TODAY’S SPORTSTAT: Packers have had some great quarterbacks … and some not so great

By JERRY TAPP

Who has been the Packers worst quarterback in the Super Bowl era?
There is no argument when it comes to who are the best quarterbacks for
the Green Bay Packers franchise: There are two Hall of Famers, Bart Starr
and Brett Favre, and a future HOFer in Aaron Rodgers. The only
discussion might be who would take the fourth spot in a Packers QB Mt.
Rushmore, but even that might be a brief discussion as Lynn Dickey would
be a solid choice for the fourth spot.
But what about the worst QB for the Packers?

Is there a clear-cut selection?
To answer that question, I looked at five stats. First, I limited the discussion
to only quarterbacks who played for the Packers in the Super Bowl era
(1966 and beyond). There have been 18 players who attempted 100 or
more career passes with the Packers since 1966. (In case you wanted to
see if you could name all 18, here they are: Zeke Bratkowski, Lynn Dickey,
Anthony Dilweg, Brett Favre, Matt Flynn, John Hadl, Scott Hunter, Don
Horn, Brett Hundley, Blair Kiel, Don Majkowski, Aaron Rodgers, Bart Starr,
Jerry Tagge, Mike Tomczak, David Whitehurst, Randy Wright, and Jim
Zorn). The five stats I used were pass completion percentage, TD percentage, interceptions percentage, Passer Rating and win-loss percentage as a starter.
Following are the five Packers QBs since 1966 that had the lowest rankings
in these five stat categories:
Lowest pass completion percentage
Hunter, 43.95% … Zorn, 45.53% … Tagge, 48.4% … Horn, 48.94 …
Whitehurst, 51.43%

Highest interception percentage
Horn, 7.75% … Hunter, 6.73% … Bratkowski, 6.54% … Tagge, 6.05% …
Hadl, 5.40%
Lowest TD percentage
Tagge, 1.1%… Hadl, 1.7% … Wright, 2.8% … Hundley, 2.8% … Whitehurst,
2.9%
Passer Rating
Tagge, 44.2 … Hunter, 49.0… Hadl, 53.2 … Zorn, 57.4… Whitehurst, 59.2
Win-loss percentage (minimum of 10 games started at QB for the Pack to
qualify)
Wright, 7-25 (.219) … Hadl, 7-12 (.368) … Dickey, 43-56-2 (.436) …
Whitehurst, 16-20-1 (.446) … Majkowski, 22-26-1 (.459)
If we take these five stats and assign a numerical value to each, I
come up with my list of the five QBs who would statistically rank as the Top
Five worst Packers QBs in the Super Bowl era. They are:

  1. Jerry Tagge: (1972-74). Started 12 games for the Packers. The 11th
    overall pick in the 1972 draft. Played only three seasons in Green
    Bay with only three touchdown passes and 17 interceptions. Was released prior to the ’75 season. Did not play in the NFL after that.
  2. Scott Hunter: (1971-73). Selected in the sixth round of the 1971 draft.
    Started 29 games for the Pack, 10 in his rookie season. Led the team
    to a 10-4 record in ’72 and a NFC Central crown. Was traded to the
    Buffalo Bills inn 1974.
  3. John Hadl: Traded to the Packers and played two seasons (1974-75)
    with the Pack. His trade to the Pack for five draft choices has been
    called one of the worst trades of a QB in NFL history. Hadl, who
    earlier had a great career for the San Diego Chargers, was a flop with
    the Packers throwing only nine TD passes with 29 interceptions in 22
    games with Green Bay.
  4. Randy Wright: Wright played collegiately at Wisconsin and was a
    sixth round pick of the Packers in 1984. He played five seasons in
    Green Bay, starting 32 games. He was only 7-25 as a starter with the
    team.
  5. Don Horn: Another first round pick of the Packers in 1967. Played
    four seasons in Green Bay, although he only played in 20 games,
    starting six of them. Was traded to Denver in 1971. Did win four of the
    six games he started for the Pack.
    So what do you think? Who is your choice?
    Comments?
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