Posts tagged: Steve Young

Mike Vick And Kevin Kolb, Greatest QB Combo?

By , October 20, 2010 5:38 am

Tonight while I was going through some random NFL stats I noticed that Micheal Vick is currently the highest rated passer in the NFL at 112 (or so) QB Rating. At the same time not too much further down the list is Kevin Kolb at 98.3 QB Rating. I got curious as to when the last time two QBs on the same team finished the season with a 100 or higher QB rating while making 40 throwing attempts or more. It’s a really short list.

In 2003 Billy Volek started one game and played in 7 others finishing 44 of 69 with 4 TDs to 1 INT. McNair was the primary starter finishing the year with a 100.1 QB Rating while posting 24 TDs to 7 INTs.

In 1987 and 1989 Steve Young and Joe Montana both finished over 100 QB Rating. But still the primary starter was Montana, as Young finished with 90 Attempts in 89 and 69 Attempts in 87. He started 3 games in 89 and 1 game in 87.

Now Young and Montana are both in the Hall of Fame, so I’m not going to say the Kolb/Vick duo is any better then them. But as of right now Kolb and Vick have split the season almost exactly between them. They both have played 4 games, they are within 9 attempts of each other (Kolb leads at 105) within 1 TD of each other (Vick has 6) and within 5 yards of one another (Kolb has 804).

These are stats that are head and shoulders above what any of the other three QB duos have managed with their backups. It’s easy to finish with a good QB rating behind a good team and only playing one or two games during the season. Vick and Kolb are doing something which has never done before. In actuality when you have two QBs splitting time like this it’s usually something that hurts the team.

Just for a frame of reference I tried to find a team with two QBs who started at least two games and were both over a 90 QB Rating. Since 1990 that has only happened once. The Philadelphia Eagles, the season that they had Jeff Garcia and Donovan McNabb both manage an above 90 QB Rating.

The question is will Reid use this to his advantage, or find some way in the long run to screw over both Kolb and Vick so that he ruins the team for this season. It is an interesting idea if he goes into games with both Vick and Kolb as his starting QBs. It keeps teams from being able to gameplan against just one of them, and if one of them struggles he can always switch things up. A team ready for Kolb the pocket passer might be exploited by Vick, meanwhile a team ready for Vick to run and forcing him to pass may get lit up by Vick.

It’s not a perfect system or a perfect world. But when you have one of the best QB Duos in easily the last twenty years (as much as I love Billy Volek, he’s a backup) you should use it to your advantage instead of it becoming a weakness. If both QBs can put aside their Egos they can easily make this one of the most exciting teams to watch in the last few years. I just get the feeling in the long run no good will come of this.