Below you'll see how Roethlisberger's numbers after four seasons compare with the Colts' Peyton Manning, the Dolphins' Dan Marino, the Broncos' John Elway, the Patriots' Tom Brady, the Bills' Jim Kelly, the Cowboys' Troy Aikman, the Packers' Brett Favre and the 49ers' Joe Montana when they were each entering their fifth NFL season. While other amazing quarterbacks such as Steve Young were certainly deserving to be in the mix, the eight quarterbacks selected will provide a valid point of reference.
Completion Percent: Roethlisberger's 63.2 percent completion rate is better than any of the elite eight's completion percentages after four seasons. He barely nudged out Joe Montana (63.1) and is just slightly ahead of Brett Favre (62.3). Tom Brady (61.9), Peyton Manning (61.0), Dan Marino (60.9), Troy Aikman (60.2) and Jim Kelly (59.2) weren't far behind, but John Elway (54.0) completed almost ten percent less of his passes than Roethlisberger.
Yards: Roethlisberger's 11,673 yards isn't in the same arena with Manning's 16,418 or Marino's 16,177. But it's good enough for fourth place behind Kelly's 12,901 yards. That means that the Pittsburgh QB finished higher than Aikman (10,527), Favre (10,412), Brady (10,233), and Montana (8,069).
Touchdowns: If you compare the quarterbacks based on total touchdown passes over their first four seasons, Big Ben places third with 84 scores behind Marino (142) and Manning (111). But he is second only to Marino in the percent of his passes resulting in a touchdown with 5.8 percent compared to the former Dolphin great's 6.9 percent. Manning tossed an even 5.0 percent for touchdowns, third-best out of the group. Joe Montana put up just 52 scores but that was 4.6 percent of the passes he threw during his first four years. Brady had 69 TD passes (4.5 percent), Favre posted 70 (4.4 percent), Elway threw 66 (3.8 percent), Kelly logged 81 (3.6 percent) and Aikman had 54 (3.5 percent).
Interceptions: All of the elite eight except Aikman (3.9 percent, 60 INTs) had a lower interception percentage than Roethlisberger's 3.8 percent. But his total of 54 interceptions thrown at this point in his career puts him right around the middle of the group. Not surprisingly, Tom Brady (2.5 percent, 38 INTs) and Joe Montana (2.8 percent, 32 INTs) were the best at keeping the ball away from the opponents' defensive backs in their early years. The rest of the group posted results just slightly better than the Steelers QB with Marino at 3.3 percent (67 INTs), Favre at 3.4 percent (53 INTs), Manning and Kelly both at 3.6 percent (81 and 63 INTs, respectively), and Elway at 3.7 percent (65 INTs).
Sacks: As mentioned earlier, this is an area where Roethlisberger falls a bit short and needs to improve to help his team as well as his stature among the game's top quarterbacks. He's already been sacked 146 times, 16 more than Buffalo's Jim Kelly (130), a player who had that same blue-collar toughness and never-say-die outlook that Roethlisberger brings to the field. John Elway's 122 sacks during his first four years wasn't anything to brag about either. Troy Aikman (113), Tom Brady (104), and Brett Favre (96) had more of an average experience during their early years, while Marino (5
, Montana (61), and Manning (85), learned early that avoiding the sack was essential to maintaining good field position and staying healthy.
Passer rating: People have varying opinions about the validity of the league's passer rating system, but you can't ignore it totally. Roethlisberger's 92.5 score after four seasons places him second in this group behind Dan Marino (95.2). Montana placed third with a rating of 88.0, followed by Brady (85.9), Favre (85.2), Manning (85.1), Kelly (82.7), Aikman (76.4), and the late-blooming Elway (71.9).
What's it all mean?
The bottom line is that Ben Roethlisberger is a quarterback who deserves respect today, and is also a player you should keep an eye on over the next few years. If he continues his development in similar fashion to the top quarterbacks referenced in this analysis, he'll easily become one of the top three to four at his position by the time he's completed another four years of his career.
With Tom Brady entering his ninth season, Manning preparing for his 11th, Brett Favre possibly finished, and even Drew Brees getting ready for his eighth campaign, Roethlisberger has the opportunity to climb even further up the charts over the next three to four seasons. And if he can stay healthy and productive, he would then be in a position to make a run at earning a bust in the Hall of Fame among the other great NFL quarterbacks.
07-10-2009, 08:55 AM
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