Worst QBs of all time

[leeblair]

I might be by myself in this, but I feel that Joey Harrington is the product of bad franchises

No, you are not alone. Joey Harrington is an excellent quarterback- who has carried the blame for the failures of Matt Millen- who is arguably the worst GM in all of football.

In Atlanta, their offensive line gave him no time to pass, yet he routinely hit his recievers in the hands- only to have them drop the ball. I watched a lot of his games last year just to see if he was the 'bust' that so many labeled him to be.

Joey Harrington has played for Detroit(where all good players go to die), Miami( where they don't have a clue) , and then Atlanta( who didn't count on having to actually pass block, because Vick wouldn't stay in the pocket anyway).

If he ever gets a shot with a good team, Harrington will be a star. He is deadly accurate with his passes, and if there were a stat for pitiful recievers, his would lead the way.

I watched him with Detroit; I wanted to see how he had developed. His recievers routinely dropped passes that would have extended drives-- and then casually walked to the sidelines as if to say, "oh, well". Matt Millen, the coach, and just about all of their front office ought to be able to figure out that they should all resign, and let someone take over that could actually establish a work ethic up there.

 

[AbeBeta]

I don't think you can diss any quarterback that came in during the Campo era. Those poor guys routinely were labeled as failures; when in fact Campo was the failure.

Clint Stoerner showed flashes of brilliance, but threw too many interceptions. That's not all on him. A real coach would have held on to the brilliance, and worked with him to stop the interceptions.

Ryan Leif simply needed a chance to grow up; but was overrated from the beginning.

Chad Hutchinson was the worst, "dude" - he just needed to go play his guitar and sit on his surf board- and wait for the next wave.

The talent evaluation was suspect as well -- the one guy who has made it in this league, Anthony Wright, was sent packing so that we could keep a stable of Stoerner, Hutch, and Q.

 

[LeonDixson]

The talent evaluation was suspect as well -- the one guy who has made it in this league, Anthony Wright, was sent packing so that we could keep a stable of Stoerner, Hutch, and Q.

And because he elected to have season ending surgery against the wishes of the team.

 

[leeblair]

The talent evaluation was suspect as well -- the one guy who has made it in this league, Anthony Wright, was sent packing so that we could keep a stable of Stoerner, Hutch, and Q.

Agreed; I forgot about him. Anthony Wright had real talent, and great instincts.

But, you know, that era was so screwed up, it's a wonder that they didn't pick up anybody off the street to play.

Campo's idea of picking a quarterback was, "if we win, he's our guy"; but "if we lose, move on to the next one"

He has to be the absolute worst head coach the Cowboys ever had.

I personally thought Stoerner would have developed great if Campo had given him the shot. I think he had the instincts become one of the best.

Wright's real problem, and it followed him to the Ravens, was injuries. That's not his fault completely, but if you are going to be a starting quarterback, then you have to know how to stay healthy for next week. It's not valiant to go down, and leave your team without their starter for six weeks.

 

[Established1971]

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/blog/?p=545

Statistical reference.

It's not going to translate if I copy/paste, so notable Dallas mentions were Troy Aikman's 89 and 90 seasons being the worst performance in the entire league for those two years.

Quincy Carter ranked as the worst Cowboys QB of all time - but it was notable that the Cowboys didn't have a QB on that list until you got to 30th worst, which is pretty impressive. The only teams ranking higher were Minnesota and Jacksonville.

Laufenberg!

 

[Established1971]

Drew Henson
Chad Hutchensin
Tony Banks
Ryan Leaf

Henson? He played very well against the Ravens and got pulled for tossing a pick that got returned in the first half against Chicago. The guy never got a chance.

 

[theebs]

No, you are not alone. Joey Harrington is an excellent quarterback- who has carried the blame for the failures of Matt Millen- who is arguably the worst GM in all of football.

In Atlanta, their offensive line gave him no time to pass, yet he routinely hit his recievers in the hands- only to have them drop the ball. I watched a lot of his games last year just to see if he was the 'bust' that so many labeled him to be.

