17 days until Kickoff: QB play that will never be topped
There are now only 17 days until the Broncos take on the Trevor Siemian has more rings than us team.
Before the substance of today’s post is discussed, it is in the best interests for the entire r/denverbroncos subreddit if there is a warning posted.
If you would suffer adverse physical, mental, or emotional consequences from seeing the worst QB ever to start for the Broncos, turn away now. Click the little red “X” in the right corner of the browser. Watch Super Bowl 32, run a lap, play a videogame. If you stay beyond this line, there is great danger in store.
Ladies and gentlemen of r/denverbroncos, it is an honor to be able to present Mr. Matt Robinson.
Here’s photographic evidence of him playing QB for the Broncos
I can say with absolute certainty his performance as QB will never be matched. Kyle Sloter would unironically play better in a game (relative to 2017 standards) than Matt Robinson would (relative to 1980 standards).
Robinson, who was drafted in the 9th round by the New York Jets in 1977, spent the 1980 season with the Denver Broncos. Luckily for the Broncos, it was only the 1980 season. If he spent any more time with the Broncos, a 53 year old Frank Tripucka likely would’ve been the better option. An injured, broken, and 37 year old Craig Morton was determined to be the better option by Red Miller.
Here’s the passing stats of Matt Robinson’s horrendous 1980 campaign.
| Age | Tm | No. | G | GS | QBrec | Cmp | Att | Cmp% | Yds | TD | Int | Rate | AV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | DEN | 17 | 14 | 7 | 4-3-0 | 78 | 162 | 48.1 | 942 | 2 | 12 | 39.7 | -1 |
Telling the whole story (or at least as much as is publicly available) is very important, so here’s his rushing stats from that same year
| Age | Tm | Pos | No. | G | GS | Rush | Yds | TD | Lng | Y/A | Y/G | A/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | DEN | qb | 17 | 14 | 7 | 21 | 47 | 3 | 22 | 2.2 | 3.4 | 1.5 |
To round out the tables, here’s his gamelogs from the 1980 season.
| Rk | Date | Tm | Opp | Result | Cmp | Att | Cmp% | Yds | TD | Int | Rate | Att | Yds | TD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1980-09-07 | DEN | PHI | L 6-27 | 18 | 41 | 43.90 | 178 | 0 | 2 | 36.4 | 2 | 16 | 0 | |
| 2 | 1980-09-14 | DEN | DAL | W 41-20 | 10 | 20 | 50.00 | 198 | 0 | 0 | 85.0 | 3 | 4 | 2 | |
| 3 | 1980-09-21 | DEN | SDG | L 13-30 | 13 | 25 | 52.00 | 146 | 0 | 4 | 30.2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | |
| 4 | 1980-09-29 | DEN | NWE | L 14-23 | 8 | 12 | 66.67 | 83 | 1 | 1 | 79.5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | |
| 5 | 1980-10-05 | DEN | CLE | W 19-16 | 5 | 14 | 35.71 | 57 | 0 | 1 | 19.0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | |
| 6 | 1980-10-13 | DEN | WAS | W 20-17 | 5 | 11 | 45.45 | 43 | 0 | 1 | 18.4 | 1 | 22 | 0 | |
| 7 | 1980-10-19 | DEN | KAN | L 17-23 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 39.6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 8 | 1980-10-26 | DEN | NYG | W 14-9 | 1 | 1 | 100.00 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 95.8 | 2 | -2 | 0 | |
| 10 | 1980-11-23 | DEN | SEA | W 36-20 | 1 | 2 | 50.00 | 21 | 0 | 1 | 47.9 | 3 | -7 | 0 | |
| 13 | 1980-12-14 | DEN | OAK | L 21-24 | 8 | 12 | 66.67 | 110 | 0 | 2 | 56.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 14 | 1980-12-21 | DEN | SEA | W 25-17 | 9 | 23 | 39.13 | 99 | 1 | 0 | 67.1 | 3 | 7 | 1 |
(all tables and stats from pro-football-reference)
Somehow, the Broncos went 4-3 in his starts. All the more evidence that QB wins is a ridiculous stat and people should never use it as a serious metric of a QB’s abilities or relative ranking to other QBs.
It’s established that he had a, well, not good 1980 season. But what makes it suffice the hot take of worst QB season in Broncos history?
Well, here’s a list with all the ways. All these are for a passer with 150+ attempts in a season (or a little over 9 a game). This ensures that the QBs pulled in queries played regularly and started a decent amount of games in their season.
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His 7.55% INT% is the 5th highest in a single season, but the top 4 were all pre-Mel Blount rule (1974)
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His passer rating of 39.7 was the 3rd lowest in a single season, but the top 2 were both AFL guys in 1961 (George Herring) and 1966 (John McCormick). Robinson was 14 years later.
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His 2 passing TDs are the lowest in a single season in team history (he average 1 TD pass for every 81 pass attempts)
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His 5.81 yards/attempt is the 7th lowest in a season in team history, but the top 5 were AFL season and #6 was in 1970 (the first post merger season)
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His 67.3 yards/game is the 2nd lowest in team history for a single season, the first being Mickey Slaughter in 1964. Which was 16 years before Robinson’s dangerous season.
One stat that sums it up best of all is PFR’s Approximate Value (or AV) stat. Here’s a little reading about it. Matt Robinson during the 1980 season managed to have a negative AV score. Of all eligible passers (150+ attempts) there has only been 40 negative AV’s in NFL history. The Broncos, in all their pretty good play at the QB position over the last few decades, manage to have two guys make the list (Robinson 1980 and McCormick 1966). McCormick actually has a lower AV (-2 compared to Robinson’s -1) but he gets a little bit of a pass since it was the AFL years.
Now, this is atrociously garbage enough. This heinous performance at signal caller would be bad enough if he was a low round pick or a guy brought in off the street during a strike season. But, the best part hasn’t even been brought up. After the 1979 season, the Broncos were convinced they needed to improve their QB room with Morton getting older and all their young guys were looking pretty bad themselves. The Broncos traded for Robinson. And they just didn’t give up a backup QB or a low pick. No siree. The Broncos traded backup QB Craig Penrose for him (that’s fine), a 1980 first round draft pick, and a 1980 second round draft pick. Now, to be fair, team’s did value draft picks a lot less back then (the Redskins famously from 1969-1990 had just three first round picks) but still that is a very high cost for a QB who didn’t show anything special.
Yes, the Broncos traded a first AND a second for their worst QB in team history. That would be like if the Broncos traded a first and a second for Blake Bortles.
The Jets traded the first to the 49ers (who took Jim Stuckey) and they kept the second to draft Ralph Clayton. Neither player would amount to much during their NFL careers. However, if the Broncos kept those picks they could’ve taken Dwight Stephenson in the 2nd (a Hall of Famer).
Anyhow, Robinson was put in a QB competition with Craig Morton during the offseason. Robinson “won” the job during camp and after an ok first game completely collapsed and was a joke. He was benched after the 6th game and wouldn’t start again until a meaningless season finale after the Broncos were eliminated from playoff contention. He was waived following the 1980 season once Dan Reeves was hired as coach. The management (or mismanagement) of the QB position is the one big negative on the otherwise fantastic career of Red Miller’s tenure as head coach. Luckily for the Broncos (and their fans), problems at the QB position would all be over in a few short years when a certain baseball player came to town.
Come back tomorrow for something TBD
Posted Aug 25, 2017, 12:43 PM UTC