Harvard man the best NFL QB for the buck
Yes, it pays to go to Harvard. A few years ago the school's student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, estimated that the average alum earns six figures annually just a few years after graduation. Ryan Fitzpatrick(notes), class of 2005, has done them one better.
Fitzpatrick is a rare bird: a former Ivy League quarterback who's starting in the NFL. After throwing for 39 career touchdowns and turning in a reportedly near-perfect score on the league's Wonderlick test, Fitzpatrick went to the St. Louis Rams in the seventh round of the 2005 NFL draft. After four-plus years as a backup in St. Louis, Cincinnati and Buffalo, he's emerged as the Bills' starter.
 |
But while Fitzpatrick's three-year, $8.1 million contract may be the envy of many of his Harvard classmates, it's basically chump change to his NFL peers. That's life for a seventh-rounder with limited experience as a regular. But with a 60 percent completion percentage, 13 touchdowns and only seven interceptions, Fitzpatrick can claim the top spot on one list: He's football's best quarterback for the buck.
[Photos: More of Ryan Fitzpatrick]
Quarterbacks in the NFL are generally paid pretty accurately: stars like Peyton Manning(notes) and Tom Brady(notes) near the top of the scale, journeyman like Jon Kitna(notes) and Derek Anderson(notes) near the bottom. But there are always exceptions. To determine which QBs deliver the most for the least, we compared the salaries for each against what we'll call his Adjusted Passer Rating – his Passer Rating (the standard formula used to rate NFL quarterbacks based on completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdowns and interceptions) adjusted for playing time.
Example: The Eagles' Michael Vick(notes), No. 3 on our list, currently boasts a league-leading 105.3 Passer Rating. Vick, though, has only taken about half the snaps for the Eagles offense this season. To reward Vick for his strong performance while allowing for the fact that he's done it over limited playing time, we calculated an Adjusted Passer Rating – a weighted average of his Passer Rating (two-thirds) and the percentage of his team's passes he's thrown (weighted one-third).
Factoring in playing time yields Vick an Adjusted Passer Rating of 76.3, still good enough to rank as one of the league's top values relative to his modest $4.8 million salary. With his deal expiring at the end of the season, Vick could be in line for a nice raise. His past legal woes should keep shrinking in the rearview mirror if he keeps going the way he's going.
[Related: NFL's 10 most disappointing teams]
Salary figures for each player are based on average annual value under his current contract. One caveat: Because it's a stretch to declare a mediocre quarterback a "good value" even at a low price, we omitted from consideration all quarterbacks whose Passer Ratings fall below 85, the NFL median. Hence low-salaried QBs like Miami's Chad Henne(notes) and Detroit's Shaun Hill(notes) don't make the cut.
Coming in at No. 2 on our list is Denver's Kyle Orton(notes). He hasn't made fans forget John Elway, but his 92.7 Passer Rating is tied for fourth-best in the NFL among full-time quarterbacks. That tie is with the Giants' Eli Manning(notes), who makes almost three times the money Orton does.
Baltimore's Joe Flacco(notes), the 18th overall draft pick in 2008, comes in as the fourth-best value for the quarterback buck. He has gone 29-16 as a starter, including three playoff wins, while earning a relatively modest $6 million.
In fifth place: Tampa Bay's Josh Freeman(notes), who's turned in a respectable 85.8 Passer Rating while earning significantly less ($7.2 million) than the two QBs drafted ahead of him in 2009, Matthew Stafford(notes) and Mark Sanchez(notes).
The top five:
1. Ryan Fitzpatrick (Buffalo Bills): Slideshow
2. Kyle Orton (Denver Broncos): Slideshow
3. Michael Vick (Philadelphia Eagles): Slideshow
4. Joe Flacco (Baltimore Ravens): Slideshow
5. Josh Freeman (Tampa Bay Buccaneers): Slideshow
• See more quarterbacks
