. ^[2]I would love to add Johnson’s 1975 campaign as well, but I record-keeping in the ’70s wasn’t robust enough for these comparisons. Regardless, this list of seasons passes the smell … Continue reading

Looking at the raw statistics, Howard doesn’t really stand out. Howard (58/875/3) had more yards than Hester (42/651/4) and Peterson (44/699/4), but fewer touchdowns and fewer yards per return. Adjusting for era doesn’t change any of this: Hester averaged 6.6 more yards per return than the average punt returner (excluding Devin Hester) in 2007, Peterson averaged 6.2 more yards per punt return than the average punt returner in 2011, and Howard averaged 5.3 more yards per punt return than the average punt returner in 1996. If you multiply these values by the number of returns, Howard created 308 marginal yards vs. 279 for Hester and 273 for Peterson.

Howard had one fewer return touchdown, but return touchdowns were lower across the board in 1996. In total, Desmond Howard produced 23.1% of all punt return touchdowns during the 1996 regular season while Devin Hester produced 23.5% and Patrick Peterson 20% in their respective years. Again, everything to this point looks fairly comparable. You might think all three players were similarly effective and Howard simply cashed in on the fact that he had 30-40% more opportunities, a factor that was largely outside of his control.

(The one area where Howard does stand out from the other two is fumbles. In 2011, Patrick Peterson fielded 44 punts and fumbled three of them. In 2006, Devin Hester fielded 42 punts and fumbled five of them. Despite fielding 58 punts in 1996, Desmond Howard only fumbled one of them.)

Football Outsiders compares every return to league average and estimates how many points a unit was worth in any given season ^[3]The usual caveats apply; performance of an entire unit reflects the contributions of all eleven players on the field, etc.. In part because of Howard’s superior ball security, Football Outsiders values the 1996 Packers’ return unit as worth 25.3 points, the 2007 Bears’ as worth 18.0, and the 2011 Cardinals’ as worth 20.0. If you divide those point values by the total number of returns, the Packers gained 0.44 points per return, the Bears gained 0.41, and the Cardinals gained 0.43. By this measure, the Packers were slightly more efficient per opportunity, but again, all three returners were in the same ballpark.

There is one significant problem with using total punt returns as a measure of opportunity, however. Some returners are more conservative, calling fair catch or letting a punt bounce. Being more selective about which punts to return will boost a player’s per-return average. Other returners are more aggressive, trying to return everything they get their hands on, which hurts their average but results in more yards for their team.

If we instead we measure opportunity by the number of punts faced instead of the number of punts fielded, Desmond Howard actually had the least opportunity of the trio. The 1996 Green Bay Packers, despite their vaunted defense, forced 90 punts compared to 92 for the 2006 Bears and 94 for the 2011 Cardinals. This means the Packers punt return unit added 0.28 points of value per punt faced compared to 0.20 for the Bears and 0.21 for the Cardinals, a significant difference. (Alternately: Howard averaged 9.7 yards per punt, Peterson averaged 7.4, and Hester averaged 7.1.)

Of course, measuring player performance per punt presents challenges of its own. Opposing punters might deliberately kick shorter to prevent a return, which means the returner has impacted field position despite not touching the football. One way to attempt to control for this is to look at the gross and net punting averages of all punters to face each returner.

In 1996, the teams Green Bay played averaged 43.3 gross yards per punt over the whole year and 42.5 gross yards per punt against Green Bay. Teams that faced the 2007 Bears averaged 44.2 gross yards per punt over the whole season but just 40.5 per punt against Chicago. Teams that faced the 2011 Cardinals averaged 46.2 gross yards per punt over the whole season and 44.4 against Arizona. By this measure, Hester was probably the most-feared returner as punters seemingly went out of their way to avoid him, sacrificing a whopping 3.7 gross yards per punt against Chicago.

But what about net average? The teams that faced the 2011 Cardinals averaged 39.1 net punting yards, but that figure fell to 36.8 against Arizona, a drop of 2.3 yards per punt. The teams that faced the 2007 Bears averaged 37.2 net yards per punt over the whole season but just 33.1 against the Bears, a drop of 4.1 yards per punt. The teams that faced the 1996 Packers averaged 35.2 net yards per punt overall but just 31.2 yards per punt against the Packers, a drop of 4.0 yards.

Taken together, these stats tell a compelling story. Peterson’s year, while incredible, takes a clear back-seat to Howard and Hester. Hester was probably the most-feared returner of the trio, but the stats tell us that Howard’s Packers were just as effective at gaining field position and substantially better in terms of ball security. Everything leads to the same conclusion Chase originally reached: Howard’s 1996 campaign was (by a relatively thin margin) probably the best season by a punt returner.

Everything so far overlooks one crucial fact, though. To this point, we’ve looked only at each player’s regular-season performance. While a punt returner can’t reasonably be held liable for his team’s overall success and failure, Desmond Howard didn’t play just 16 games in 1996, he played 19. And while we shouldn’t penalize Hester and Peterson for not reaching the Super Bowl, we similarly shouldn’t pretend that those extra games never happened for Howard. As good as Howard was in the regular season, he was even better in the playoffs, facing 19 punts and returning 9 of them for 210 yards and one more touchdown (23.3 yards per punt returned, 11.1 yards per punt faced).

In just three playoff games, Howard managed to record what at the time were the 3rd- and 5th-highest single-game punt return yardage totals in postseason history. (They still rank 4th and 9th.) Out of 118 players with at least 6 punt returns in a single postseason, Howard’s 23.3 yard per return average is the best by 4.9 yards. (There are 132 more instances of a player having either four or five punt returns in a single postseason; Howard’s 23.3 yard per return average is better than all but two of these seasons, too.)

Moreover, Howard capped off his season by becoming the first and only player in history to win Super Bowl MVP for his contributions on special teams. A large part of that was based on a kickoff return touchdown (which is beyond the scope of this post), but he also set a still-standing Super Bowl record for punt return yards.

Overall, in 1996 Howard had the most regular-season punt return yards in history, the second-most playoff punt return yards in history, and the most Super Bowl punt return yards in history. Combined, Howard returned 67 punts for 1085 yards and 4 touchdowns, which isn’t just the highest total in history, it’s 46% more than second place.

Nobody has ever come close to the combination of volume and efficiency that Howard produced. Howard had the 2nd-most returns in history; of the top 50 seasons, Howard is the only player to average more than 13 yards per return. Counting regular season and playoffs there have been 126 players who fielded at least 45 punts in a season; only one other player (Jermaine Lewis for the 2000 Baltimore Ravens) is even over 14 yards per return, and no others are over 15. Again, Howard cleared 16.

There have been 975 seasons in history where a player returned at least 25 punts. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll close with two charts that hopefully help illustrate just how far ahead of the rest of the field Desmond Howard’s 1996 campaign truly was.

 

The last 100 years have shown us that the only constant in football is change, so I hesitate to call any record unbreakable. I will say that of all the records, this is one of the ones I’d be most surprised to see fall. In 1996, Desmond Howard didn’t just break records; for one season, he broke punt returns entirely.