NFL: Ranking Quarterbacks who were one-hit wonders

Every so often, there is a quarterback that comes out of nowhere and just lights the NFL on fire. Sometimes it happens in a random Week 4 game in the middle of the season, and other times it lasts for an entire season. Either way, the success is fleeting.

Being an NFL quarterback is hard, and there are plenty of examples of players who were great under center for a short amount of time. Sometimes it’s a player who lifts up a historically bad franchise, and other times it’s a player who came in to replace a star and kept the team afloat. Usually, they have an obnoxiously good touchdown-to-interception ratio, and it feels like the chemistry is immediate with his pass catchers.

Of course, since the success is fleeting, the floor drops out from under them. As good as they were in the one year of success is as bad as it goes the next season. And sometimes the next season after that. Successful quarterbacks will then get a few more chances as teams try and see if they can be the team to find success once again.

These players aren’t one-hit wonders because they hit on something once, it’s because they only hit on something once. They fell off the map, and while others got chance after chance after chance, it never turned into a long-term starting quarterback job.