Joey Harrington has played for Detroit(where all good players go to die), Miami( where they don't have a clue) , and then Atlanta( who didn't count on having to actually pass block, because Vick wouldn't stay in the pocket anyway).

If he ever gets a shot with a good team, Harrington will be a star. He is deadly accurate with his passes, and if there were a stat for pitiful recievers, his would lead the way.

I watched him with Detroit; I wanted to see how he had developed. His recievers routinely dropped passes that would have extended drives-- and then casually walked to the sidelines as if to say, "oh, well". Matt Millen, the coach, and just about all of their front office ought to be able to figure out that they should all resign, and let someone take over that could actually establish a work ethic up there.

thats interesting cause we needed a backup last year. A veteran. Jason Garret was on the miami staff as qb coach and harrington was available and we didnt sign him.

Seems to me the guy along with David Carr hit the panic button and are really below average players.

 

[leeblair]

Carr is ruined. His days with the Texans have ruined his instincts.

Garrett probably didn't want to bring in competition for Romo, so that there was no chance of a quarterback controversy.

It's a smart decision. Last year was Romo's first full year. Should he struggle, and you have a guy like Harrington on the sidelines, you are begging for a controversy.

Having Brad Johnson as the only back up helped Romo to know it was his team- and that is extremely important to a guy taking the reins.

Even though I like Joey, and would have liked to see him in Dallas, he might have done more harm than good- and there's no way Joey would be content to be just a back up.

He'll leave Atlanta if he doesn't get his shot this year.

 

[Wrangler87]

I remember the sport radio stations here in Atlanta blasting callers who wanted to pick up Byron Leftwich after he was released by Jacksonville. The talk show hosts were ridiculing the callers because they had this great QB to replace Vick - Joey Harrington.

They got Leftwich. He couldn't even beat out Harrington. Redman ended up the QB.

 

[leeblair]

It's hard to call any decision made by the Atlanta staff of last year correct.

After the season, their head coach ran for the hills.

I think you can safely say that he coached them about the way some would coach on Madden on the playstation. He played with their roster like he was playing with toy soldiers.

Kinda like Bush did with our armed forces in Iraq..........

 

[Wrangler87]

Henson? He played very well against the Ravens and got pulled for tossing a pick that got returned in the first half against Chicago. The guy never got a chance.

Don't get me started. That's because Prcells did not like Henson. The fans and Jerry wanted Henson to start because Vinny was so boring. Finally, Parcells put him in against the Ravens, and he drove the field, all be it, against a zone defense late.

Parcells was then really pressured into starting him against the Bears. So he did, but he ran the offense so that Henson did not stand a chance. He ran the ball on first and second down everytime, leaving Henson third and long. The Bears sent the house after him on third and Henson was not ready for that. Henson struggled, and Parcells got to put his pal back in the game at halftime. He then changed the offense and started passing more on first down, allowing Vinny to succeed marginally, but enough to win the game.

Parcells had his "told you so" moment to Jerry and the fans, and Henson was done for the season, never really getting a chance to succeed.

Now, I was not a huge Henson fan and I actually liked Romo better. But, all you have to do is watch the replay of that game to see that Parcells railroaded Henson in order to send a message to Jerry and the fans.

 

[ZeroClub]

Jack Concannon (Chi) was the first QB that I thought of when I saw the title of this thread.

It's difficult to assess who is truly the worst QB, given that some QBs never had a chance (e.g., Archie Manning) because of horrible supporting casts while other QBs (Rick Mirer, maybe) actually were the weakest links in their offenses.

 

[Q_the_man]

games as Cowboys,

Hogeboom 45 games 13 tds 23 ints.....3500 yards.....

Pulluer 47 games 29 tds 39 ints.....6555 yards.....

Carter 31 games 29 tds 36 ints.....5800 yards.....

