Stats show shorter NFL QBs do just fine when given the chance (2024)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - NFL scouts love tall quarterbacks. But are they excluding shorter passers merely because of their height?

Statistically, shorter quarterbacks have done just as well, if not better than the taller quarterbacks, when given an opportunity to play in the NFL, cleveland.com found in analyzing passer ratings and winning percentages over the last 20 seasons.

Cleveland.com decided to take a look now because there has been talk that first-round prospect Mitch Trubisky from Mentor might measure 6-foot-1, instead of 6-3, at the NFL Combine - potentially causing his draft stock to plummet.

UsingPro Football Reference as a source for both height and statistics, I took a dive into the numbers for each player who has thrown at least 25 passes over the last 20 NFL seasons.

Continue through this slideshow to learn what the numbers say.

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Find a quarterback who is 6-2 and odds are you'll be in good hands. At least that's the case if you put faith in passer ratings and look at the last 20 seasons.

The 6-2 quarterbacks as a group had the highest rating of 83.42. Next - get this - were those 6-1 and shorter. Their passer rating was 82.82.

However, we could be splitting hairs, as there was little difference between 6-3 and 6-4 QBs (both just under an 82 rating) and those scoring the best.

What was more clear is that there has been little difference for passer ratings, based solely on height.

On the low side was the 6-6 or taller quarterbacks, at 78.4, but there have been just a handful of those to consider.

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Though quarterbacks 6-2 and shorter have performed as well or better than their taller counterparts when given a chance, fewer have made their way onto the field.

Nearly two-thirds of the NFL starters since 1997 have been 6-3 or taller.

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The chart above illustrates the number of quarterback starts by height.

Only 13 percent of the starts were made by quarterbacks 6-1 or shorter. Nearly half (48 percent) of the starts were made by quarterbacks 6-4 or taller.

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Taller is better on draft day. Again, looking just at quarterbacks who have attempted at least 25 passes since 1997, the largest number of first-rounders have been 6-4.

There were 19 6-4 quarterbacks on this list chosen in the first round. Another 18 quarterbacks were 6-5. But just four were 6-1 or under.

Yet, there were just four quarterbacks 6-1 or shorter chosen in the first round. Some of these quarterbacks entered the league before 1997.

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For the statistics displayed earlier in this slideshow, it's possible that some long-term quarterbacks - say a 6-foot Drew Brees - could have a disproportionate influence on the outcome. This is because all their statistics were added together before calculating the ratings and winning percentages.

So, I took a another stab at it for a second test. This time, only the 70 quarterbacks with at least 50 starts each were included.

The statistics for these select 70 QBs were then treated equally, by averaging their totals. This way someone who started 50 games would count the same as someone who started 250 games. Continue the slideshow to see the results.

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Using this method, the passer ratings again trended better for shorter quarterbacks, with the top average rating of 84.48 for the nine QBs 6-1 and under, and the second best rating of 84.35 for the 15 6-2 quarterbacks.

In contract, the average rating for the 18 6-4 quarterbacks was the lowest, at 82.28.

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Are all these passer ratings and winning percentages conclusive? Of course not.

It's possible that only the very best of the shorter quarterbacks ever get a chance; whereas coaches may be more willing to give taller quarterbacks of any talent level a try, driving down the overall results for the taller group.

But, the statistics do show that when shorter quarterbacks have found their way onto the field, they've done at least as good in terms of winning percentages and passer ratings overall.

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