Some people thought Vinny Testaverde was a dud after his first few years in the NFL. He had left the University of Miami with high expectations and a Heisman Trophy to be the first player selected in the 1987 NFL Draft. However, he did not end up being the savior of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the team that selected him, he ended up spending time on the rosters of seven different teams.
After several seasons in Tampa, Testaverde went on to play for the Browns, Ravens, Jets, Cowboys, Jets again, Patriots, and finally Panthers. He never took his team to the Super Bowl, though he did bring the Jets closer. He was a very good mentor to younger quarterbacks later in his career and when he was all said and done, he put together a 21-year career in the National Football League. Not many quarterbacks can say they’ve done that.
Along the way, Testaverde would also set a number of records and finish his career highly ranked in several all-time categories.
Notable rankings for Vinny Testaverde’s career numbers:
1. Pass completions
Testaverde completed 3,787 passes during his career, good enough for seventh all-time in NFL history. Some of the names of players who didn’t finish as many completions as him: Fran Tarkenton, Joe Montana and Dan Fouts.
2. Passing Yards
Passing yards is a popular way to measure how good a quarterback’s game, season, or career was. Vinny Testaverde finished his career with 46,233 passing yards. This put him just behind Hall of Famers John Elway, Warren Moon and Fran Tarkenton, and just ahead of Peyton Manning (who has since passed him), Dan Fouts and Joe Montana.
3. Passing Touchdowns
At the time of his retirement, Vinny Testaverde was ranked eighth all-time in the category of touchdown passes with 275. This placed him just behind John Elway and Johnny Unitas, but ahead of such notable names as Joe Montana, Dan Fouts, Jim Kelly. , Steve Young, Terry Bradshaw and Sonny Jurgensen.
Those are all very respectable numbers. In fact, in many ways those are all incredible numbers. Testaverde’s statistical success owes more to his incredible longevity than his incredible talent, though he had to be highly talented to play that long and rack up those numbers as well. It would be hard to argue that Testaverde belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but easy enough to argue that he was somewhat underrated during his career.
