Quarterback Sack Percentages...Pick out Your Favorites and See How they Stack Up

[ckparrothead]

Below is a list of quarterbacks, sorted by how many times statistically they drop back to pass before getting sacked. I tally the dropbacks by adding pass attempts and sacks.

Instead of posting the exact decimals I'll say between what number dropbacks, but i'll put a * next to the number thats closest to the decimal.

In other words Joe Schmoka had 5000 pass attempts and has been sacked 600 times. Of 5600 dropbacks, he gets sacked 600 times...or in other words between every 9 and 10 drops (actual number 9.33)

Joe Schmoka.......................................between 9* and 10 drops

Means Joe Schmoka takes a sack between every 9 and 10 drops (closer to 9 than 10).

Get it? OK good.

Player.....................................................Dropbacks
Rob Johnson............................................between 6 and 7* drops
Chad Hutchinson.....................................between 8* and 9 drops
David Carr...............................................between 9* and 10 drops
Charlie Batch...........................................between 10* and 11 drops
Mike Vick.................................................between 10 and 11* drops
Rodney Peete.........................................between 10 and 11* drops
Tim Couch...............................................between 11* and 12 drops
Drew Bledsoe (2002 + 2003)..................between 11* and 12 drops
Chris Chandler........................................between 11 and 12* drops
Mark Brunell............................................between 11 and 12* drops
Donovan McNabb....................................between 12 and 13* drops
Patrick Ramsey........................................between 12 and 13* drops
Shaun King..............................................between 12 and 13* drops
Matt Hasselbeck......................................between 12 and 13* drops
Daunte Culpepper...................................between 13* and 14 drops
Trent Dilfer...............................................between 13* and 14 drops
Neil O'Donnell..........................................between 13* and 14 drops
Jeff Blake.................................................every 14 drops
Kyle Boller...............................................between 14* and 15 drops
Aaron Brooks..........................................between 14* and 15 drops
Quincy Carter..........................................between 14* and 15 drops
Kelly Holcombe........................................between 14* and 15 drops
Jake Plummer..........................................between 14* and 15 drops
Tommy Maddox.......................................between 14 and 15* drops
Rich Gannon............................................between 14 and 15* drops
Kordell Stewart.......................................between 14 and 15* drops
Brian Griese............................................between 15* and 16 drops
Trent Green.............................................between 15* and 16 drops
Chad Pennington....................................between 15 and 16* drops
Kurt Warner............................................between 15 and 16* drops
Tom Brady...............................................between 15 and 16* drops
Gus Frerotte............................................between 16* and 17 drops
Marc Bulger.............................................between 16* and 17 drops
Drew Bledsoe (career)............................between 16* and 17 drops
Steve McNair...........................................between 17* and 18 drops
Jon Kitna.................................................between 17* and 18 drops
Vinny Testeverde....................................between 17* and 18 drops
Jay Fiedler...............................................every 18 drops
Kerry Collins............................................between 18* and 19 drops
Brett Favre..............................................between 18 and 19* drops
Chris Weinke..........................................every 19 drops
Brad Johnson..........................................between 19 and 20* drops
Jake Delhomme.......................................between 19 and 20* drops
Drew Brees.............................................between 20* and 21 drops
Doug Flutie.............................................every 21 drops
Byron Leftwich........................................every 23 drops
Jeff Garcia...............................................between 24* and 25 drops
Peyton Manning......................................between 27 and 28* drops
Joey Harrington.......................................between 58* and 59 drops :egads:


I put in bold the guys I thought had some small interest to Miami whether it be because they could be available to us this offseason or because we in general talk about them a lot.

I originally researched this about Patrick Ramsey to see how he stacked up against other QBs.

I found it awefully interesting that Ramsey takes a sack about every 13 dropbacks when Mark Brunell, a guy a lot of people around here want, takes a sack every 11 or 12 dropbacks.

Whats funny is that Ramsey admittedly got killed in Washington this season behind a terrible protection scheme and offensive system. Brunell throughout his career has had some good O-Lines. Now Ramsey definitely is on the high end of this list which is not great, but I think if he went to a system that ran the ball better, and had better protection schemes (Miami...ehem...Miami) his sack counts would buoy down to a much more acceptable level like Brady and Pennington.

I figured that Jay Fiedler would stack up pretty well. The interesting part about this list I think is that for the most part the best QBs are riiiight around the middle of the list. Seems like the guys that are way too good at avoiding the rush aren't necessarily good QBs (exception Manning), and the guys that are severely pocket presence challenged also have problems being good QBs.

Its interesting...one might even speculate that to make a really good QB he has to be in the habit of standing strong in the pocket and running down his progressions to an extent without tucking the ball or throwing it too soon. I think Fiedler throws it a lot too soon.

And Joey Harrington...wow. I mean, just WOW. The guy has been sacked 17 times in TWO YEARS as a starter. And he's had about 500 attempts each season.

I say god DAMN

 

[Jeep]

Hey CK... nice stuff here!!

Just for kicks.. where would Dan Marino be on this list.. I'm sure his drop back would be quite high

 

[Dolphins17-0]

could stuff CK, I've been pro-ramsey the whole time and refuted most arguments, that helps with one more, appreciate it.

 

[Al13]

i wonder what danny´s ratio was....:huh:

 

[phinfan2003]

I know that for some of the guys on the list this stat is right on (Rob Johnson) but for some of the other guys don't you think this may be more a reflection on their O-lines than the QB himself?

 

[Bowl_Bound]

Very nice work!!!
I was suprised by both BG and Jay.
Typically you saw the "running" qbs higher on the list. I assume it has something to do with their perpensity to run rather than throw it away. They may get close to the line and then go down. Technically a sack but more like a run stuffed. Either way cool list.

 

[ckparrothead]

Phinfan, absolutely some of these are reflections of their OLs. Particularly Brian Griese had a fantastic OL most of the time he played in Denver...his number should probably be higher than it is. Meanwhile for the first 16 or so games of Ramsey's career he had a very questionable protection scheme that was often ripped apart by NFL media "experts" for its unwillingness to protect the QB...so Ramsey's numbers could end up higher with just a mediocre line and mediocre protection scheme, as well as more experience. After all David Carr took like 70 sacks in his rookie year, but only took like 17 or something ridiculous like that this year.

Dreadlockera, yeah the running QBs are always high on the list. Randall Cunningham is like the most sacked QB ever or something. What you laid out is certainly true, they do end up being dropped close to the LOS and its called a sack, but I also think there's kind of a sampling error for running QBs. You can tally up most guys total number of drop backs by adding their sacks onto their pass attempts but with guys who run a lot thats not the case...it should be pass attempts plus sacks plus number of times they ended up scrambling for positive yardage. But the reason you can't just add total number of runs to the figure is because that would be problematic as well in that some runs especially for a guy like Mike Vick and other running QBs, are designed running plays.

Lets take Vick as an example. He has 634 pass attempts, 182 rushing attempts, and 65 sacks. Lets suppose that all of his rushing attempts were scrambles (not really the case, he gets a lot of option plays and stuff) then instead of dividing 699 by 65 to get the dropbacks per sack, you should divide 881 by 65 to get his dropbacks per sack which would be a much more reasonable 13.55 instead of the 10 something I have.