Recently, I've seen a few news articles(actually it was in the weekly Leftorium newsletter...Flanders...) proclaiming that studies show that left-handed people make more money. With the NFL regular season almost here I started wondering how many NFL QB's were left-handed, and what kind of success they had had over the past couple of seasons. The main criteria was that they had to have played in more than eight games in any season over the past five years, and they had to have attempted 14 or more passes in those games.
I ended up with a whopping three quarterbacks on the list, and none of them were in the top 10 rated QB's last year(though one has been in the top 10 in years past). The list included(passing stats only):
Mark Brunell: 16 games, 85.9 QB Rating, 57.7% completions, 3050yds, 23TD, 10INT
Chris Simms: 11 games, 81.4 QB Rating, 61% completions, 2035yds, 10TD, 7INT
Michael Vick: 15 games, 73.1 QB Rating, 55.3% completions, 2412yds, 15TD, 13INT
Of those three, Brunell has been the most successful with respect to passing stats. In '02, he was the #9 highest rated passer, and finished the season with 2788yds and 17TD/7INT. In '01, he was the #8 highest rated passer, and finished the season with 3309yds and 19TD/13INT.
Surprisingly, the first left-handed quarterback elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Steve Young, was just inducted last year.
One question that has been raised is whether or not coaches are more comfortable with right-handed passers(because there are a lot more of them), and consequently coach them "better". However, even the QB's who are talented enough to make it to the pro level don't appear to have any type of edge based on which arm they throw with. Eventhough the team they play on obviously has a big impact on just how successful they can be, I'm still inclined to believe that a left-handed QB doesn't have any significant advantage just because he's a southpaw.
Friday, August 25, 2006
How Successful Are Left-Handed QB's?(calm down Ned!)
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8 comments:
Jared Lorenzen will change all that.
Well, maybe not. But he's large.
Any idea how many left-handed QB's there have been in the NFL in the last ten years? I'm old enough to remember Bobby Douglass who played for the Bears in the 70's.
Bobby Douglass ...
His receivers complained that they had trouble catching the ball because of the left-handed spin.
I enjoyed reading your article.
I have also wondered about and researched left-handed QBs, although I looked more into career numbers.
Fun trivia questions: Which lefty QB has the most career passing yards? (Hint: It's not Steve Young)
Other than Steve Young, who is only other lefty QB to win a Super Bowl?
I'll post the Top5 (by passing yards) lefty QBs later.
-Bob
Here was a short list of lefty NFL QB's that I came across while researching stats:
Frankie Albert
Bobby Douglass
Boomer Esiason(4,000+ more passing yards than Young)
Ken Stabler
Jim Zorn
If there are fewer left-handed QBs than you might expect from population figures (I haven't researched it), then the most plausible reason, I think, is that lefties have a more distinct advantage in baseball -- especially as pitchers -- and so the better young southpaw athletes may be steered more in that direction.
Good job, F-ing Brian -- those answers are correct.
Here are Top 5 Lefty QBs by career yardage:
Name G | Comp Att YD Y/A TD INT
Esiason 187 | 2969 5205 37920 7.3 247 184
Young 169 | 2667 4149 33124 8.0 232 107
Stabler 184 | 2270 3793 27938 7.4 194 222
Brunell 131 | 2314 3880 26987 7.0 151 92
Zorn 140 | 3149 1669 21115 6.7 111 141
I apologize in advance for the poor formatting.
M.vick
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