Pretty interesting article. I have my own thoughts, which I'll share later. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/...no-rookie-qb-dolphins-s050509,0,2495875.story
Marino's rookie TD-to-INT ratio is silly (20/6). He should be considered the best rookie QB ever by that metric alone.
Marino is the best everything ever. Rookie QB, television commentator, car salesman, weight loss product hawker, actor in a Jim Carrey movie, Halo player, you name it, Dan is the Man! I don't need an article to tell me that. *Takes off tinfoil homer helmet*
Isotoners. Don't forget those. Dan is #1. If they wanted to ask the best team performance with a rookie QB, fine Pittsburgh did pretty well.
Simple answer: Yes, best rookie. Best ever to play. I'll keep my homer hat on when it comes to the man!
I think you also have to take into account the era in which Marino played compared to Roethlisberger. The game changed a lot over 20 years. It was easier to complete a higher % of passes and throw fewer INTs for Big Ben. Ben's TD % was 5.8, Dan's was 6.8. Ben's INT % was 3.7, Dan's was 2.0. I don't care what hat I'm wearing, he was the best rookie and the best player ever. Us Fin fans are often accused of blind homerism when it comes to Dan. But more often than not those making that accusation are being homers themselves, and worse yet they don't understand the game.
not many people know this guy but supposedly he couldve been a dan marino in the 70s. unfortunately the medical procedures for a torn rotator cuff werent as advanced as today Greg Cook (Cincinnati, 1969) Cook is one of the NFL's all-time one-year wonders. He threw 15 TD passes for the Bengals with gaudy averages of 9.4 yards per attempt and 17.5 yards per completion. But an initially untreated arm injury proved career-ending; Cook attempted only three more passes, in 1973, before retiring.
There is no question that Marino was, by far, the best rookie QB ever. There isn't even a close second. How they could put big Ben ahead of him is beyond me. Ben was steady, but unspectacular. Danny Boy was like lightening in a bottle. There is such a huge gap between the two that it isn't even remotely close.
Indeed. Bill Walsh, who coached him in Cincinatti, said he was the most gifted QB he ever coached. Better than Montana, Young, etc. Things weren't what they are today, and the doctors didn't know anything was wrong with him. So he shot up and played the season out, making things worse. They didn't know about the rotator cuff or that his bicep was detached. Surgery being what it was then compared to now, they ripped his shoulder apart after the season and basically that was it for his career. He was never the same. NFL Network compared his injury to that of Drew Brees. Nowdays he would have been OK the next season and continued on. His teammate, Bob Trumpy, says it had a lasting effect on him, carrying around what he lost.
I read a book about Marino a while back and I could have sweared that it said in high school he ran for a ton of yards too before he messed up his knee or something like that. Who knows though, that injury could have made him the QB he was by making him hone his passing skills.
Simple question, if you had a team with under two minutes left in the game and you were inside your 20 yard line with no timeouts remaining and your teams chances all relied on your QB's arm who would you want, Dan Marino or Ben Rothlisberger? I would say Marino, no question but thats JMO.
You have GOT to be joking. Ryan? Seriously? In the same sentence? You should have your Phin card pulled for that one. I'll admit that Ryan did very well as a rook, and as AdamPrez predicted, he'll likely be something special. But Ryan didn't even come close to doing anything Marino-esque in year one. When Don Shula, a HOF Coach saw the rookie Marino, he was in awe enough to totally change his offensive philosophy and is the best player the Don has ever coached or seen. And you want to put Ryan in that same discussion?
Definitely. If you give Marino the pass coverage rules being enforeced in this era, he would he would have done to football what Bob Gibson did to baseball when they had to lower the mound because he was an absolutely unstoppable force that just couldn't be reckoned with. Ben is a QB I'd love to have on our team, don't get me wrong, I think he's an exceptional playmaker. BUT, this rating and all the accolades he gets for that year, including the SB, were, for anyone who knows football, so much more about the defense and running game than it was about Ben. For me, he was that year's Joe Flacco, but with better improvisational skills and more of a gamer. By contrast, Marino stepped into the game, and everybody, and I mean everybody stopped whatever in the hell it was they were doing and said "WOW.....JUST WOW!!!". THAT'S how you know who was greatest.
Yes, he probably is if you use that number alone. However, you should consider the fact that back in 83, it was a totally different era. That meaning that teams did not pass then like they do now. Back then it was pretty much run first while today, anything goes. He equalled, for the most part, the same ratio in 84 during his 48 TD and SB season. After that however, the ration slipped to more "mortal" numbers. my guess is that Ds finally learned to defense it better.
The defense he "played behind" had nothing to do with his QB play. But yeah, I agree that Marino is the best.
In my lifetime there have only been two pro's in any sport that have had the moniker "The Man" Stan (who I met as a teen) and Dan they both deserved it. Truly class all the way!!
agreed. even though i like ryan, he's not even in the same universe with marino. marino was a jawdropper to behold. you watched him and you knew you were watching a once in a lifetime athelete
Exactly. Flacco's QB Rating last year (for lack of a more telling variable independent of defensive play): 80 Fiedler's QB Rating over a 4 yr span in Miami (with at least 11 starts per year): 78 Both "won" games, but neither shined as a QB, IMHO.
If that is the case, that can be said of any player on any team sport. Point is that Flacco earned his own props pretty much on his own. Playoofs or not, he did what HE did. As a rookie slated to be the #3 and thrust into the starting role right before the season started and playing the way he did pretty much summed it up for him. Our QBs of this decade didn't get the same accolades when our D was among the best and we were in the playoffs.
Not to many of these "youngsters." IMHO Stan Musial IS a top 5 player, I truly love the guy and his play! [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Musial[/ame]
yup, him playing along with the likes of Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle. Ah, baseball will never be the same!! However, Ted the man or Mickey the man, just doesn't resonate nearly as well!!
And the same can be said for the Farves, Elways, Aikmans, Bradys, Bradshaws and whoever else you want to lump in there. Did they get too much credit as well? Fact is that the Ravens did make the playoffs and Flacco was the first rookie ever to win a playoff game let alone play in the AFC game.
