Of Fumbles and Quarterbacks

The evaluation of quarterbacks begins with passing. That's as it should be. Too often, though, it also ends there. That's not as it should be at all.

Sure, when discussing a quarterback known for his running, that will be brought up, and leadership will be discussed sometimes, though that's a tricky one, since it's hard to agree on how to measure an intangible.

Fumbles? They don't come up all that often. Occasionally, you'll hear it mentioned about a Quarterback with a particular reputation for fumbling, like Dave Krieg. But how often have you heard it said about a QB, "He was good at avoiding fumbles"? I'm willing to bet on never.

Thing is, though, we all know turnovers are bad. You'd never evaluate any quarterback's career numbers without looking at his interceptions, right? But I'll guarantee that people regularly miss the fumbles. Looking at Krieg, (admittedly an extreme example) he threw 199 career INTs. He fumbled 153 times. Obviously, not all those fumbles were lost; Krieg himself recovered 47 fumbles, most of them likely his own. Still, assuming something like half of those fumbles were lost, that's an awful lot of turnovers to ignore, and if you look at his passer rating, that's exactly what you're doing.

I believe most of the lack of attention to fumbles comes from two factors. First, that the numbers haven't been readily available. A few years ago, I was still resorting to print materials to find fumble data, and currently, fumbles lost still aren't easily available for retired players. Second, from an assumption that fumbles tend to even out over time, that they're more the result of external factors than any innate ability on the part of a quarterback. The first issue isn't a good excuse to avoid addressing the issue, and the second... well, it only works if it's true.

I looked at the NFL's top passers to see just how true or false it is. Results will be reported in the following posts.