The QB GOAT Series: 47-45

Three quarterback on the outside looking in for the Hall of Fame, though one has a decently strong case

I wrote up the methodology for how I measure quarterback career value and highlighted a few honorable mentions in a post last week.

I don’t agree 100% with all the rankings, but the beauty of stats-based analysis is that we can take representative data from nearly one million of quarterback dropbacks over nearly a century of the modern NFL to rank-order quarterbacks by value. Good luck watching, grading and comparing every quarterback snap from 1947 to 2022 and then forming your own film-watcher list.

I’m going to take this list in smallish chucks, going three-at-a-time until I get to the final two, who you might be able to guess, though the ordering may remain a mystery.

Links to past posts:

• 50-48

No. 47: JOHN HADL

Regular: 41st, Peak: 38th, Playoffs: 88th

John Hadl was a College Hall of Fame quarterback for the Kansas Jayhawks before turning pro, one of only three players to ever to have their numbers retired for Kansas (Gale Sayers another). Hadl was taken in the 1962 NFL and AFL drafts, but chose to join the San Diego Chargers and not the Detroit Lions, who spent their first round pick to select him (No. 10 overall).

Hadl’s career started slowly with the Chargers, starting 10 games as a rookie, though rotating with Dick Wood, and then didn’t start as all in his second year, following the acquisition of Tobin Rote (someone we’ll hear more about later in this series). Hadl split starting duties with Rote in his third season, but played well enough to be named an AFL All-Star, though Rote started the AFL Championship game.

Starting in 1965, Hadl took over as the full-time starter and didn’t relent for over a decade, starting at least 10 games in 11 straight seasons (some of those with the Packers at the end of the run), throwing for over 30,000 yards. When Hadl retired, he was third all-time in passing yards.

Along the way in his career, Hadl was named an All-Pro twice (1965 Second-Team, 1973 First-Team) and receiving AFL Player of the Year or NFL MVP votes in four different seasons, finishing second in the MVP voting in 1973, losing to O.J. Simpson and his record-shattering 2,000-yard rushing season.

I’ll talk a lot in these profiles about quarterbacks whose athletic gifts were likely underutilized in their era, and Hadl fits the bill as well as anyone. Hadl was somewhat undersized at 6’1”, but he had incredibly pocket movement and escapability. At Kansas, Hadl played halfback on offense and defense back on defense before transitioning to quarterback as a junior.

Hadl also returned and kicked punts, once returning a punt for a Kansas record of 94 yards (he also has the record for interceptioin return at 98 yards), and led with a 45.9-yard punting average in 1959. Hadl finished his college career with 100 more rushing than passing attempts and one more rushing than passing touchdown. Hadl was selected twice as an All-American, once as a halfback, not quarterback.

A quarterback with Hadl’s athletic gifts would be a terror for opposing defensive coordinators in today’s NFL, yet throughout his 16-year NFL career he had more than 100 rushing yards in a season only four times, never more than 188 in 1970 on a mere 28 carries. Hadl finished his pro career with fewer rushing yards than Tom Brady (1,112 to 1,123).

The Achilles heel for Hadl’s Hall-of-Fame case is his performance, or lack thereof, in the playoffs. Hadl sat and watched Tobin Rote win the AFL Championship in 1963 and came off of the bench to relieve Rote in the 1964 contest. In Hadl’s two playoffs starts (the 1965 AFL Championship and 1973 Divisional Round with the Rams), Hadl followed up his two best regular season campaigns with duds in the postseason.

The Chargers lost 23-0 to the Buffalo Bills in 1965, with Hadl throwing for 140 yards, two interceptions and no touchdowns, plus taking three sacks for 30 yards lost. His ANY/A didn’t clear one yard per dropback. In the 1973 Divisional Round contest against the Dallas Cowboys, Hadl again struggled, completing only seven of 23 passes for 133 yards, with one interception and five sacks taken.

John Hadl was certainly one of the best quarterbacks to not make the Hall of Fame, if you consider his poor luck in playing on teams that weren’t good enough to make the playoffs, and discount his horrendous play in the tiny sample of playoff games he actually started. I can see the case for a purely “analytical” view that we shouldn’t overweight such a small sample of playoff results, but, in the end, winning it all is what matters, and those playoff performances killed Hadl’s teams chances of taking home the trophy.

No. 46: BILLY KILMER

Regular: 48th, Peak: 52nd, Playoffs: 33rd