Some fans may be unfamiliar with Bill Kenney, the Kansas City Chiefs’ signal caller from the 1980s. Most fans who even know Kenney are scratching their heads right now to figure out what he has to do with Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers.
Bill who?
On the surface, the two have very little in common. But they share one startling similarity: Rodgers and Kenney are two of the worst quarterbacks of all time when it comes to fourth-quarter comeback opportunities:
Rodgers is 3-18 (.143)
Kenney was 3-27 (.100)
Rodgers was a first-round pick drafted to replace the legendary Brett Favre, while Kenney was Miami’s Mr. Irrelevant choice in the 1978 draft. He was technically next to last, but the final pick never made it to training camp so Kenney got the title. The Chiefs drafted Todd Blackledge in 1983 to replace Kenney.
Kenney was an average quarterback with a 34-43 record as a starter, and his only playoff appearance was coming off the bench in a defeat. Kenney is the only Mr. Irrelevant to ever make the Pro Bowl, as he was an alternate for his 1983 season in which he became the fourth NFL quarterback to throw for 4,000 yards in a season, beating Lynn Dickey (the fifth) by a day.
Rodgers is statistically out of this world. He has gone 41-21 in the last four years and won a Super Bowl and Super Bowl MVP in 2010. In 69 games, Rodgers already has 27 more touchdown passes and 89 more passing yards than Kenney had in his career (106 games).
But Kenney and Rodgers do have quite a bit in common.
Kenney and Rodgers are two of only five quarterbacks to produce a game with four touchdown passes and two touchdown runs. They both even had 38 pass attempts in that game. But that is a one-game comparison that just makes for interesting trivia.
The statistical similarities we are talking about go much deeper than one game, or one season for that matter. The greater similarity is that Rodgers, like Kenney, has consistently failed to come up big in critical fourth-quarter comeback opportuntiies.
It is the reason Kenney was not held in higher regard in his day, and it's the reason that has kept Rodgers from even more success in Green Bay.
A refresher in case you forgot your Captain Comeback terminology: a fourth-quarter comeback opportunity is when an offense has possession of the ball in the fourth quarter, trailing by 1-8 points (one score).
And Rodgers falls far short of most of his contemporaries. Consider Giants QB Eli Manning and Cowboys QB Tony Romo.
Manning, who knocked the 15-1 Packers out of the playoffs last season, is 21-22 (.488) in fourth-quarter comeback opportunities.
Romo, who is widely perceived as a huge choker, is 13-20 (.394) in fourth-quarter comeback opportuntiies.
Hell, even JaMarcus Russell was 3-6 in his short career; he was a defensive stop away from 4-5, and one of his other losses came when Justin Fargas fumbled the ball on the drive’s only play.
Some believe these things even out over the years, but Kenney played nine seasons, and Rodgers’ record involves the last five. How many years does one need to display a good or bad record in close games before you believe it is more than just a random fluke?
At some point, pure dumb luck should have given them a boost. Instead, Rodgers is Mr. Irrelevant in the fourth quarter, much like Kenney was Mr Irrelevant in the draft.