On Sunday, I calculated the average number of pass attempts (including sacks) per game for each season since 1950, and then looked at which were the highest era-adjusted passing games in football history. On Monday, I looked at the single seasons that were the most and least pass-happy, from the perspective of each quarterback and after adjusting for era. Today, career grades.

How much do you know about Frank Tripucka? Probably not that much. If you’re a younger fan, you might know him because Denver “unretired” his #18 when Peyton Manning came to town, or because his son Kelly played in the NBA.

If you’re a Football Perspective regular, you may recall that he was the first quarterback in pro football history to throw for 3,000 yards in a season. Well, after today, you’re never going to forget about Tripucka.

I looked at all quarterbacks who started at least 48 regular season games since 1950. As a reminder about the methodology, I then calculated the league average dropbacks per game (i.e., pass attempts + sacks) in each season. Then, I determined the number of dropbacks by each quarterback’s team in each game started by that quarterback.

Then, I compared that number to league average to determine the ratio. Do this for every game of a quarterback’s career, and viola, career ratings! Here’s how to read the table below. Tripucka started 50 games in his career since 1950. In those games, his teams averaged 38.5 dropbacks per game, while the league average was 31 dropbacks. As a result, Tripucka’s teams in games he started finished with 124% as many pass attempts as the average team, or 7.5 more attempts per game. That makes him the most pass-happy quarterback ever. The final column shows whether the quarterback is in, or very likely to wind up in, the Hall of Fame.

Among the Hall of Fame quarterbacks crowd, George Blanda, Dan Fouts, Kurt Warner (assuming he is enshrined), Drew Brees, and Dan Marino stand out as playing in some of the most pass-happy offenses. After them are Joe Namath and Joe Montana, and you might be surprised to see Montana check in a few spots ahead of Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, and Johnny Unitas.

Otto Graham, Bart Starr, and Bob Grieses were three of the least pass-happy quarterbacks era. All were blessed with outstanding coaches, defenses and teams, so that makes some sense. Also, the least pass-happy quarterback on the entire list is… Russell Wilson.

Len Dawson, Troy Aikman, and Terry Bradshaw all grade out as players who didn’t have to pass that often, which isn’t all that surprising. More surprising, at least for me, was seeing Jim Kelly at 97.1%. Steve Young and Aaron Rodgers are both right around league average, although they each also shouldered some of the running game for their teams (particularly Young).

What stands out to you? What do you make of this metric?