QBs who played their best as rookies...reasons?

[Reaser]

In the NFLN feature "Top 10 Draft Busts," someone mentioned that defenses found our that Mirer struggled throwing to his left, so naturally they adjusted to force him to throw to his left.

This was the story here in WA, too. Not just downfield, or rolling left, but basic 3-step drops, odds or evens, it would either sail or be at the receivers feet.

The promise of '93 had this then-10 year old with not only one #3 jersey, but I "had to" have home and away. Even better is I got another Mirer home jersey as a Christmas present just a couple months later so I had/have THREE Rick Mirer Seahawks jerseys.

[Saban1]

Otto Graham - Statistically had his best year in his rookie year of 1946. His passer rating was 112.1, average yards per pass attempt 10.5, 17 TD passes, and only 5 interceptions. People could say that Otto played in a new league (All-America Conference) that year, and defenses were not that good, but no quarterback in the 1960 American Football League came anywhere near those kind of numbers. Graham had many great years, but statistically his numbers were best in 1946.

The 1946 AAFC was better, in terms of talent, than the 1960 American Football League, at least for their times. Reason for this was that there was not a draft in the 1946 AAFC, and teams just went out and signed the best players that they could that were not under contract to another team. With World War II over, there were a lot of players back from the war and wanting to play pro football. Three teams did it best (signed the most best players): San Francisco, Cleveland, and the New York Yankees, who took an entire franchise (Brooklyn Dodgers/Tigers) out of the NFL.

For instance, the 49ers signed players like Frankie Albert, Norm Standlee, Alyn Beals, Bruno Banducci, John Woudenberg, Johnny "Strike" Strzykalski, Len Esmont, and Visco Grgich. Those were good players that all played in all four years for San Francisco in the All-America Conference. How many new franchises started out with that much talent outside of the Cleveland Browns and the New York Yankees?

The 1960 American Football League was more concerned with equality of their teams and had a draft in their first year. Despite that, the Houston Oilers won the first two AFL championships and were the Eastern Division champions the first three years, and the San Diego Chargers won the Western Division 5 of the first 6 years of the AFL.

[single wing]

Don't forget GREG COOK perhaps the best of all. Of course his was a result of injury.

Another was Marlin Briscoe. Started 8th on the depth chart at QB won the starting job as a rookie for the Denver Broncos...

[Saban1]

Otto Graham - Statistically had his best year in his rookie year of 1946. His passer rating was 112.1, average yards per pass attempt 10.5, 17 TD passes, and only 5 interceptions. People could say that Otto played in a new league (All-America Conference) that year, and defenses were not that good, but no quarterback in the 1960 American Football League came anywhere near those kind of numbers. Graham had many great years, but statistically his numbers were best in 1946.

The 1946 AAFC was better, in terms of talent, than the 1960 American Football League, at least for their times. Reason for this was that there was not a draft in the 1946 AAFC, and teams just went out and signed the best players that they could that were not under contract to another team. With World War II over, there were a lot of players back from the war and wanting to play pro football. Three teams did it best (signed the most best players): San Francisco, Cleveland, and the New York Yankees, who took an entire franchise (Brooklyn Dodgers/Tigers) out of the NFL.

For instance, the 49ers signed players like Frankie Albert, Norm Standlee, Alyn Beals, Bruno Banducci, John Woudenberg, Johnny "Strike" Strzykalski, Len Esmont, and Visco Grgich. Those were good players that all played in all four years for San Francisco in the All-America Conference. How many new franchises started out with that much talent outside of the Cleveland Browns and the New York Yankees?

The 1960 American Football League was more concerned with equality of their teams and had a draft in their first year. Despite that, the Houston Oilers won the first two AFL championships and were the Eastern Division champions the first three years, and the San Diego Chargers won the Western Division 5 of the first 6 years of the AFL.

For some clarification on who those 1946 San Francisco 49ers players were:

1. Frankie Albert - quarterback - All-American at Stanford and teammate of fullback Norm Standlee there where they had one of the best college teams in the country. Albert threw 68 touchdown passes in the All-America Conference (1946-49) for the league record. Was a tricky ball handler as well as a great passer. He often fooled cameramen as well as defensive players when the camera would follow someone who did not have the ball.

2. Norm Standlee - fullback - Big, strong guy who could run and block hard. A nightmare for anyone that had to tackle him head on. Norm was a rookie for the Chicago Bears in 1941 and was one of the top five rushers in the NFL and averaged over 5 yards per carry that year. Standlee entered the military after that and signed with the 49ers in 1946. Still a monster, Norm averaged 4.9 yards per carry in 1946 for 651 yards and was 2nd in the (AAFC) to Spec Sanders in rushing yards that year. Standlee played 7 years in all for the 49ers and also played linebacker on defense.

3. Alyn Beals -end - Star receiver for the 49ers and led the league in scoring with 278 points over the 4 years that the AAFC was in existence. He also led the league in TD's with 46 during those years. Beals played for 49ers coach Buck Shaw at Santa Clara college, so Shaw knew what he had in Beals when he became head coach at San Francisco in 1946 and took Beals there with him.

