Someone a few weeks back asked about home-away numbers for quarterbacks. I’ve had a Post-It on my computer screen, and I’ve finally had a chance to get around to it. As I supposed, it’s Ben Roethlisberger and Drew Brees leading the way.
Roethlisberger has been amazing. In his last 16 games at home (a season’s worth of work) he’s thrown for 5,458 yards and 50 TDs. He’s really tough at Heinz Field. But he’s tended to be painfully ordinary on the road, with almost 1,000 fewer yards in his last 16 games, with just 17 TDs. Hardly seems possible.
For this study, I looked at all quarterbacks who’ve started at least half the time in the last four years. (So no Tyrod Taylor, Nick Foles or Brian Hoyer – they just miss the cut). Then I tossed out international games, since that’s more of a neutral field. Finally, I just looked at the composite totals of the last 16 games started for each quarterback when playing on the road versus when playing at home.
Starting with the home games (and I’ve got them ordered by touchdown passes):
| LAST 16 HOME GAMES | W-L | Cmp% | Yards | TD | Int |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Roethlisberger | 13-3 | 68% | 5,458 | 50 | 14 |
| Drew Brees | 8-8 | 70% | 5,620 | 43 | 12 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 11-5 | 64% | 4,305 | 39 | 8 |
| Andrew Luck | 9-7 | 60% | 4,711 | 36 | 14 |
| Ryan Fitzpatrick | 8-8 | 60% | 3,799 | 36 | 13 |
| Tom Brady | 13-3 | 66% | 4,809 | 34 | 8 |
| Peyton Manning | 14-2 | 66% | 4,423 | 33 | 16 |
| Tony Romo | 10-6 | 69% | 4,303 | 33 | 18 |
| Eli Manning | 10-6 | 64% | 4,626 | 32 | 12 |
| Philip Rivers | 6-10 | 64% | 4,453 | 32 | 19 |
| Matt Ryan | 9-7 | 70% | 4,936 | 31 | 15 |
| Carson Palmer | 10-5-1 | 63% | 4,678 | 30 | 9 |
| Derek Carr | 9-7 | 63% | 4,105 | 30 | 13 |
| Matthew Stafford | 10-6 | 66% | 4,327 | 30 | 10 |
| Russell Wilson | 12-4 | 66% | 4,327 | 30 | 5 |
| Cam Newton | 13-3 | 55% | 3,895 | 29 | 15 |
| Kirk Cousins | 10-6 | 70% | 4,548 | 28 | 10 |
| Ryan Tannehill | 10-6 | 65% | 4,018 | 28 | 11 |
| Joe Flacco | 10-6 | 65% | 4,388 | 27 | 11 |
| Andy Dalton | 10-6 | 67% | 3,769 | 23 | 9 |
| Blake Bortles | 5-11 | 58% | 4,013 | 23 | 18 |
| Sam Bradford | 9-7 | 69% | 4,332 | 23 | 12 |
| Jameis Winston | 7-9 | 59% | 3,864 | 22 | 16 |
| Alex Smith | 11-5 | 66% | 3,546 | 21 | 12 |
| Jay Cutler | 4-12 | 64% | 3,714 | 21 | 18 |
| Colin Kaepernick | 6-10 | 59% | 3,235 | 17 | 7 |
Here are the same quarterbacks, only showing their last 16 games played on the road.