I would throw babe in but he only started one game, so we have had 3 starting qbs who were not so good. all 3 were transition QBs holding the spot for the real qb to come in, basically Pulluer ans Hogeboom held the spot til Aikman came and Carter held the Spot til Romo came......

 

[joseephuss]

No, you are not alone. Joey Harrington is an excellent quarterback- who has carried the blame for the failures of Matt Millen- who is arguably the worst GM in all of football.

In Atlanta, their offensive line gave him no time to pass, yet he routinely hit his recievers in the hands- only to have them drop the ball. I watched a lot of his games last year just to see if he was the 'bust' that so many labeled him to be.

Joey Harrington has played for Detroit(where all good players go to die), Miami( where they don't have a clue) , and then Atlanta( who didn't count on having to actually pass block, because Vick wouldn't stay in the pocket anyway).

If he ever gets a shot with a good team, Harrington will be a star. He is deadly accurate with his passes, and if there were a stat for pitiful recievers, his would lead the way.

I watched him with Detroit; I wanted to see how he had developed. His recievers routinely dropped passes that would have extended drives-- and then casually walked to the sidelines as if to say, "oh, well". Matt Millen, the coach, and just about all of their front office ought to be able to figure out that they should all resign, and let someone take over that could actually establish a work ethic up there.

No, Harrington would not be a star no matter what team he joined. He could replace Peyton Manning and still not be a good QB. He is not the worst QB to ever play or anything like that. He just is not good and certainly not worth his draft position. I thought so at the time he was drafted and he has done nothing to disprove that notion. Same with David Carr.

A 56.1% career completion percentage is bad. So is a 69.4 career QB rating. I understand he was in a bad situation in Detroit, but star QBs rise above that. Average QBs don't. Harrington did not.

 

[AbeBeta]

Henson? He played very well against the Ravens and got pulled for tossing a pick that got returned in the first half against Chicago. The guy never got a chance.

Never got a chance? BP's MO is and has always been sit and learn.

Henson sat two years and still couldn't read defenses fast enough to play at a high level in NFL Europa.

Henson is the one to blame here. He could have been a very solid QB had he not pursued baseball. Physical tools, smart. But that read and react stuff, you can't put that to bed for a couple of years and expect it to come back.

 

[Tovya]

Well out of my era (early 80s 'til now)....

Bottom three:

1. Chad Hutchinson (because he was just sad to watch)
2. Quincy Carter (because he had 'something' but just a big tease)
3. Steve Pelleur (I think I wore my teeth down grinding them every time he touched the ball and thanked God for the drafting of Aikman)

Top three:

1. Tony Romo (more fun than any other Cowboys QB I've ever watched)
2. Danny White (Yes, ole Danny was ruined by Carl Banks in '86... what a shameful waste of a season)
3. Troy Aikman (He gave us 3 superbowl rings, what's not to love?)

I would have thrown Drew Henson in my "bottom" list, but I don't think we gave him enough time to come into his own so he gets a pass.

 

[dougonthebench]

Carter was pretty bad but I hated Henson, Hutchinson, Leaf, Banks, and Wright even more.

isnt Wright still playing?

 

[Scotman]

Babe is a very nice person.....he sat beside me at a S. A. training camp session a few years back and discussed players and things he was looking for......it was great.

No doubt at all. He comes to the high school games where I am the superintendent. You could not meet a nicer or more intelligent football fan.

 

[bbgun]

Shouldn't we agree on a minimum number of games started before trying to answer this question?

 

[Tovya]

Shouldn't we agree on a minimum number of games started before trying to answer this question?

Totally agree... I'd say you need a minimum of 80-90 games before you can start talking about any QB comparison talk in today's NFL.

Look at Kurt Warner. They were elevating him to Johnny Unitas and Bart Starr status in '99 (his first full season) and he was washed up after the '01 season. Now look at him... he's fighting off a bunch of diaper donning kids to be a starter.

Long story short, a season or two doesn't mean much any more.