4. John "Strike" Strzykalski - halfback - Was very effective runner for 49ers during AAFC years and for awhile in the NFL. John averaged 5.7 yards per carry in the 4 years of the AAFC and rushed for over 900 yards in both 1947 and 1948.

5. Len Eshmont - halfback - With Norm Standlee and Johnny Strike, Eshmont gave the 49ers a powerful running attack. Len gained 1181 yards during his 4 years with the 49ers and averaged over 5 yards per carry. Eshmont was a legend in the Eastern U.S before the 49ers were even formed and was known as the Fordham Flash. He was also a good defensive back for San Francisco. So revered was he that an award is given to a 49ers player each year that best exemplifies the inspiration and courageous play of Len Eshmont, the Len Eshmont Award.

6. Bruno Banducci - guard - Tremendous blocker and probably a good part of the reason that the 49ers had such great running up through 1954 after which Banducci retired. When Colts defensive tackle Art Donovan was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he remarked, "I know one person who must be getting a big laugh out of this. He is a guard named Bruno Banducci and he used to block me all over the field."

7. John Woudenberg - tackle - One of the best tackles in the AAFC and often played all 60 minutes of the 49ers games. He was a fixture on San Francisco's offensive and defensive lines as well as special teams. He retired after the 1949 season and was sorely missed by the 49ers when they entered the NFL in 1950. Probably the biggest problem with the 49ers in 1950 was at the 4 tackle positions where Woudenberg could have filled 2 of those positions.

8. Visco Grgich - middle guard - Visco was one tough guy. Just ask Rams QB Norm Van Brocklin who was probably glad to see Grgich retire after the 1952 season (due to injury). From what I have read, Visco Grgich gave Van Brocklin and some other players a very tough time. In fact, there was a bounty put on him by an opposing coach.
Visco also used to fire up the 49ers with his pre game speeches that he finished by using a forearm to knock a door off of its hinges. Even after he retired, coaches would have him come back to give his pre game speeches to fire up the players.

Those were probably the most prominent players on the 1946 49ers team, but there were others. Rookie Ken Casanega intercepted 8 passes as a defensive back in 1946. John Mellus started at left tackle in 1946 and had been named a 2nd team all-pro with the Giants in 1940. Bob Bryant took his place at left tackle in 1947 and like Woudenberg, retired after the 1949 season. Bryant was a rookie in 1946. Then there was Nick Susoeff, a rookie in 1946 and caught the 2nd most passes on the team in both 1947 and 1948. Susoeff also retired after the 1949 season.

Of course. other players made up the rest of the 49ers team in 1946 and I am sure that some or most did a fine job, and you can probably see where the 49ers had one of the best first year teams, along with the 1946 Browns and Yankees who probably had equal or even greater talent

[Saban1]

It looks like this thread about the rookie quarterbacks is winding down, so as long as I posted about the 1946 49ers, I guess it should be OK to also post about the 1946 football Yankees.

The Yankees owner brought the Brooklyn franchise over from the NFL into the AAFC in 1946. The good news for them was that this included Hall of Fame players tailback Ace Parker and tackle Bruiser Kinard (I wonder if that was his given name?). Also included were all-pro types ends Bob Masterson and Perry Schwartz, and fullback Pug Manders. The bad news is that most of the former Brooklyn players (I think that there were eight) were over 30 and only played for another year or two.

The Yankees did pretty well signing players coming back from the war, especially men that played on the eastern service teams like at Sampson Navy Base in New York. Anyway, rookies (mostly about 25 or 26 years old) signed included the sensational Spec Sanders, who played tailback in coach Flaherty's single wing offense and led the AAFC in rushing in 1947 with over 1400 yards. He really was a great player, and just ask anyone who played against him. Sanders and Ace Parker shared the starting tailback position in 1946. Sanders was the better runner, but Parker was the better passer.

They signed a couple of very good tackles in Nate Johnson and Derrell Palmer. Palmer later became a starting defensive tackle for the Cleveland Browns in 1949 through 1953, but did not start for the Yankees due to having Bruiser Kinard and Nate Johnson on the same team.

They also signed a couple of good ends in Bruce Alford and Jack Russell. Russell was named to some all-pro teams in the AAFC and Alford would have been if not for guys like Dante Lavelli, Mac Speedie, and Alyn Beals.

A rookie center named Lou Sossamon was named to an all-pro team.

Halfback Lowell Wagner became a star defensive back for the 49ers a few years after his rookie season with the Yankees.

Rookie fullback Eddie Prokop played well in 1946 for the Yankees. I think that he was second in rushing yards to only Spec Sanders on the 1946 Yankees

The Yankees hired Ray Flaherty to be head coach of the AAFC Yankees in 1946. Flaherty had been head coach of the Washington Redskins when they won NFL Championships in 1937 and 1942, and was considered one of the top coaches in pro football.

With all of this going for that team in it's first year, the Yankees should have been odds on to be the AAFC's first champion. As it turned out, they almost were, losing the championship game to the Cleveland Browns, 14 to 9.