| LAST 16 ROAD GAMES | W-L | Cmp% | Yards | TD | Int |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peyton Manning | 11-5 | 64% | 4,916 | 39 | 22 |
| Tom Brady | 13-3 | 65% | 4,413 | 35 | 4 |
| Andrew Luck | 9-7 | 59% | 4,320 | 34 | 20 |
| Carson Palmer | 10-6 | 61% | 4,475 | 34 | 17 |
| Blake Bortles | 2-14 | 59% | 4,251 | 33 | 16 |
| Tony Romo | 12-4 | 64% | 3,570 | 33 | 8 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 9-7 | 63% | 3,944 | 32 | 7 |
| Eli Manning | 7-9 | 62% | 4,032 | 32 | 18 |
| Derek Carr | 10-6 | 60% | 3,896 | 30 | 6 |
| Philip Rivers | 3-13 | 63% | 4,725 | 30 | 15 |
| Jameis Winston | 8-8 | 60% | 4,268 | 28 | 17 |
| Matt Ryan | 10-6 | 66% | 4,599 | 28 | 8 |
| Matthew Stafford | 6-10 | 66% | 4,262 | 28 | 11 |
| Drew Brees | 7-9 | 68% | 4,739 | 27 | 17 |
| Cam Newton | 9-7 | 58% | 3,652 | 26 | 10 |
| Kirk Cousins | 7-9 | 66% | 4,431 | 26 | 15 |
| Andy Dalton | 8-8 | 65% | 4,212 | 25 | 9 |
| Russell Wilson | 8-7-1 | 66% | 3,916 | 25 | 14 |
| Jay Cutler | 6-10 | 65% | 4,066 | 24 | 14 |
| Sam Bradford | 7-9 | 67% | 3,864 | 23 | 8 |
| Colin Kaepernick | 4-12 | 58% | 3,296 | 20 | 9 |
| Ryan Tannehill | 6-10 | 66% | 4,223 | 19 | 15 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 10-6 | 65% | 4,464 | 17 | 17 |
| Joe Flacco | 5-11 | 63% | 4,185 | 17 | 20 |
| Alex Smith | 11-5 | 66% | 3,747 | 16 | 4 |
| Ryan Fitzpatrick | 7-9 | 58% | 3,476 | 15 | 16 |
Finally, here are the combined numbers, showing which quarterbacks have improved the most when playing at home. That is, I took the 16-game road totals and subtracted them from the 16-game home totals. Brees, for example, passed for 881 more yards and 16 more touchdowns when playing at home – about 55 more yards inside the Superdome, with an average of one more touchdown pass per game.
Six quarterbacks in recent years have averaged more yards and more touchdowns when playing on the road.
There’s a “points” total. That’s standard fantasy scoring (4 points for TD passes and 1 for every 20 passing yards). Just passing stats here – runs aren’t included.
| HOME-COOKING QUARTERBACKS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Yards | TD | Points |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 994 | 33 | 181.7 |
| Drew Brees | 881 | 16 | 108.1 |
| Ryan Fitzpatrick | 323 | 21 | 100.2 |
| Joe Flacco | 203 | 10 | 50.2 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 361 | 7 | 46.1 |
| Russell Wilson | 411 | 5 | 40.6 |
| Tony Romo | 733 | 0 | 36.7 |
| Eli Manning | 594 | 0 | 29.7 |
| Matt Ryan | 337 | 3 | 28.9 |
| Andrew Luck | 391 | 2 | 27.6 |
| Ryan Tannehill | -205 | 9 | 25.8 |
| Cam Newton | 243 | 3 | 24.2 |
| Sam Bradford | 468 | 0 | 23.4 |
| Tom Brady | 396 | -1 | 15.8 |
| Kirk Cousins | 117 | 2 | 13.9 |
| Matthew Stafford | 65 | 2 | 11.3 |
| Derek Carr | 209 | 0 | 10.5 |
| Alex Smith | -201 | 5 | 10.0 |
| Philip Rivers | -272 | 2 | -5.6 |
| Carson Palmer | 203 | -4 | -5.9 |
| Colin Kaepernick | -61 | -3 | -15.1 |
| Jay Cutler | -352 | -3 | -29.6 |
| Andy Dalton | -443 | -2 | -30.2 |
| Jameis Winston | -404 | -6 | -44.2 |
| Peyton Manning | -493 | -6 | -48.7 |
| Blake Bortles | -238 | -10 | -51.9 |