Wonderlic Me!
by Polish PowerhouseApril 25, 2008
Sitting in living rooms, kitchens, and agent’s offices across America at this very moment are around 1000 players who have been poked, prodded, and pranced over the past few months trying to determine whether or not they’re draft material. 255 of those 1000 will be deemed worthy tomorrow and Sunday. One test will weigh heavily on the minds of GMs and coaches throughout the NFL: The Wonderlic.
The Wonderlic is a 12-minute, 50-question quiz designed to test the general IQ of potential NFL meat. A perfect score is 50. To date, there has only been one football player to score a 50 on his Wonderlic assessment, Pat McInally of Havard University who went on to become a Pro-Bowl punter.
Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, also from Harvard University, was also believed to have scored a perfect 50. This claim was eventually proven to be false and he was outed as having a still excellent score of 38.
On average, NFL players’ Wonderlic scores are as follows:
* Offensive tackle – 26
* Center – 25
* Quarterback – 24
* Guard – 23
* Tight end – 22
* Safety – 19
* Linebacker – 19
* Cornerback – 18
* Wide receiver – 17
* Fullback – 17
* Halfback – 16
On the flip side of Ryan Fitzpatrick, there was also a tale of Vince Young scoring a 6 on his Wonderlic, which would put him right in line with Forrest Gump and Lennie Small. Also like Fitzpatrick, Young’s score was also proven to be false and was later told that he scored a still well below QB average 16.
This got me thinking. Ryan Fitzpatrick was drafted by the Rams in 2005, where he ended up playing 4 games when Marc Bulger went down. He went on to throw 4 touchdowns and 8 interceptions with a 58.2 QB rating. He has not seen playing time in a regular season NFL game since.
Vince Young, as you probably know, has been the starting quarterback for the Tennessee Titans for 2 seasons where he has been less than stellar, but still head and shoulders above the performace of the much higher scoring Ryan Fitzpatrick.
So, how much weight SHOULD the Wonderlic test carry in the world of quarterbacks? Let’s go through the Wonderlic scores of some of today’s quarterbacks and see how they play out:
Drew Henson 42
Alex Smith 40
Eli Manning 39
Brian Griese 39
Charlie Frye 38
Tony Romo 37
Drew Bledsoe 36
Matt Leinart 35
Kellen Clemens 35
Aaron Rodgers 35
Tom Brady 33
Steve Young 33
Joey Harrington 32
Patrick Ramsey 32
Sage Rosenfels 32
J.P. Losman 31
Matt Schaub 31
Phillip Rivers 30
Brady Quinn 29
Rex Grossman 29
Marc Bulger 29
Matt Hasselbeck 29
Troy Aikman 29
John Elway 29
Drew Brees 28
Peyton Manning 28
Kyle Boller 27
Ryan Leaf 27
Jay Cutler 26
Kyle Orton 26
Carson Palmer 26
Akili Smith 26
Ben Roethlisberger 25
Byron Leftwich 25
Chad Pennington 25
JaMarcus Russell 24
David Carr 24
Jason Campbell 23
Tim Couch 22
Trent Dilfer 22
Brett Favre 22
Michael Vick 20
Tarvaris Jackson 19
Bruce Gradkowski 19
Derek Anderson 19
A.J. Feeley 19
Daunte Culpepper 18
Aaron Brooks 17
Vinny Testeverde 17
Vince Young 16
Steve McNair 15
Randall Cunningham 15
Dan Marino 15
Terry Bradshaw 15
David Garrard 14
Donovan McNabb 14
Marcus Vick 11
Jeff George 10
Chris Leak 8
Well, the list begins with one of the all time highest scorers in NFL Wonderlic history, Drew Henson. As you may know, Henson was not only bright, but a two sport…flop. He made appearances with the New York Yankees in 2002 and 2003, compiling 9 ABs with 3 Ks and 1 hit. In 2004 he joined the Cowboys, played 7 games and put together 78 Passing Yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, and 2 sacks.
Heading down the ladder further, we run across other NFL quarterback flops like Alex Smith, Charlie Frye, and Kellen Clemens. However, also amongst those names are players like Tony Romo (37, could be considered a flop, depending on if you’re discussing the regular season or the post season. ZING!), Tom Brady (33), and Steve Young (33). And, no, I refuse to acknowledge Eli Manning among the previous names, despite his 39 score. Just because he won a Super Bowl doesn’t make him great. Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl as well, where’s his fellatio?
As we scroll down the list of names, you see the good mixed in with the bad mixed in with the ugly. It seems haphazard. I had a theory beginning the research for this article that I would find that the players at the top tended to be less successful at the quarterback position than the ones at the bottom due to a tendency of book smart people to overanalyze situations. While this theory wasn’t smashed by what I found here, it did morph into something a little different.
From looking over the list, toward the top amongst the QBs who scored 30 and above, we see names like Phillip Rivers, Tom Brady, Matt Leinart, Drew Bledsoe, Eli Manning, and Alex Smith. These are some of the most immobile quarterbacks in the game. They’re pocket passers, they get sacked a lot, but they also put together a lot of passing yards. When you get toward the bottom of the list, the guys who scored 20 and below, you’ve got names like Michael Vick, Tarvaris Jackson, Daunte Culpepper, Aaron Brooks, Vince Young, Steve McNair, Randall Cunningham, David Garrard, Donovan McNabb, and Kordell Stewart. These are all guys who faced with an oncoming defensive attack, they tuck in the ball and take off for whatever they can get.
I hate to use the word primal, but that’s almost what we’re seeing here. The lower the Wonderlic score, the more primal and emotive the quarterback. The higher the score, the more prone to getting caught overanalyzing the situation rather than just taking action.
So, is it as bad as some would make it out to be to have a low Wonderlic score? No. Clearly not. You just play with more heart than brains, if that statement could be construed as non-condescendingly as possible. There’s a lot to be said for playing with heart. Some of the NFL’s greatest quarterbacks were well below average on the Wonderlic (Brett Favre, Steve McNair, Dan Marino, Terry Bradshaw, Donovan McNabb) just like some of the biggest flops were well above average.
By the way, Eli Manning scored 11 points higher (39) than Peyton Manning did (28), and I think it’s pretty damn obvious who wins that battle.
You can go here to see how you would stand up against the Wonderlic.
Related posts:
- Sleepers & Busters: 2008 QB Edition
- 2007 Fantasy Football: Everything You Knew Was Wrong…
- Dissecting the Armchair: Midseason 2007
- Quarterback By Committee: Why The Hell Not?
- The Great Racial Divide Amongst Quarterbacks
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