Russ Grimm Elected Into Hall of Fame Class of 2010

[GTripp0012]

I think he's a bit off on the relative value of raw YPA vs. completion percentage. YPA correlates much better to offensive efficiency than completion percentage does, which is the argument he's making, but I think he's missing this point: quarterbacks with critically high YPAs are almost always playing in great passing offenses that would be just fine with someone else pulling the trigger, and conversely, quarterbacks with really poor YPAs can either be poor players, or just stuck in a really terrible offense.

But high completion percentage quarterbacks, by and large, tend to be good players, and more significantly, low completion percentage quarterbacks are almost always poor players. Namath wasn't bad at completion percentage. He was average at it. But he had additional value because of a quick release that could help keep the chains moving and keep the YPA high in a pretty talented offense.

He's right that having a high completion percentage isn't everything. Brian Griese had a high completion percentage and just mediocre overall numbers. But YPA is even less relevant to a quarterback, as it does basically nothing to separate the player from the offense.

I have Namath at #40 all time, hall-of-fame worthy, but not as high as Lisk does at #24.