There’s No Substitute for Experience as an NFL Quarterback

In a season when Steve DeBerg came out of retirement at age 44, when 35-year-old Randall Cunningham recaptured his former glory, and when 35-year-old Vinny Testaverde finally found a place he could call home, the rules have changed.

A young man’s game?

Not anymore.

Not when it comes to quarterbacks, anyway, and especially not when it comes to backup quarterbacks.

The phenomenon of the 1998 NFL season is that while it has always been difficult for young quarterbacks to succeed, recycled veterans are enjoying a resurgence unlike any in recent years.

* Two years after he labored as a marble-cutter installing kitchen counter tops in forced retirement, Cunningham is the league’s highest-rated passer for the 9-1 Minnesota Vikings.

* Five months after he was unceremoniously dumped by the Ravens, Testaverde, a native of Long Island, has won six of seven starts for the New York Jets and leads the AFC in passing.

* Eight years after he was banished to the Canadian Football League, Doug Flutie, 36, not only won a roster spot with the Buffalo Bills but their starting job as well.

* Playing on his sixth NFL team in 11 years, Chris Chandler, 33, has the Atlanta Falcons in first place and need not look over his shoulder any time soon.

* If Chandler does glimpse behind him, he’ll see DeBerg, who this season became the oldest player in the modern era to start an NFL game. DeBerg had been retired five years when he joined the Falcons as Chandler’s backup.

That’s not all. Among the other over-30 quarterbacks who have ascended to a more prominent role this season are Rich Gannon, 34, of the Kansas City Chiefs, Donald Hollas, 31, of the Oakland Raiders and Steve Beuerlein, 33, of the Carolina Panthers.

More than anything, this trend represents the generational gap at football’s most important position. It takes more than a strong arm and Heisman Trophy hype to make the quantum leap from Saturday afternoon phenom to Sunday afternoon pro.

Just look at rookies Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts and Ryan Leaf of the San Diego Chargers. The top two picks in this year’s draft have combined for a staggering 33 interceptions and only five wins.

The indoctrination period at quarterback can be a painful one. That’s why Tennessee Coach Jeff Fisher mapped out a long-range plan when the Oilers selected Steve McNair with the third pick of the 1995 draft.

“We expected and intended to bring our quarterback along at our pace and play him as a starter when we felt he was ready,” Fisher said last week. “When you start a guy off in his first year without any experience, the guy’s going to have problems.

“One cannot learn just by playing. You have to have an opportunity to sit back and see things done. There’s an awful lot of information that has to be digested before you’re able to be successful. And that’s what Steve has been able to do.”

McNair, 25, is progressing nicely in his fourth season. He spent two years behind Chandler in Houston, then became the starter last season. With 11 touchdown passes and seven interceptions this year, he is ninth in the league’s passer efficiency ratings. He is the exception, not the norm, however.

The top four passers in those ratings are all 35 years or older.

Ten of the top 13 are 32 years or older.

And, at the other end of the spectrum, nine of the bottom 10 quarterbacks are 27 or younger.

It’s no coincidence.

“The most important thing about playing quarterback is knowing where to throw the ball,” Chandler said. “The second most important thing is being able to throw it there. A veteran quarterback has a much better idea of where he wants to throw it and makes decisions quicker and better.”

Chandler was one of the most successful rookie quarterbacks in NFL history in 1988, winning nine of 13 starts for Indianapolis. By comparison, Dan Marino won seven of nine starts in 1983 as a rookie with the Miami Dolphins.

But when Chandler reflects on his rookie season, he sees a mirage.

“The first thing is, I was drafted in the third round, so I didn’t have the expectations of immediate success thrown on me,” he said. “I also had Eric Dickerson in probably his last really good year running. I’ll tell you what: I can look back now and I had no idea what I was doing. I ran around, I threw the ball, I made my share of mistakes.”

That was also before the zone blitz took the NFL by storm. The unpredictable pressure defense has wreaked havoc for all quarterbacks, but especially for young ones who haven’t faced it much. In the zone blitz, linebackers and/or defensive backs blitz the quarterback while linemen drop into coverage.

“The zone blitz has been around a long time,” said Miami Coach Jimmy Johnson, “but not to this extent where everybody has a zone blitz in their package and some teams may run zone blitzes three-fourths of the time. That’s one reason we’ve gone from being a team that has five out in the passing game and putting all the load on the quarterback to a more protection offense.”

Experience is clearly the best teacher. Of the 30 starting quarterbacks in Week 11, 14 were over 30 years old. They have a combined season record of 62-35 and a winning percentage of .639. The 16 starters under 30 have a combined record of 57-73, a percentage of .438.

There is another variable in the success of over-30 quarterbacks this season. That’s free agency. Released June 2 by the Ravens, Testaverde shopped around and eventually signed with the Jets on June 24. After 11 years in the league, he was looking for the best opportunity to win.

“When you’re in your 30s, you have the opportunity to look around the league and see what teams have the ability to win and what teams don’t,” Testaverde said. “Usually, if you’ve made it this far, you’ve been with a couple of clubs and are able to pick and choose. As you get older, guys like Randall, myself and Doug have gravitated toward teams that have a chance to win.”

Cunningham came out of retirement to play for Dennis Green in Minnesota a year ago. Flutie chose Buffalo after an eight-year stint in the CFL because he deemed it to be his best chance to play. Chandler wound up in Atlanta via a trade after the Oilers decided McNair was ready.

Fisher is careful not to get carried away by the success of the over-30 group this season.

“You’ve got a handful of guys who were starters early in their careers,” he said. “They assumed backup roles because of free agency or whatever reasons, and found themselves in the starting lineup. A lot has to do with coincidence. We have a lot of young quarterbacks who are going to do very well.”