Ken O'Brien is a career quality starter — a quarterback whose body of work places O'Brien in the top quarter of all players at the position historically. The Knox model values sustained contribution over flash, and O'Brien's career arc reflects exactly that kind of reliable professional-grade performance.

QBPHI#0ACT

Ken O'Brien

2× Pro BowlTop 11% all-time QBsIron Man

Height6'4"

Weight210 lb

BornNov 27, 1960

Age65

CollegeUC Davis; Sacramento State See College Stats

Rookie yr1983

Draft

All-Time Standing

how this career measures against the all-time greats at the position

Depth

of 100

Reached 28% of the all-time Passing Yards leader — a rotational/depth all-time profile at the position.

28% of the all-time Passing Yards leader28

1 category ≥25% of the all-time leader33

A 0–100 scale where 100 = matched the all-time leaderat this position. Built only from visible encyclopedia data — career production vs. the all-time leader, plus efficiency (EPA) and comparable-player confidence — so it's a transparent context score, not a subjective rating. Tiers: Elite ≥ 85 · Strong ≥ 65 · Solid ≥ 45 · Depth < 45. Comparable-player confidence: 85%.

Encyclopedia Coverage

Career Value · VORP

226 career value over replacement — #283 all-time of 4,649. 22.6/season above a replacement-level QB.

Draft OutcomeValue ↑

Pick #24 (Rd 1) · NYJ · 1983 · +9.3 vs expected KV-H

65actual

55.7 expected · Δ+9.3

💔+42.4 stolen VORP·1.9 szns lost

Fan Rating

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Compare Ken O'Brien vs Player Report data error

StatVault aggregates multiple open-licensed and proprietary sources into a single profile. The depth indicator above shows which layers are available for this player.

Bio & DraftBirth date, height/weight, draft round/pick, college — sourced from nflverse players.csv (CC-BY 4.0). Covers all NFL eras.

Season Stats (1999–present)Week-by-week box scores aggregated to season totals: passing, rushing, receiving, defense. Source: nflverse player_stats. Counting stats are exact; rates are derived.

Advanced (EPA, 1999–present)Not available for this player

Snap Counts (2012–present)Not available for this player

Defensive StatsNot available for this player

College StatsCollege attribution is present, but this profile artifact does not yet carry a parsed college stat table.

NFL Combine / Pro DayNot available for this player

Proprietary LayersKV-H (Knox Value-Historical) — era-normalized career rating 0–100 calibrated within position group (1999+ coverage). SIS (Snap Impact Score, 2012+) — per-snap production z-scored within position. VORP — value over replacement player. Durability IQ — games-played percentile adjusted for era.

Pre-1999 players have bio + draft data but counting stats are not available from any freely-licensed source. Players with ★ Career Only see verified career aggregates from nflverse draft_picks.

Understanding These Stats

Passing

Cmp / Att — Completions and pass attempts.

Cmp% — Completion percentage — completions ÷ attempts × 100.

Yds — Passing yards — total air + yards after catch on completions.

TD / TD% — Passing touchdowns. TD% = TDs per 100 attempts, measuring scoring efficiency.

Int / Int% — Interceptions thrown. Int% = INTs per 100 attempts — the primary ball-security metric.

Y/A — Yards per attempt — passing yards ÷ attempts. The core passing efficiency rate.

AdjY/A — Adjusted yards per attempt: (Pass Yds + 20×TD − 45×INT) ÷ Att. Penalizes turnovers and rewards touchdowns — widely considered the most predictive single-season QB metric.

TD:INT — TD-to-interception ratio — passing touchdowns ÷ interceptions thrown. Elite QBs sustain career ratios above 3.0; HOF greats often exceed 4.0. Not shown when no interceptions.

Rate — NFL passer rating — the official formula combining Cmp%, Y/A, TD%, and INT% on a 0–158.3 scale. Good QB performance ≈ 90+; elite ≈ 110+.

Sk — Times sacked — how many times the QB was brought down behind the line of scrimmage.

Rushing

Att — Rushing attempts (carries).

Yds — Rushing yards.

TD — Rushing touchdowns.

Y/A — Yards per carry — rushing yards ÷ carries. The core rushing efficiency rate; 4.5+ is solid, 5+ is elite.

TD% — Touchdown rate per carry (TDs ÷ carries × 100) — measures scoring efficiency per touch independent of volume. Red-zone workhorses lead here.

1D — First downs gained on rushing plays.

