We Need To Start Basing Quarterbacks On Combined Touchdowns And Scoring Drives, Not Just Passing Touchdowns.

When Randell Cunningham was with the Philadelphia Eagles he was considered special because of his rushing abilities. Nobody in the league really had that ability. Thirty years later, over half the quarterbacks in the league has that rushing ability. Yet we still don't look at rushing touchdowns, when grading quarterbacks. And we still expect quarterbacks to get all their touchdowns through the air. Thus some quarterbacks are looked down on when they really shouldn't be.

Now stats don't tell the entire story, not every quarterback that is looked down upon is undeserving. If a guy has no accuracy throwing a five yard pass, that's still on them. I'm sure a name or two comes to mind. Good pass catchers and smart coaching can inflate or mask bad or declining player's careers. 

Here are some rushing quarterbacks stats, when good quarterbacks are thought of, how many of these guys brought up based on their careers, excluding Lamar Jackson who's barely had a career yet?

Michael Vick missed two years and still threw for 133 touchdowns but he rushed for 36. That's 169 combined.

Cam Newton has thrown 194 touchdowns and rushed for 75. That's 269 combined.

Otto Graham renew 174 and rushed for 44. That's 218 combined.

Steve Young threw for 232 and rushed for 43. That's 275 combined 

Y.A. Title threw for 242 and rushed for 39. That's 281 combined.

Randall Cunningham Threw 207 and rushed for 35. That's 242 combined.

Steve Grogan Threw 182 touchdowns and rushed for 35 more. That's 217 combined.

Lamar Jackson is in his 4th year, 3rd as full time starter. He currently has 89 touchdown passes and 21 rushing touchdowns and he still has a few games to go on the season.  That's 110 combined so far.

Vick gets brought up when rushing quarterbacks are mentioned but very few if any mention Steve Young. Why? Because at the end of his career, Young was known as a good passer. And yet Young rarely gets mentioned when we talk about greatest quarterbacks, even though he spent how many years behind Montana, deflating his statistics.

Now let's look at the combined rushing and passing totals of a few more respected quarterbacks.

Troy Aikman 174 touchdowns.

Kurt Warner 211 touchdowns.

Andrew Luck 185 touchdowns.

Rich Gannon 201 touchdowns.

Trent Green 166 touchdowns.

Joe Theismann 172 touchdowns.

Roger Staubach 173 touchdowns.

Bernie Kosar  129 touchdowns.

Dak Prescott

Patrick Mahomes 152 touchdowns currently in his 5th season, 4th as starter.

Dak Prescott 156 touchdowns currently in his 6th season.

Lamar should pass Bernie Kosar next season for combined touchdowns. And he should be just as respected as Mahomes and Prescott. The rest of the rushing quarterbacks listed should all receive at least the same respect as Aikman, Staubach, and Theismann. The superbowl winning quarterbacks listed didn't do it on their own but will be looked at with more respect because they have rings. They had help that many of the rushing quarterbacks listed didn't have.

As fans we focus on too much on just passing touchdowns to interceptions by quarterbacks. Granted a quarterbacks first job is to throw the ball. However if a quarterback is skilled enough to run, we need to take that into account as it means they're throwing less.

In 2020 Big Ben had 33 passing touchdowns and 0 rushing touchdowns. Lamar Jackson had 16 passing touchdowns and 21 rushing touchdowns. Both Teddy Bridgewater and Cam Newton had a combined total of 20. Which quarterbacks had the better seasons, the guy with 33 touchdowns or the guy with 37 combined touchdowns?

How about the guy with 15 passing touchdowns or the guy with 8 passing touchdowns seeing they both finished with 20 combined?

It's not about passing touchdowns, it's about how many times you get your team down the field to score. There is a difference between a passer and a quarterback in the modern day NFL. Today quarterbacks have to be able to do both. Until twenty years ago quarterbacks were passers. Athletic quarterbacks were looked down upon because they typically had poor passing skills. 

Now days if a quarterback is athletic and has average passing skills they're celebrated as long as they have high pass touchdowns doesn't matter how poor their accuracy is. Rushing touchdowns by quarterbacks still get ignored but why? With how good defensive backs are, it's unrealistic to expect Tom Brady's touchdown totals from guys like Lamar Jackson or P.J. Walker. Especially when they're not as good of a passer.

We as fans have to accept that if he want a more exciting game built around scrambling quarterbacks that throw deep balls every pass, we have to take into account their rushing totals. We should not be forcing below average passers out of the league who are elite rushers in their position. We just have to adjust our expectations of that position based on each players abilities and grade them accordingly, even though they play thr same position.

I mean let's be real, nobody expects double digit rushing touchdowns from Mac Jones, then why would we expect more than 25 passing touchdowns from Lamar Jackson or vice versa? I don't know, it's just a thought but if the games evolving, fans have to evolve with it.