When you hear of a gunslinger, you think of Brett Favre. Drew Bledsoe. Dan Marino. Heck, Joe Flacco. Quarterbacks who take the field and chuck the ball 30, 40, or 50 times a game.
How would you feel if Tom Brady was the biggest and most successful gunslinger in football history?
One of these quarterbacks is not like the others... pic.twitter.com/mt49OgHMC7
— Rich Hill (@PP_Rich_Hill) February 6, 2015
The Y-axis is the quarterback's winning percentage, while the X-axis is the total number of games.
Only three quarterbacks have records above .500 when asked to throw 50+ times, and Tom Brady has three-times as many games as either of them. Typically, quarterbacks are supposed to lose when they throw that much, but Brady has clearly broken the scale.
And it's not just how successful Brady is in these scenarios, but how frequently he's asked to do so. Of quarterbacks with 100+ starts (including playoffs), Tom Brady has thrown for 50+ attempts in 21 out of 236 starts, or a rate of 8.9%. That is the highest mark in NFL history.
Rk
|
QB | W-L% | 50+ GS | Ttl GS | 50+% |
1 | Tom Brady | 66.7% | 21 | 236 | 8.9% |
2 | Joe Flacco | 33.3% | 9 | 127 | 7.1% |
3 | Drew Brees | 20.0% | 15 | 212 | 7.1% |
4 | Neil Lomax | 0.0% | 7 | 102 | 6.9% |
5 | Drew Bledsoe | 30.8% | 13 | 199 | 6.5% |
6 | Dan Marino* | 31.3% | 16 | 258 | 6.2% |
7 | Peyton Manning | 23.5% | 17 | 276 | 6.2% |
8 | Matt Ryan | 28.6% | 7 | 115 | 6.1% |
9 | Tony Romo | 42.9% | 7 | 129 | 5.4% |
10 | Tommy Kramer | 0.0% | 6 | 114 | 5.3% |
Full disclosure: Matthew Stafford (79 starts, 12.7%) and Andrew Luck (54, 11.1%) are the only other quarterbacks ahead of Tom Brady, but they didn't meet the 100 start minimum.
Kurt Warner was at 4.0%. Brett Favre is 3.8%. Dan Fouts is 2.8%. Joe Montana is 2.7%, the lowest rate of any quarterback with five or more 50+ attempt games.
So yes, Tom Brady is a master of the papercut offense- but in mastering this offense he's been able to do the impossible. He puts the entire offense on his shoulders more often than anyone else in NFL history and has more success than anyone else.