JONATHAN QUINN AND CHAD HUTCHINSON:  FRANCHISE LEADERS?!?!

5/11/07

            OK, we all remember the recent history of the Mighty Quinn and Surfer Chad; it was only back in 2004.  Quinn was panned as one of the absolute worst QBs the Bears ever had.  Hutchinson started well, having one stellar game against the Vikings, but then fell off a cliff faster than Wild E. Coyote.  After playing around with the career QB stats, I noticed some amazing things…

Starting with my passing list of 177 players, I only kept people with at least 50 attempts, cutting my list down to 57 players.  I then calculated the metric ‘attempts per touchdown’, keeping only players who had thrown at least 1 TD pass (55 players).  Rex Grossman, for example, had a score of 25.00, which means, on average, he threw a TD pass every 25 attempts.  The all-time best score was 7.55 by an old-school player named Ray Buivid, who played from 1937-38. 

Guess who was the worst?  That’s right.  Our good old friend, Jonathan Quinn.  He had a score of 98; it took him 98 tries to get 1 touchdown!  Even if we look at all players who threw at least 1 TD (100 players), it’s still the worst!  Now, in his defense, looking at the 57 players who had at least 50 attempts, the absolute worst was Rick Meier.  He put up 103 balls and never found the end zone.  Rusty Lisch was almost as bad, misfiring on 85 attempts.  Still, Quinn does hold the Chicago Bears franchise record for this miserable feat!!

Another metric that I calculated was ‘attempts per interception’, using similar requirements (at least 50 passes and at least 1 INT; 57 players).  Again, for comparison, Rex Grossman scores a 25.96, meaning he throws a pick about every 26 attempts.  The worst player was the 1929-30 veteran Walter Holmer, scoring a 3.17.  An INT every three tries is pretty bad.  But the best score ever was a 53.67.  Wow, someone only threw a pick every 54 tries?  Yup, that’s what Chad Hutchinson did.  This was still the franchise best after looking at all 107 players who threw at least one pick.  Yes, Hutchinson holds the franchise record for this stat; give him a pat on the back!!  FYI, the runner-up was spare Bear Mike Hohensee, who scored a 52.00.

Of course this also means that stats must be taken with a grain of salt.  Although Quinn was one of the worst Chicago QBs, Mirer or Lisch were probably the bottom of the barrel, being worse than Quinn in other categories.  And nobody will confuse Hutchinson as being one of the best Bears quarterbacks of all time.  But they’re interesting stats, to say the least!