Sam vs The Record Books: Week 5

Week 5 of our season long tracking of Sam Darnold’s progress brings some settling in as the sample gets larger. A good performance against the Broncos has improved Darnold’s standing in many categories.

A few things to keep in mind. All rankings are limited to quarterbacks with at least 250 passing attempts in their rookie seasons. There have been 72 rookie quarterbacks with 250 or more passing attempts in the post merger era. Rate stats (like completion %) reflect actual current numbers for Darnold. Counting stats (like touchdowns or yards) reflect prorated numbers for Darnold assuming (and this is a huge assumption early in the season) he continues to perform at the same level all season.

Let’s get to it. Below are a bunch of quarterback metrics, listing the all time rookie leaders for each and showing where Sam Darnold fits assuming he plays at the same level all season.

Yards

1. Andrew Luck 4374
2. Cam Newton 4051
3. Jameis Winston 4042
4. Carson Wentz 3782
5. Peyton Manning 3739

...

10. Sam Darnold 3411

Touchdowns

1. Peyton Manning 26
2. Russell Wilson 26 (Tie 1)
3. Andrew Luck 23
4. Dak Prescott 23 (Tie 3)
5. Jim Kelly 22
6. Sam Darnold 22 (Tie 5)

Interceptions

1. Peyton Manning 28
2. Jim Zorn 27
3. Terry Bradshaw 24
4. Jeff Komlo 23
5. Steve DeBerg 22

...

11. Sam Darnold 19 (Tie)

Passer Rating

1. Dak Prescott 104.9
2. Robert Griffin III 102.4
3. Russell Wilson 100
4. Ben Roethlisberger 98.1
5. Dan Marino 96

...

24. Sam Darnold 77.2 (Tie)

Yards/Attempt

1. Ben Roethlisberger 8.88
2. Robert Griffin III 8.14
3. Dak Prescott 7.99
4. Russell Wilson 7.93
5. Matt Ryan 7.93

...

18. Sam Darnold 7.15

Completion Percentage

1. Dak Prescott 67.8
2. Ben Roethlisberger 66.4
3. Robert Griffin III 65.7
4. Teddy Bridgewater 64.4
5. Russell Wilson 64.1

...

36. Sam Darnold 55.7

Touchdown Percentage

1. Dan Marino 6.8
2. Russell Wilson 6.6
3. Jim Plunkett 5.8
4. Ben Roethlisberger 5.8 (Tie 3)
5. Steve Bartkowski 5.1
6. Robert Griffin III 5.1 (Tie 5)
7. Marcus Mariota 5.1 (Tie 5)
8. Jake Plummer 5.1 (Tie 5)

...

12. Sam Darnold 4.7

Interception Percentage

1. Dak Prescott 0.9
2. Robert Griffin III 1.3
3. Nick Foles 1.9
4. Charlie Batch 2.0
5. Derek Carr 2.0 (Tie 4)

...

46. Sam Darnold 4.0

It’s still early in Sam Darnold’s rookie year, so we should take these metrics with a large grain of salt at this point, but the numbers are starting to look pretty decent for Darnold. Darnold currently ranks in the top half of all rookies in every category other than interceptions and interception percentage. Still plenty of time for things to change, but as the weeks flow by the numbers begin to stabilize, and to date they seem pretty solid. We’ll track these numbers throughout the year and see how this unfolds.