Sam vs The Record Books: Week 6

Week 6 of our season long tracking of Sam Darnold’s progress brings another good performance. Darnold lit it up against the Indianapolis Colts and is rising up the historical rookie QB lists.

A few things to keep in mind. All rankings herein are limited to rookie quarterbacks with at least 250 passing attempts in their rookie seasons. There have been 72 rookie quarterbacks with 250 or more passing attempts in the post merger era. Rate stats (like completion %) reflect actual current numbers for Darnold. Counting stats (like touchdowns or yards) reflect prorated numbers for Darnold assuming he continues to perform at the same level all season.

Let’s get to it. Below are a bunch of quarterback metrics, listing the all time rookie leaders for each and showing where Sam Darnold fits assuming he plays at the same level all season.

Yards

1. Andrew Luck 4374
2. Cam Newton 4051
3. Jameis Winston 4042
4. Carson Wentz 3782
5. Peyton Manning 3739

...

8. Sam Darnold 3589

Touchdowns

1. Peyton Manning 26
2. Russell Wilson 26 (Tie 1)
3. Sam Darnold 24
4. Andrew Luck 23
5. Dak Prescott 23 (Tie 4)

Interceptions

1. Peyton Manning 28
2. Jim Zorn 27
3. Terry Bradshaw 24
4. Jeff Komlo 23
5. Steve DeBerg 22

...

11. Sam Darnold 19 (Tie)

Passer Rating

1. Dak Prescott 104.9
2. Robert Griffin III 102.4
3. Russell Wilson 100
4. Ben Roethlisberger 98.1
5. Dan Marino 96

...

`12. Sam Darnold 83.7

Yards/Attempt

1. Ben Roethlisberger 8.88
2. Robert Griffin III 8.14
3. Dak Prescott 7.99
4. Russell Wilson 7.93
5. Matt Ryan 7.93

...

10. Sam Darnold 7.52

Completion Percentage

1. Dak Prescott 67.8
2. Ben Roethlisberger 66.4
3. Robert Griffin III 65.7
4. Teddy Bridgewater 64.4
5. Russell Wilson 64.1

...

15. Sam Darnold 59.8

Touchdown Percentage

1. Dan Marino 6.8
2. Russell Wilson 6.6
3. Jim Plunkett 5.8
4. Ben Roethlisberger 5.8 (Tie 3)
5. Steve Bartkowski 5.1
6. Robert Griffin III 5.1 (Tie 5)
7. Marcus Mariota 5.1 (Tie 5)
8. Jake Plummer 5.1 (Tie 5)

...

9. Sam Darnold 5.0 (Tie)

Interception Percentage

1. Dak Prescott 0.9
2. Robert Griffin III 1.3
3. Nick Foles 1.9
4. Charlie Batch 2.0
5. Derek Carr 2.0 (Tie 4)

...

46. Sam Darnold 3.9

As the season wears on the sample gets larger and the results more stable. It’s still early, but the picture is becoming a bit more clear, and the numbers are starting to look pretty good for Darnold. Darnold currently ranks in the top 25% of all rookies in every category other than interceptions and interception percentage. Still plenty of time for things to change, but as the weeks flow by the numbers begin to stabilize, and to date they seem quite good. We’ll track these numbers throughout the year and see how this unfolds.

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