“Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” – Vince Lombardi. Many use this quote to insinuate that winning is the bottom line on which your endeavors are to be judged. Anther famous sports quote of a similar nature is “You are what your record says you are ” – Bill Parcells.
However Vince Lombardi said to a reporter later in life – “I wish to hell I’d never said the damned thing,” “I meant the effort… I meant having a goal… I sure as hell didn’t mean for people to crush human values and morality.” So lets take a look at the starting quarterbacks starting with their win/loss record.
The top eight winningest quarterbacks of the last two decades have played in 2020. They are listed here in descending win/loss percentage. Taysom Hill was included as a ninth to be factually correct.
| Player | QBrec |
| Taysom Hill | 1-0-0 |
| Patrick Mahomes | 33-8-0 |
| Lamar Jackson | 25-7-0 |
| Tom Brady | 226-67-0 |
| Jimmy Garoppolo | 24-8-0 |
| Tua Tagovailoa | 3-1-0 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 154-71-1 |
| Russell Wilson | 93-44-1 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 120-63-1 |
If you count Jimmy Garoppolo (currently on IR) as the 49er quarterback, you have the NFC West as the most loaded division with winning quarterbacks with Garoppolo, Russell Wilson and Jared Goff. The division with the most non-winning quarterbacks is also the division with the winningest quarterback. Patrick Mahomes leads the AFC West which also holds Derek Carr and Justin Herbert.
Mathew Stafford at 32 is the oldest non-winning quarterback currently playing. There are only nine non-winning quarterbacks currently starting. Of those nine, only Matthew Stafford, Kirk Cousins and Derek Carr started playing before 2018. The Bengals are most likely starting Ryan Finley following the injury to Joe Burrow. Finley has started three games since drafted in 2019 and has an 0-3 record which is the worst record among starting quarterbacks. Finley will play against Daniel Jones this week. Jones has the worst starting record for starting quarterbacks with over ten games.
But going back to Lombardi lets look a little deeper. What is a measure of a quarterback’s effort and desire to win. One stat that stands out is fourth quarter comebacks. This is an offensive scoring drive in the 4th quarter, with the team trailing by one score, though not necessarily a drive to take the lead. Only games ending in a win or tie are included.This appears as good a measure of being down late and yet fighting back with that effort and desire to win. Here is a list of the top active quarterbacks in 4th quarter comebacks as measured by comebacks per years played.
| Player | 4QC | Years | Years | Total Years | 4QC / yr | QB Rec |
| Derek Carr | 19 | 2014 | 2020 | 7 | 2.71 | 45-59-0 |
| Josh Allen | 8 | 2018 | 2020 | 3 | 2.67 | 22-15-0 |
| Russell Wilson | 23 | 2012 | 2020 | 9 | 2.56 | 93-44-1 |
| Matthew Stafford | 30 | 2009 | 2020 | 12 | 2.50 | 73-85-1 |
| Matt Ryan | 30 | 2008 | 2020 | 13 | 2.31 | 112-87-0 |
| Ryan Tannehill | 20 | 2012 | 2020 | 9 | 2.22 | 56-52-0 |
| Andy Dalton | 22 | 2011 | 2020 | 10 | 2.20 | 71-63-2 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 34 | 2004 | 2020 | 17 | 2.00 | 154-71-1 |
| Deshaun Watson | 8 | 2017 | 2020 | 4 | 2.00 | 27-20-0 |
| Baker Mayfield | 6 | 2018 | 2020 | 3 | 2.00 | 19-20-0 |
| Kyler Murray | 4 | 2019 | 2020 | 2 | 2.00 | 11-14-1 |
| Gardner Minshew II | 4 | 2019 | 2020 | 2 | 2.00 | 7-12-0 |
Interesting to note that five of the top twelve quarterbacks in fourth quarter comebacks per year have a losing quarterback record. Therefore of the ten starting quarterbacks with losing records five of them are in the top twelve in fourth quarter comebacks. Another one, Kirk Cousins, makes the list of 4th quarter comebacks with ten and is at 26th with 1.11 per year. So what of the other four starting quarterbacks with losing records.
Rookie Justin Herbert had 50 college career touchdown passes and just four interceptions in the red zone. In his senior year he had a 217 quarterback rating in the red zone. That speaks of a clutch player. So far in his rookie season Herbert has made a touchdown on 30% of his red zone pass attempts. That is tenth in the league.
Rookie Joe Burrow had a 72% completion percentage in the red zone his last year in college. His red zone quarterback rating was 265. He had 34 touchdowns with zero interceptions in the red zone in 2019.
Kirk Cousins, over the last two seasons, made a touchdown on 37.5% of his red zone pass attempts. That is fifth in the league.
Nick Mullens has started games in 2018 and 2020. In 2018 with eight starts he was fifth in the league in passing yards per attempt. In 2020 with four starts he is seventh in the league in yards per attempt. he is a tough quarterback. Joe Judge said of Mullens – “…he’s a tough, gritty dude.”
Daniel Jones, over the last two seasons, is sixth among quarterbacks in rushing first downs. He has started three less games than the other quarterbacks above him on the list. This is an aspect of Jones’ game that shows his competitive toughness and the effort he puts in to win.
In his 2018 senior season Finley was fifth in passing plays of 10+ and 20+ yards. He was seventh in passing yards per game. Finley made All ACC First Team in 2018. Finley was one of five finalists for the 2017 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award.
This week the Giants and the Bengals meet with their win/loss league standings at 28th and 30th respectively. The Giants are fighting with a 19% probability of still winning their division. The Bengals have been eliminated from winning their division and fight for a less than 1% probability to make a wildcard playoff appearance. The Giants have more to play for and their defense ranks considerably higher than that of the Bengals, For the Bengals the loss of Joe Borrow is big and rumors of locker room/coach discord do not help. I look for the Giants to win by a touchdown.
Going back to the Lombardi quote on winning. I see the Giants as having that effort and focused on the goal to win in spite of their record. They are better than their record and have a legitimate chance to win the division. I would say that no team in the NFC East is playing better than the Giants are now.In games 5 thru 10 of 2020 the Giants are tie with four other teams in the most games (all 5) with a one score point differential. They have played hard in all these games win or lose.
“Winning is not everything – but making the effort to win is.” – Vince Lombardi.
