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As opening weekend of the 2009 NFL season draws near, the huge story out of Green Bay is the extraordinary quarterback play of Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers lit up the preseason, with QB ratings never before seen in Green Bay, not even under the guidance of QB legend and confirmed prima donna, Brett Favre. What is also true is that Rodgers is about to embark upon a path that will lead him to break the most difficult of all NFL barriers – specifically, to follow immediately after a Hall of Fame quarterback with a second Hall of Fame career. To Cleft Crusty’s knowledge, back-to-back hall of fame quarterback careers within one franchise have been achieved but one time, and that is a special case.
First, let’s look at the failures. Take for example, four recent HOF inductees who played their entire careers for one team: Dan Marino, Troy Aikman, Dan Fouts, and John Elway. Each had a long career and each were followed by a QB who was marginal at best, specifically Jay Fielder (QB rating 74.5), Babe Laufenberg (59.3), Quincy Carter (63), and Brian Griese (75.6). Griese bounced back in 2000, posting a102.9 rating in 11 games, but the circumstances are telling – he was in an explosive offense that generated over 2000 yards rushing, and along with 1776 yards from Gus Ferrote, posted over 4,000 passing yards passing. But Griese wasn’t all that durable or effective, bowing out after 11 games in 2000 and reverting to 78.5 and 85 in 2001 and 2002, yielding to Jake Plummer in 2003. The Broncos still haven’t discovered a replacement for Elway. The Cowboys trotted out Vinny Testaverde and Drew Bledsoe, before switching to Tony Romo in 2006, and he may not even be the answer, having yet to win a playoff game in two (home) attempts. Since Fouts, San Diego has experienced such quarterbacking delights as Jim McMahon, Billy Joe Tolliver, John Friesz, and Stan Humphries who, even when they were winning games, like in 1994, tended to toss interceptions as frequently as touchdowns. Other hall of fame QBs like Jim Kelly (Collins, Flutie), Fran Tarkenton(Tommy Kramer), Terry Bradshaw(Woodley, Malone), and of course Bart Starr(a real collection of stiffs including Zeke Bratkowski, Don Horn, Scott Hunter, Jerry Tagge, and John Hadl), were also followed by duds. To be fair, many of these teams were winding down from several years to decades of success, including the tremendous dynasties in Green Bay, Pittsburgh and San Francisco, so the organizations themselves were in a down cycles.
There are a couple of notable exceptions. First, Steve Young followed on the heels of Joe Montana, but Young was a seasoned, established starter by the time he took the reigns. With two seasons in the USFL, and seven in the NFL including 19 starts for Tampa Bay and 20 more for San Francisco in relief of Montana, Young was a pretty good bet to succeed, even though he struggled at times, giving way on occasion to prototypical backup Steve Bono (As an aside, Cleft Crusty believes that Bono’s father eschewed the clichéd football in the crib at Steve’s birth in favor of a visor and clipboard). Also, Danny White was a notably effective replacement in Dallas for Roger Staubach and Jeff Garcia put together a few years for San Francisco, but neither will make the Hall of Fame like Young.
So we come back now to Rodgers, who is a product of GM Ted Thompson’s philosophy that has become clear over the last several years: Get the franchish QB, hire a head coach with QB coaching skills who can instruct him, and let him develop until ready to lead. In his first season, Rodgers’ win loss record was nothing spectacular, but his performance was. Suffering through a painful shoulder injury, he put up (you know the numbers) 4038yards, 28TDs against 13 interceptions and a QB rating of 93.8, engineering some effective come-from-behind drives in several games, only to be let down by missed and blocked field goals, or collapsing defenses. The sky is the limit for Rodgers, and he may well break the precedent that a new QB, with no starting experience, can follow a hall of fame quarterback with a hall of fame career of his own. Given some of the miserable droughts other teams have suffered – like the Arizona Cardinals hoping to replace Jimmy Conzelman, Detoit trying to find their next Bobby Layne, Cleveland their next Otto Graham (apologies to Brian Sipe) and Chicago their Sid Luckman – Packer fans should be thanking the football gods that they likely will not have to suffer through a century long quarterback drought, let alone a drought lasting even one season.
First, let’s look at the failures. Take for example, four recent HOF inductees who played their entire careers for one team: Dan Marino, Troy Aikman, Dan Fouts, and John Elway. Each had a long career and each were followed by a QB who was marginal at best, specifically Jay Fielder (QB rating 74.5), Babe Laufenberg (59.3), Quincy Carter (63), and Brian Griese (75.6). Griese bounced back in 2000, posting a102.9 rating in 11 games, but the circumstances are telling – he was in an explosive offense that generated over 2000 yards rushing, and along with 1776 yards from Gus Ferrote, posted over 4,000 passing yards passing. But Griese wasn’t all that durable or effective, bowing out after 11 games in 2000 and reverting to 78.5 and 85 in 2001 and 2002, yielding to Jake Plummer in 2003. The Broncos still haven’t discovered a replacement for Elway. The Cowboys trotted out Vinny Testaverde and Drew Bledsoe, before switching to Tony Romo in 2006, and he may not even be the answer, having yet to win a playoff game in two (home) attempts. Since Fouts, San Diego has experienced such quarterbacking delights as Jim McMahon, Billy Joe Tolliver, John Friesz, and Stan Humphries who, even when they were winning games, like in 1994, tended to toss interceptions as frequently as touchdowns. Other hall of fame QBs like Jim Kelly (Collins, Flutie), Fran Tarkenton(Tommy Kramer), Terry Bradshaw(Woodley, Malone), and of course Bart Starr(a real collection of stiffs including Zeke Bratkowski, Don Horn, Scott Hunter, Jerry Tagge, and John Hadl), were also followed by duds. To be fair, many of these teams were winding down from several years to decades of success, including the tremendous dynasties in Green Bay, Pittsburgh and San Francisco, so the organizations themselves were in a down cycles.
There are a couple of notable exceptions. First, Steve Young followed on the heels of Joe Montana, but Young was a seasoned, established starter by the time he took the reigns. With two seasons in the USFL, and seven in the NFL including 19 starts for Tampa Bay and 20 more for San Francisco in relief of Montana, Young was a pretty good bet to succeed, even though he struggled at times, giving way on occasion to prototypical backup Steve Bono (As an aside, Cleft Crusty believes that Bono’s father eschewed the clichéd football in the crib at Steve’s birth in favor of a visor and clipboard). Also, Danny White was a notably effective replacement in Dallas for Roger Staubach and Jeff Garcia put together a few years for San Francisco, but neither will make the Hall of Fame like Young.
So we come back now to Rodgers, who is a product of GM Ted Thompson’s philosophy that has become clear over the last several years: Get the franchish QB, hire a head coach with QB coaching skills who can instruct him, and let him develop until ready to lead. In his first season, Rodgers’ win loss record was nothing spectacular, but his performance was. Suffering through a painful shoulder injury, he put up (you know the numbers) 4038yards, 28TDs against 13 interceptions and a QB rating of 93.8, engineering some effective come-from-behind drives in several games, only to be let down by missed and blocked field goals, or collapsing defenses. The sky is the limit for Rodgers, and he may well break the precedent that a new QB, with no starting experience, can follow a hall of fame quarterback with a hall of fame career of his own. Given some of the miserable droughts other teams have suffered – like the Arizona Cardinals hoping to replace Jimmy Conzelman, Detoit trying to find their next Bobby Layne, Cleveland their next Otto Graham (apologies to Brian Sipe) and Chicago their Sid Luckman – Packer fans should be thanking the football gods that they likely will not have to suffer through a century long quarterback drought, let alone a drought lasting even one season.
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