Vs Series: Ken Anderson vs Boomer Esiason

[*rfaulk34*]

(04-03-2023, 09:55 PM)KillerGoose Wrote: I voted Ken and I'm in the "not really that close" department. For instance, I have Boomer as #3 in my Bengals QB list, already surpassed by Burrow. Ken will be harder to get by, though. As with a lot of these comparisons, we have to respect the fact that the game evolved between these guys. So, we can do a quick comparison using era adjusted stats. These are the passer+ metrics from PFR.

YPA - Ken, 3% better
NY/A - Ken, .5% better. Basically a wash. 
AY/A - Ken, 7% better
ANY/A - Ken, 5% better
Cmp% - Ken, 17% better
TD% - Boomer, 7% higher
INT % - Ken, 15% better
Sack% - Boomer, 8% lower
Rating - Ken, 9% higher

To put these into 2022 numbers, here is what an "average" adjusted season would look like for these two guys, based on Joe Burrow's attempts...

Ken - 7.5 YPA, 4,505 yards, 68.3 completion percentage, 27 TDs, 10 INTs, 99 rating
Boomer - 7.4 YPA, 4,484 yards, 64.9% completion percentage, 30 TDs, 15 INTs, 93 QB rating

This is based off seasons where they had more than 200 passing attempts. I think that not only did Ken have the better career, but he had the higher peak. 

I went back and tweaked my previous numbers, to compare each to their peers in their "prime" years. For Anderson it was '73 to '78. For Boomer is was still '85 to '90 but i adjusted my filters to make it at least 10 TDs and 1100 pass attempts for Anderson and 10 TDs and 1500 pass attempts for Boomer to weed out the guys who would only have a couple years worth of stats in that time frame. These are the results i got vs. their peers in that time period. 

I'm not sure exactly how this correlates to 'better Bengals QB' but it's something to look at, along the 'adjusted' line. I'm 100% on board with the era adjusted numbers you posted but i still don't believe that "it's not really close" because they're competing against their peers in an attempt to win rings.

From '73 to '78 Anderson was:
#4 in Completions, behind Tarkenton, Staubach and Hart
#5 in Completion % behind Tarkenton, Stabler, Griese and Staubach 
#4 in Yards, behind Staubach, Tarkenton and Hart
#5 in TDs, behind Stabler, Staubach, Tarkenton and Hart
#4 in YPA, behind Stabler, Griese and Staubach
#5 in YPG, behind Tarkenton, Staubach, Hart and Zorn
#6 in Passer rating, behind Griese, Staubach, Tarkenton, Jones and Stabler
------------------------
33/7 = 4.7 average vs peers

From '85 to '90 Boomer was:
#5 in Completions, behind Marino, Elway, Montana and O'Brien
#8 in Completion %, behind Montana, Kelly, O'Brien, Marino, Krieg, Kosar and Lomax
#2 in Yards, behind Marino 20,851 to 24,122
#2 in TDs, behind Marino 147 to 173
#1 in YPA 8.1
#5 in YPG, behind Marino, Montana, Moon and Everett
#2 in Passer rating, behind Montana 86.7 to 94.0
------------------------
25/7 = 3.6 average vs peers

Granted, these are only a portion of the available statistical comparison.