That was quite a turnaround they pulled around with Josh Allen last year. Two years ago, he completed only 59 percent of his passes. They moved him up to 69 percent last year, turning him into an MVP candidate kind of guy.
That looked weird to me – that big of a jump – so I figured I’d parse the numbers and see what other players have been able to improve their completion percentages by similar amounts.
On this one, I looked only at players who attempted at least 200 passes in each of the seasons.
Terry Bradshaw, since the merger, is the all-time leader. He was pretty awful as a rookie, completing only 38 percent, and moved up to 54 percent in his second year.
Only 15 have been able to improve by over 10 percent, and Bill Walsh has his fingerprints on three of them, with Virgil Carter (1971), Ken Anderson (1974) and Steve DeBerg (1979) getting dropped into his rhythm-passing offenses. Walsh got that rolling with the Bengals in the early 70s.
Three other third-year quarterbacks made bigger jumps than Allen: Jim Zorn (for the Seahawks in their third year), DeBerg and J.P. Losman (Bills). Losman was the fourth quarterback selected in 2004, behind Manning-Rivers-Roethlisberger.
The top 30 is below, and there’s one other 2020 player on the list: Aaron Rodgers (he didn’t play well in his first season under Matt LaFleur).
| IMPROVING COMPLETION PERCENTAGES (since 1970) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seasons | Player | Yrs | Pct1 | Pct2 | Diff |
| 1970-71 | Terry Bradshaw, Pitt. | 1-2 | 38.1% | 54.4% | 16.4% |
| 1993-94 | Jim Everett, LAR-N.O. | 8-9 | 49.3% | 64.1% | 14.8% |
| 1978-79 | Steve DeBerg, S.F. | 2-3 | 45.4% | 60.0% | 14.7% |
| 1977-78 | Jim Zorn, Sea. | 2-3 | 41.4% | 56.0% | 14.5% |
| 2005-06 | J.P. Losman, Buff. | 2-3 | 49.6% | 62.5% | 12.9% |
| 1978-79 | Joe Theismann, Was. | 8-9 | 47.9% | 59.0% | 11.0% |
| 1994-95 | Scott Mitchell, Det. | 5-6 | 48.4% | 59.3% | 11.0% |
| 2006-07 | Vince Young, Ten. | 1-2 | 51.5% | 62.3% | 10.8% |
| 1970-71 | Virgil Carter, Cin. | 3-4 | 51.4% | 62.2% | 10.7% |
| 2006-07 | Brett Favre, G.B. | 16-17 | 56.0% | 66.5% | 10.6% |
| 1973-74 | Ken Anderson, Cin. | 3-4 | 54.4% | 64.9% | 10.5% |
| 2019-20 | Josh Allen, Buff. | 2-3 | 58.8% | 69.2% | 10.4% |
| 1988-89 | Joe Montana, S.F. | 10-11 | 59.9% | 70.2% | 10.3% |
| 2007-08 | Trent Edwards, Buff. | 1-2 | 56.1% | 65.5% | 9.4% |
| 2017-18 | Carson Wentz, Phil. | 2-3 | 60.2% | 69.6% | 9.3% |
| 1998-99 | Kerry Collins, 3 tms | 4-5 | 48.2% | 57.4% | 9.2% |
| 1992-93 | Boomer Esiason, Cin.-NYJ | 9-10 | 51.8% | 60.9% | 9.1% |
| 1995-96 | Drew Bledsoe, N.E. | 3-4 | 50.8% | 59.9% | 9.1% |
| 1976-77 | Bob Avellini, Chi. | 2-3 | 43.5% | 52.6% | 9.0% |
| 2003-04 | Patrick Ramsey, Was. | 2-3 | 53.1% | 62.1% | 9.0% |
| 2002-03 | Jake Plummer, Ariz.-Den. | 6-7 | 53.6% | 62.6% | 9.0% |
| 1999-00 | Donovan McNabb, Phil. | 1-2 | 49.1% | 58.0% | 8.9% |
| 2001-02 | Matt Hasselbeck, Sea. | 4-5 | 54.8% | 63.7% | 8.9% |
| 2011-12 | Alex Smith, S.F. | 7-8 | 61.3% | 70.2% | 8.8% |
| 1983-84 | John Elway, Den. | 1-2 | 47.5% | 56.3% | 8.8% |
| 2017-18 | Cam Newton, Car. | 7-8 | 59.1% | 67.9% | 8.8% |
| 2019-20 | • Aaron Rodgers, G.B. | 15-16 | 62.0% | 70.7% | 8.7% |
| 1990-91 | Troy Aikman, Dall. | 2-3 | 56.6% | 65.3% | 8.6% |
| 2013-14 | Robert Griffin, Was. | 2-3 | 60.1% | 68.7% | 8.6% |
| 1979-80 | Steve Grogan, N.E. | 5-6 | 48.7% | 57.2% | 8.5% |
—Ian Allan