Over the weekend during the NFL draft, there was some discussion and questions on SFN’s Twitter account about UNC quarterbacks in the NFL. Thanks to Pro Football Reference (all the stats in this entry are based on stats from this site) I was able to shed some light on the situation which actually ended up getting picked up on Twitter by CBS Sports.
T.J. Yates now makes the 6th UNC QB to be drafted by the NFL, the first since Chris Kupec in 1975. None of those previous 5 draft picks threw a single pass in the NFL.
Scott Stankavage is the only UNC QB to throw a pass in the NFL. He played 1 game for the Denver Broncos in 1984 and 3 games in 1987 for the Miami Dolphins. His career stats are 8 of 25 for 66 yards with 0 touchdowns, 2 interceptions and a rating of 7.9.
No UNC player has ever started at quarterback in the NFL.
Overall passing stats for all 17 UNC players that have thrown a pass in the NFL are 26 of 106 for 395 yards with 2 touchdowns, 18 interceptions and a rating of 24.7. That rating is less than half of Ryan Leaf’s career QB rating.
UNC’s career passing leader in the NFL is HB Ed Sutton who went 5 of 15 for 146 yards and 1 TD for the Washington Redskins from 1957 to 1959.
Amazing that a school that has been playing football since 1888 has never had an NFL starting QB.
Just for comparison, let’s look at some similar statistics for NC State.
Roman Gabriel, Erik Kramer and Philip Rivers have started 304 games at QB in the NFL.
Overall passing stats for all 11 NCSU players that have thrown a pass in the NFL are 5308 of 9411 for 65,498 yards with 437 touchdowns, 311 interceptions and a rating of 79.8.
In a single game Philip Rivers has thrown for more yards than all UNC players combined in the history of the NFL. Rivers has done that three times.
In the process of looking up those stats over the weekend, that got me curious about QB stats from other BCS schools. I found a few interesting things and am planning on sharing those in another entry when I get the chance to put it together.
