Cam Newton and Russell Wilson have been durable, productive quarterbacks. Wilson has started 64 games in a row, while Newton has missed only two games in five years. But is it realistic to bank on these guys staying healthy? They both take a lot of punishment.
Newton and Wilson, in fact, have been hit a lot more often than any other quarterbacks in recent years. Over the past four years, they’ve both handled the ball around 600 times on runs and sacks. Only one other quarterback (Colin Kaepernick) is over 400 in the same time period.
| QUARTERBACKS HIT 200+ times since 2012 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | Sack | Run | Total |
| 1. | Cam Newton | 150 | 473 | 623 |
| 2. | Russell Wilson | 164 | 411 | 575 |
| 3. | Colin Kaepernick | 135 | 304 | 439 |
| 4. | Alex Smith | 153 | 240 | 393 |
| 5. | Ryan Tannehill | 184 | 177 | 361 |
| 6. | Robert Griffin III | 101 | 244 | 345 |
| 7. | Andy Dalton | 116 | 225 | 341 |
| 8. | Andrew Luck | 115 | 222 | 337 |
| 9. | Aaron Rodgers | 146 | 185 | 331 |
| 10. | Matthew Stafford | 141 | 159 | 300 |
| 11. | Ryan Fitzpatrick | 91 | 201 | 292 |
| 12. | Jay Cutler | 124 | 141 | 265 |
| 13. | Philip Rivers | 155 | 109 | 264 |
| 14. | Tom Brady | 126 | 125 | 251 |
| 15. | Matt Ryan | 133 | 117 | 250 |
| 16. | Joe Flacco | 118 | 111 | 229 |
| 17. | Ben Roethlisberger | 125 | 101 | 226 |
| 18. | Drew Brees | 123 | 101 | 224 |
| 19. | Michael Vick | 72 | 144 | 216 |
| 20. | Blake Bortles | 106 | 108 | 214 |
| 21. | Geno Smith | 74 | 133 | 207 |
Both of these quarterbacks, of course, are unusual athletes. With Wilson’s quickness and smarts, he tends to avoid taking many big hits. But he’s a small guy, and he’s operating behind a lesser offensive line.
With Newton, he’s got unusual size and power for the position, but the same kind of things were once said about Daunte Culpepper, who was also a great power runner at that position about 10 years ago. Culpepper ended up shredding his knee, and he was never the same player afterwards.
—Ian Allan