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Winners and losers: QBs ranked by win percentage
Cold, Hard Football Facts for August 10, 2008
Here's a look at the winning percentages of every active quarterback in the NFL (with a minimum 10 starts).
We compiled their regular season and postseason records, and then ranked the quarterbacks based upon their cumulative winning percentages.
We'll try to put together some more interesting highlights from the list later. But here's the short version:
ONE - We almost forgot Brett Favre! In our initial version of this story, published Saturday morning, we forgot to include Favre. The reason we forgot is that the base list of regular-season wins and losses we used to kick-start this complilation was issued by the NFL a couple weeks ago, when Favre was still "retired." We've added him to the list here.
TWO - There's certainly no shock at the No. 1 spot. Tom Brady has won 78.7 percent of his games in New England, the best winning percentage of all time for a quarterback with so many starts under his belt. Even with the loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII, the numbers remain truly awe-inspiring.
- Brady, for example, was won 14 playoff games in just seven years as a starting quarterback and in six postseason appearances.
- Compare that to Favre, who has won more games than an QB in history. He boasts 12 playoff wins in 16 years as an NFL starter and in 11 postseason apperances.
In an average season, Brady's Patriots have won 14.3 games and lost 3.9.
THREE - San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers in the No. 2 position may be something of a surprise. He's lost just nine of 36 games in his first two seasons as an NFL starter. And three of those nine losses came the juggernaut-tastic Patriots. Rivers seems to have what it takes to ultimately lead his team to its first-ever Super Bowl crown. (By the way, we realize Rivers did not play the entire game against the Colts in last year's divisional playoffs. But he played the vast majority of the game so earns credit for the victory. We couldn't start issuing portions of victories. If you were the primary QB, you get the win or the loss.)
FOUR - The biggest shocker is probably the fact that not one but two Chicago quarterbacks currently count themselves among the nine winningest quarterbacks in the NFL (albeit with a small number of games under their belts), sandwiching Pro Bowlers and Hall of Famers Peyton Manning, Donovan McNabb and Brett Favre. That Chicago defense, not to mention special teams wonder boy Devin Hester, have really done a miraculous job over the past few seasons to win consistently with two under-performing players at QB. Typically, quarterbacks have the biggest impact on whether a team wins or loses. The Bears of recent vintage have been one of the rare exceptions. But had they fielded even a solid NFL starter, instead of guys like Kyle Orton and Rex Grossman, the 21st-century Bears might be walking around with a couple Super Bowl rings right now.
FIVE - It's damn hard to win the playoffs. After all, you don't get a second shot to win in a given year. Lose and you're done. So only eight of the 53 active quarterbacks on the list below have a winning record in the postseason: Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Donovan McNabb, Favre, Jake Delhomme, Brad Johnson, Kurt Warner and Eli Manning. Six of those eight QBs have won Super Bowls, and all eight have led a team to the Super Bowl.
The regular-season won-lost data came from the NFL. The playoff wins and losses came from various sources, including the great stat database at ProFootballReference.com.
QUARTERBACK WINNING PERCENTAGES (at start of 2008 season, min. 10 starts)
|
|
Reg. season |
Postseason |
Total |
Pct. |
|
Tom Brady |
86-24 |
14-3 |
100-27 |
.787 |
|
Philip Rivers |
25-7 |
2-2 |
27-9 |
.750 |
|
Ben Roethlisberger |
39-16 |
5-2 |
44-18 |
.710 |
|
Tony Romo |
19-7 |
0-2 |
19-9 |
.679 |
|
Kyle Orton |
12-6 |
0-0 |
12-6 |
.667 |
|
Donovan McNabb |
73-39 |
7-5 |
80-44 |
.645 |
|
Peyton Manning |
105-55 |
7-7 |
112-62 |
.644 |
|
Brett Favre |
160-93 |
12-10 |
172-103 |
.625 |
|
Rex Grossman |
19-11 |
2-2 |
21-13 |
.618 |
|
David Garrard |
19-11 |
1-2 |
20-13 |
.606 |
|
Jake Delhomme |
38-27 |
5-2 |
43-29 |
.597 |
|
Vince Young |
17-11 |
0-1 |
17-12 |
.586 |
|
Damon Huard |
14-10 |
0-0 |
14-10 |
.583 |
|
Brad Johnson |
71-51 |
4-3 |
75-54 |
.581 |
|
Matt Hasselbeck |
57-39 |
4-5 |
61-44 |
.581 |
|
Kurt Warner |
48-37 |
5-2 |
53-39 |
.576 |
|
Tarvaris Jackson |
8-6 |
0-0 |
8-6 |
.571 |
|
Eli Manning |
30-25 |
4-2 |
34-27 |
.557 |
|
Derek Anderson |
10-8 |
0-0 |
10-8 |
.556 |
|
Brian Griese |
42-36 |
0-0 |
42-36 |
.538 |
|
Carson Palmer |
32-29 |
0-0 |
32-29 |
.525 |
|
Marc Bulger |
38-34 |
1-2 |
39-36 |
.520 |
|
Mark Brunell |
78-72 |
5-5 |
83-77 |
.519 |
|
Drew Brees |
47-43 |
1-2 |
48-45 |
.516 |
|
Chad Pennington |
32-29 |
2-3 |
34-32 |
.515 |
|
Trent Green |
56-56 |
0-2 |
56-58 |
.491 |
|
Jeff Garcia |
52-53 |
2-4 |
54-57 |
.486 |
|
Todd Collins |
10-10 |
0-1 |
10-11 |
.4762 |
|
Kyle Boller |
20-22 |
0-0 |
20-22 |
.4762 |
|
A.J. Feeley |
7-8 |
0-0 |
7-8 |
.467 |
|
Kerry Collins |
67-82 |
3-3 |
70-85 |
.452 |
|
Gus Frerotte |
37-44-1 |
0-2 |
37-46-1 |
.446 |
|
Charlie Batch |
22-28 |
0-0 |
22-28 |
.440 |
|
Chris Simms |
7-8 |
0-1 |
7-9 |
.4375 |
|
Matt Leinart |
7-9 |
0-0 |
7-9 |
.4375 |
|
Jay Cutler |
9-12 |
0-0 |
9-12 |
.429 |
|
Parick Ramsey |
10-14 |
0-0 |
10-14 |
.417 |
|
Jon Kitna |
46-65 |
0-2 |
46-67 |
.407 |
|
Anthony Wright |
8-11 |
0-1 |
8-12 |
.400 |
|
Jason Campbell |
8-12 |
0-0 |
8-12 |
.400 |
|
Chris Redman |
4-6 |
0-0 |
4-6 |
.400 |
|
Josh McCown |
12-19 |
0-0 |
12-19 |
.387 |
|
Alex Smith |
11-19 |
0-0 |
11-19 |
.367 |
|
Joey Harrington |
26-50 |
0-0 |
26-50 |
.342 |
|
J.P. Losman |
10-21 |
0-0 |
10-21 |
.323 |
|
Kelly Holcomb |
8-16 |
0-1 |
8-17 |
.320 |
|
Charlie Frye |
6-13 |
0-0 |
6-13 |
.316 |
|
Matt Schaub |
4-9 |
0-0 |
4-9 |
.308 |
|
Billy Volek |
3-7 |
0-0 |
3-7 |
.300 |
|
David Carr |
23-56 |
0-0 |
23-56 |
.291 |
|
Bruce Gradkowski |
3-8 |
0-0 |
3-8 |
.273 |
|
Brooks Bollinger |
2-8 |
0-0 |
2-8 |
.200 |
|
Ken Dorsey |
2-8 |
0-0 |
2-8 |
.200 |
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