Was Kerry Collins The Worst Raider QB Of All Time?
Before we begin, take a good look at the title of this entry and tell me what you notice? If you answered "you used the past tense", you would have probably gotten a B in English and you would have correctly assumed that the Raider career of Kerry Collins is indeed in the past tense. No more overthrows of 15 yards or more, no more throwing touchdown passes to Champ Bailey or taking coverage sack after coverage sack. The long dreaded nightmare is finally over Raider fans!
Now that Collins has been thrown into the dustbin of Raider history, where does he stack up among other Raider QB's of his "ilk". Let's go down this road of Raider ignominy to see how "sKerry" Collins stacks up.
Jay Schroeder: 1988-1992 10,276 yards, 66 TD's, 62 INTs. My memories of Schroeder were basically in my infancy but as a youngster I distinctly remember that we won games back then more in spite of him than because of him. Take for example the 51-3 loss to Buffalo in the 1990 AFC Championship game where someone needed to step up after we lost Bo Jackson and neither he (nor Marcus Allen, which is another discussion) could make that game anywhere close to competitive.
Marc Wilson: 1980-1987 11,760 yards, 77 TDs, 86 INTs. Which is more astounding to you, that Wilson threw for almost 12,000 yards or that his total passing yardage as a Raider ranks him 5th in franchise history, only behind Plunkett, Lamonica, Gannon, and Stabler? I know what you're thinking too, "how did that guy throw for that many freakin' yards?"
I'll hear some opposing arguments on this but from what I remember of the Raider teams of the mid-80s, we could put some points on the board but we also gave up quite a few as well (the 1985 team that lost in the divisional round of the playoffs to New England was 9th in the league that year in points allowed). Of course, given that Wilson was a BYU quarterback and all, he was probably really limited by being "system" QB.
The moral of the story: Never trust a BYU football player. With anything. Ever.
Todd Marinovich: 1991-92. 1,345 yards. 8 TDs, 9 INTs. Up until the past few seasons, a reasonable soul could probably make the case that "Marijuanavich" was the worst Raider QB of all-time. Now if I haven't completely ruined your day yet, (brace yourselves here) Todd Marinovich started a playoff game. What you don't believe me? Here, I'll post the link again so you know I'm not lying. Try and sleep at night knowing that.
Vince Evans: 1987-1995. 3,133 yards. 22 TDs, 22 INTs. Poor Vince Evans. Vince was one of the very few "bad" Raider players that I actually felt sorry for. By all accounts Vince is a very nice man and he's leading a very productive life outside of football and the Raiders, but whenever Vince strutted on to the field, I felt a lot of pity for him. Which is a shame because I would have like to have seen him play for us closer to his prime.
Jeff George: 1997-98. 5,103 yards, 33 TDs, 14 INTs. We went 4-12 when George threw most of those yards (1997) but that record wasn't entirely his fault. (Sure would have been nice if we weren't ranked 30th in total defense and 28th in points allowed that year.) Sure, Joe Bugel didn't help. Sure, it would have also been nice if George were a brighter star in the galaxy and actually gave a damn.
I think I better stop before I start wondering if I need stronger medication. I hope you'll understand that I'm leaving out the remaining has-beens (Jeff Hostetler, Wade Wilson, Rick Mirer) and the remaining never-were's (Rusty Hilger, David Humm, Donald Hollas). Getting back to the question at hand, I'm not sure if there's a "worst" QB of all-time we can peg on any particular guy. Considering that we've had so many play that position, here's how I would sort the QB position throughout our history:
The Greats-Stabler, Plunkett, Lamonica, Gannon
The Mediocre-Schroeder, Marc Wilson, Donald Hollas
The "Stars In The Early Days"-Cotton Davidson, Tom Flores
The Past Their Prime-Hostetler, Wade Wilson
The Awful-Todd Marinovich, Kerry Collins
That looks right to me, how about you? Let's hope that the next guy doesn't belong in the "Mediocre" or "Awful" when it's all said and done.
-TK
Now that Collins has been thrown into the dustbin of Raider history, where does he stack up among other Raider QB's of his "ilk". Let's go down this road of Raider ignominy to see how "sKerry" Collins stacks up.
Jay Schroeder: 1988-1992 10,276 yards, 66 TD's, 62 INTs. My memories of Schroeder were basically in my infancy but as a youngster I distinctly remember that we won games back then more in spite of him than because of him. Take for example the 51-3 loss to Buffalo in the 1990 AFC Championship game where someone needed to step up after we lost Bo Jackson and neither he (nor Marcus Allen, which is another discussion) could make that game anywhere close to competitive.
Marc Wilson: 1980-1987 11,760 yards, 77 TDs, 86 INTs. Which is more astounding to you, that Wilson threw for almost 12,000 yards or that his total passing yardage as a Raider ranks him 5th in franchise history, only behind Plunkett, Lamonica, Gannon, and Stabler? I know what you're thinking too, "how did that guy throw for that many freakin' yards?"
I'll hear some opposing arguments on this but from what I remember of the Raider teams of the mid-80s, we could put some points on the board but we also gave up quite a few as well (the 1985 team that lost in the divisional round of the playoffs to New England was 9th in the league that year in points allowed). Of course, given that Wilson was a BYU quarterback and all, he was probably really limited by being "system" QB.
The moral of the story: Never trust a BYU football player. With anything. Ever.
Todd Marinovich: 1991-92. 1,345 yards. 8 TDs, 9 INTs. Up until the past few seasons, a reasonable soul could probably make the case that "Marijuanavich" was the worst Raider QB of all-time. Now if I haven't completely ruined your day yet, (brace yourselves here) Todd Marinovich started a playoff game. What you don't believe me? Here, I'll post the link again so you know I'm not lying. Try and sleep at night knowing that.
Vince Evans: 1987-1995. 3,133 yards. 22 TDs, 22 INTs. Poor Vince Evans. Vince was one of the very few "bad" Raider players that I actually felt sorry for. By all accounts Vince is a very nice man and he's leading a very productive life outside of football and the Raiders, but whenever Vince strutted on to the field, I felt a lot of pity for him. Which is a shame because I would have like to have seen him play for us closer to his prime.
Jeff George: 1997-98. 5,103 yards, 33 TDs, 14 INTs. We went 4-12 when George threw most of those yards (1997) but that record wasn't entirely his fault. (Sure would have been nice if we weren't ranked 30th in total defense and 28th in points allowed that year.) Sure, Joe Bugel didn't help. Sure, it would have also been nice if George were a brighter star in the galaxy and actually gave a damn.
I think I better stop before I start wondering if I need stronger medication. I hope you'll understand that I'm leaving out the remaining has-beens (Jeff Hostetler, Wade Wilson, Rick Mirer) and the remaining never-were's (Rusty Hilger, David Humm, Donald Hollas). Getting back to the question at hand, I'm not sure if there's a "worst" QB of all-time we can peg on any particular guy. Considering that we've had so many play that position, here's how I would sort the QB position throughout our history:
The Greats-Stabler, Plunkett, Lamonica, Gannon
The Mediocre-Schroeder, Marc Wilson, Donald Hollas
The "Stars In The Early Days"-Cotton Davidson, Tom Flores
The Past Their Prime-Hostetler, Wade Wilson
The Awful-Todd Marinovich, Kerry Collins
That looks right to me, how about you? Let's hope that the next guy doesn't belong in the "Mediocre" or "Awful" when it's all said and done.
-TK
posted by Just Blog, Baby! at 7:19 PM
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