Don Coryell ... One Of The Great Ones

This happened a few days ago, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the passing of one of the great football coaches of all time, Don Coryell.

Coryell's impact on the offensive game of professional football is well-documented.

All I'll add here is that when I first became cognizant of Charger football, Coryell was the coach and his high-powered offenses made it very easy to be a fan. What more could a 6-year old kid ask for than his favorite team scoring 35 points per game?

In fact, even after Philip leads to the Bolts to a few Super Bowl titles over the next few years, when I think Chargers, the first thing I'll think about are the blue-and-yellow clad Bolts teams of the early 80s, captained by Danny Fouts and led from the sidelines by the brilliant Don Coryell.

Way to get it dun, Don.

It's Getting A Little Foutsy In Here

Yesterday, my advisor Tatt Mareeco forwarded around an article by Jason Whitlock with the note, "Obviously Bevormo won't like this."

I read the article - which was Whitlock's ranking of, in his view, the 10 greatest QBs of all-time - and noted immediately that the Great One, Dan Fouts, was not on the list.

Obviously I couldn't let this go without a fight. Fouts needed a champion.

A little research was in order.

Taking a look a Pro-Football Reference.com, I found that Fouts ranks right around the 10 spot among QBs in a number of major statistical categories. To wit:

career passes completed - 10th
career pass attempts - 10th
career passing yards - 9th
career passing TDs - 12th
career passer rating - 54th (F this stupid stat, though Phil Rivers is currently #3 all time)
career passing yards/game - 8th (a few guys ahead of him are still active so in theory he could gain here)
career pass completion % - 47th (whatever, he was a gunslinger in different era)
career passes intercepted - 12th
career sacked - 26th (quick release! quick release!)

Without doing an in-depth comparison, and factoring in his tendency for dagger playoff picks, I'd say Fouts is right in the 6-12 range all-time, depending on how you adjust for differences between the eras, playoff success, etc.

Of course, of the QBs never to reach a Super Bowl, he's most definitely #1 (sorry Warren Moon fans), which makes everything in life suck just a little bit more.