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[Note: As I write this post, Pennington has thrown an interception against the Chiefs, and Garcia has thrown two against the Chargers.]
The table below shows the 50 best seasons in the NFL, as far as interceptions thrown. I have also included the component calculation that goes into the NFL passer rating formula.
Steve DeBerg's 1990 season ranks as the all-time near perfect season. His season, as well as David Garrard's 2007 season ranks as the only two seasons in NFL history, where less than 1.0% of a quarterback's pass attempts were intercepted. I have previously shown that the average interception rate in the NFL has continually decreased (or, that the interceptions component in the current NFL passer rating formula has increased). To be fair then, this list below is biased towards the more recent players. To make a true apples-to-apples comparison, one really needs to relate each of these seasons relative to the average rate in that season, something I hope to do in a future posting.
According to this table, in absolute terms (in other words, not relating each season to that season's average), the seasons that Campbell, Garcia, and Pennington are having in 2008 all rank in the Top 30, with Campbell's season ranking 11th-best all-time. Notice that both Garcia and Pennington have had seasons previously that are also in the Top 30.
I also want to point out two of the phenomenal seasons of Hall-of-Fame member Bart Starr. His 1966 season ranks 6th all-time in absolute terms (perhaps moving him up in the top 5 in relative terms), and his 1964 season ranks 19th all-time in absolute terms (in relative terms, it is most likely a Top-15 season, perhaps even a Top-10).
2 comments:
I think you need to adjust these for number of passes. A QB who throws 300 passes is obviously being more selective than one who throws 450.
Good stuff though.
It's a valid point. However, a QB who throws fewer passes than another is not necessarily selective. It is possible that team has a very good running attack, or, it could be that the team is very good and wins a lot (when teams are ahead in a game, they tend to run to eat up the clock). Obviously, the opposite rationale could also apply to the QB who throws more passes.
The point that is valid is the one that suggests that when evaluating two QBs with the same interception rate, that the one with more passes thrown should be given more credibility. Also, QBs these days throw a lot fewer interceptions that QBs of the past, and in an "adjusted evaluation" that should also be accounted for.
Cheers,
Kiran
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