Troy Aikman vs Ryan Fitzpatrick

[Hawkeye0202]

How some fans get caught up over stats.......winning is the bottom line.

 

[Rockport]

Here we go.

 

[jrumann59]

Fitzpatrick has a chance to be modern generations Vinny Testeverde, if he plays for 20 years his stats will be better overall. Except completion %

 

[ghst187]

Stats don’t lie, but sometimes numbers are also just meaningless numbers

 

[mattjames2010]

I am critical of Troy as a player and think he gets far more credit than he deserves, however, he put together 5 good/great seasons. Fitzpatrick has always flirted with becoming a great QB where he'll have a couple of great weeks and then look like one of the worst QBs in the league.

2011 bills he led them to 5-0 and then they went on to win like or or two games after that. 2015 Jets, he had them in the playoff mix just to lose to a team that wasn't in the playoff mix.

I'm rooting for Fitzpatrick, he seems like a really good dude and it would be a great story line if he makes the Bucs relevant for a season. But let's pump the breaks, Fitzmagic could go to Fitztragic quickly.

 

[Fritsch_the_cat]

How many Super Bowl rings does Fitzpatrick have? And has he ever had an Emmit Smith?

 

[kskboys]

How many Super Bowl rings does Fitzpatrick have? And has he ever had an Emmit Smith?

That's not even relevant.

Troy and Ryan are not even in the same conversation. You want someone to compare Fitzpatrick to, look at guys who were mostly backups. Elvis Grbac maybe. Matt Moore. Kyle Orton.

 

[Fritsch_the_cat]

That's not even relevant.

Troy and Ryan are not even in the same conversation. You want someone to compare Fitzpatrick to, look at guys who were mostly backups. Elvis Grbac maybe. Matt Moore. Kyle Orton.

True but the point stands about Emmet. Troy didn't have to throw as often.

 

[kskboys]

True but the point stands about Emmet. Troy didn't have to throw as often.

Oh, absolutely. And that's why Irvin's TD numbers are relatively low. We ran it in.

 

[DuncanIso]

Aikman really started to decline in 96. I think his worst playoff game was the 98 playoff loss to the Cards. He had 3 INTs and a 36 QBR. Terrible.

I like Troy, but we really struggled with him in the 2nd half of his career. We just couldn't score.

 

[mattjames2010]

Aikman really started to decline in 96. I think his worst playoff game was the 98 playoff loss to the Cards. He had 3 INTs and a 36 QBR. Terrible.

I like Troy, but we really struggled with him in the 2nd half of his career. We just couldn't score.

Yeah, people tend to forget, Troy had some seriously terrible playoff games in the second half of his career. Even some we won.

As much as Troy puts the fault on the coaching staff, he just never became a guy who could carry a team. The second half of his career is why he drops down my list of "all-time greats".

 

[Trouty]

You don’t win three Super Bowls as a QB if you aren’t elite. After his third SB, and fourth consecutive deep run into the playoffs, it was sealed. If Romo’s legacy was destroyed by an inept front office fielding ill-constructed teams, bad coaching, and injuries, so then, was the latter part of Aikman’s career. Unlike Romo, Troy had a hell of a trophy case and list of accomplishments to fall back on once he started to decline.

Favre, Young, Marino, Aikman, Elway. Then Kelly. Kelly didn’t win, and he didn’t win in spectacular fashion. And he didn’t have the otherworldly stats that Marino did to warrant him in the top 5 of the early-mid 90s greats. Elway, if you go look, had pretty pedestrian numbers and accomplishments until he got TD. Hello, era-adjustment detractors.

If you’re a top-5 QB for any extended amount of time in a QB-rich era, you’re elite in my book. A top-5 QB is earned, through time and results. It’s never just given.

And what is “elite?” Is it TD:Int? Y/A? Yards? Comp %? Wins? Rings? A winner’s leadership? 6 straight Pro Bowls? Super Bowl MVP? Do we adjust stats for era, or is that not allowed when it goes against an argument? Some of these things Troy wasn’t, others he was. No question he was elite, and I won’t even entertain the absurdity of the question posed or implied in the OP.

/rant

 

[Cowboy Brian]

If my ultra TB fan Christian's euphoria earlier in the year became true, and Fitzpatrick went on to pass for 6,000 yards, then maybe this conversation could be had on some levels - as a what if Fitzpatrick played during Aikman's era.

With him being benched again, he is what he is, a journeyman QB, sadly too old to truly ever change that.