1D% — First-down conversion rate (first downs ÷ carries × 100) — how often a carry moves the chains. Top RBs convert on 25%+ of attempts.

Fmb — Rushing fumbles lost — the key ball-security stat for running backs. Below 1 per season is elite.

Receiving

Tgt — Targets — how many times the receiver was thrown to, regardless of completion.

Rec — Receptions — catches made.

Yds — Receiving yards.

TD — Receiving touchdowns.

Ctch% — Catch rate — receptions ÷ targets × 100. Measures how reliably a receiver turns opportunities into gains. 70%+ is elite.

Y/R — Yards per reception — receiving yards ÷ receptions. Measures big-play ability; 15+ is elite for WRs.

Y/Tgt — Yards per target — receiving yards ÷ targets. The single most complete receiving efficiency metric: accounts for both drops and incomplete targets. Elite receivers post 8+ yards per target.

AirYd/T — Air yards per target — average depth of route at time of target. High values indicate a deep threat role; low values indicate a slot/check-down role.

1D — First downs gained on receiving plays.

Proprietary StatVault Metrics

KV-H (Knox Value-Historical) — Era-normalized career rating 0–100 within position group, calibrated so a 50 = average starter and 90+ = all-time great. Covers 1999–present. Built on a 5-year IQR/robust-std era window.

SIS (Snap Impact Score) — Per-snap production z-scored within position group and era (2012+). Measures how much a player produced per opportunity, not raw volume.

VORP (Value Over Replacement) — Sum of max(0, season KV-H − positional replacement level) across a career. Measures career value above the minimum-roster baseline at each position.

Durability IQ — 0–100 score reflecting how many games a player played relative to peers at the same position in the same era. Adjusts for injury-shortened seasons.

Franchise Succession

the room, before and after

Ken opened the New York Jets QB lineage the corpus knows, and handed it to Boomer Esiason (1993–1995).

Ken O'Brien 1984–1992Boomer Esiason 1993–1995Neil O'Donnell 1996–1997Ray Lucas 1997–2000Vinny Testaverde 1998–2005Chad Pennington 2000–2007Mark Sanchez 2009–2012Ryan Fitzpatrick 2015–2016Sam Darnold 2018–2020Zach Wilson 2021–2023

The room is reconstructed from arrival order among durable members (≥4 seasons with the club) at the player’s position group — a lineage by arrival, not a week-by-week depth chart. Distinct from the league-wide positional GOAT torch.

Knox

StatVault's proprietary player intelligence, informed by full career data. How Knox works →

Historical Knox · KV-H

Era-normalized career quality — z-scored against 10-season peers. See all →

peak 71

Season Report Cards· KV-H era-normalized per season

C+1984

B+1985

B+1986

B1987

C+1988

B1989

B1990

B1991

D1992

F1993

Availability

Career durability — games played vs. scheduled, across 10 seasons.

81%

19841993

1984 · cause not documented · 63%1992 · cause not documented · 63%1993 · cause not documented · 31%

Durability IQ

Composite score across availability, IR frequency, and injury severity. See all →

Durable

Canton Monitor · HOF

Calibrated Hall-of-Fame probability — fit against actual enshrinement. See all →

10%

Longshot

What carries the case

Era Quality (KV-H) 38.9%Longevity 34.7%Pro Bowls 19.8%All-Time Ranks 6.6%

Monitor score 30.3 · components sum to the score (All-Pro ×12 · Pro Bowl ×3 · League Lead ×4 · ranks/era/longevity weighted).

Career Fingerprint

Statistical profile across 5 dimensions

Overall

Longevity79

Peak71

Accolades5

Consistency50

Per-Snap50

Season	Actual Pass Yds	Pass Yds/G	→ 2025 Pass Yds	→ 2025 /G
1984	1,402	140.2	3,673+2,271	216.1
1985	3,888	243	4,463+575	262.5
1986	3,690	246	4,381+691	257.7
1987	2,696	224.7	4,151+1,455	244.2
1988	2,567	183.4	3,818+1,251	224.6
1989	3,346	223.1	4,142+796	243.7
1990	2,855	178.4	3,807+952	223.9
1991	3,300	206.3	4,019+719	236.4
1992	642	64.2	2,916+2,274	171.6
1993	708	141.6	3,485+2,777	205

Ken O'Brien

All-Time Standing

Career Aging Trajectory

College Stats

Reference Graph

Top Teammates

1983 Draft Class· this player went #24

Franchise Succession

Similar Players

Movementderived from season history

Athletic & Unique Profile

Knox

Era Translator