Evolution of the NFL Quarterback

The NFL's rulebook has changed to protect the quarterback and their receivers, which has paved the way for many record-breaking quarterback performances. In many ways, we are entering a golden-age for quarterbacks and will expect to see even more impressive numbers in the future.
Interactive Timeline

You can see some of the major rule changes, and some of the resulting record-breaking quarterback performances in the 20-year timeline above. Click anyred lineto see an important rule change, and anygreen line to see a prolific performance. To dig deeper into specific quarterback trends over time, or to see stats for specific players, scroll beyond the timeline.

Navigating the Site

Below you can investigate quarterback trends yourself. Only quarterbacks that played 8+ games with 10+ attempts per game were considered. Every visualization below is interactive and interconnected. As you scroll down, you'll notice that the while the left column moves, the right column stays constant so you can adjust the time period as you please.

  • Timeline Filter: Here you can choose the specific years you wish to explore by simply brushing over timeline. This filter applies to all of the visualizations below, so we made its position static on the right hand of the page to allow you easily change time periods and watch how the statistics change first hand.
  • Tracking Statistics Over Time: Here you can select from a number of stats and see how the best, worst, and average change season by season for each stats. You can hover over the best and worst performances for each season to see which quarterback was an outlier for that season. To get a further look you can click the data points given to see that quarterback's game by game statistics.
  • Choose Your Own Quarterback: Here, you can adjust various sliders to explore how different quarterbacks performed. Through this filtering and adjusting of the axis, you can find the exact quarterback you're interested in. Then, you can hover your mouse over the particular data point, view his stats, and if you want to explore deeper, click on the dot. That takes us to our final visualization, the spider plot.
  • Spider Plot: This spider plot represents how your chosen player's average game stats in his career compare to the average starting quarterback's stats in that same time frame. Time to explore!

Track Statistics over Time

Choose Your Statistic:

Choose Your Own Quarterback

X-Axis
Y-Axis
QB Rating
Game Points
TD Passes
Passing Yards
Attempts
Completions
Interceptions

Spider Plot: Career vs. Average Statistics

Drag Timeline to Apply Year Range Filter