Football Outsiders: Vinny Testaverde Had 9th Best QB Season of Last Three Decades in 1998

Football Outsiders has been putting together lists of the best performances of the last 30 years. A Jets quarterback made the list for best individual seasons.

9. Vinny Testaverde, 1998 Jets

42.2 percent DVOA

No, seriously. The Jets were 12-4 in 1998, but three of those losses came in the three games started by backup Glenn Foley. Testaverde lost only one regular-season game as a starter, throwing 29 touchdowns with only seven interceptions, one of which came on a Hail Mary. It was a career year, even though the Jets faced the league's seventh-toughest schedule of defenses.

I’m not old enough to have memories of the Namath or Sack Exchange Jets teams so the 1998 team sticks out as the best Jets team I ever watched. The only ones that would even come close are the early Rex Ryan teams, but to me the quality of quarterback play in the 1998 team after the change to Testaverde sets that group apart.

The rest of Testaverde’s Jets career was underwhelming after his Achilles injury in 1999. He was a journeyman with that one great season before falling back to earth. That isn’t the only time we have seen something like that.