Florida State Legend Left Out of the Top 15 of ESPN's Quarterback Rankings Of The 2000's

Over 150 years of college football history litter the pages of record books, the tapes of film rooms, and the dusty shelves of trophy cases across our great nation. The campuses, halls, fields, and locker rooms possess remnants of bygone eras that echo whispers of yesteryear. They tell stories reminiscent of history’s greatest tales. Tales that speak of the rise and fall of dynasties; of heroes and titans clashing in combat; of trailblazers and renegades forging their own paths in undiscovered territory. Over 150 years of stories have been told through this game. Its myths and legends have been disseminated across generations. But, just as a Shakespearean tragedy is nothing without its actors, so too are college football’s stories without its players, and one position in particular has long been at the center of the spotlight: the quarterback.

With the inception of the forward pass by Saint Louis University’s Bradbury Robinson in 1906 (later made famous by Knute Rockne and Notre Dame in 1913), the quarterback was cemented as the paramount position on offense. Since that fateful September day in 1906, college football has seen a variety of innovations change the way the game has been played from the pistol offense to the pro-style offense, west coast, spread, air raid, and RPO. Amidst the ever-changing landscape, the importance of the quarterback has persisted. With each new innovation, the quarterback position has adapted and evolved. We’ve seen gunslingers, all-rounders, pocket passers, and dual-threat dazzlers. Across college football’s expansive history, quarterbacks of all shapes, sizes and styles of play have attempted to forge their legacies on the gridiron in hopes of becoming immortalized for all time. This week, ESPN sifted through that history and consolidated a list of college football’s 75 best quarterbacks of the 2000s.

The List

ESPN Staff Writer Bill Connelly set out to analyze college football’s best quarterbacks after the turn of the new millennium. He compiled a list that features the likes of Matt Ryan, Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, Denard Robinson, Stetson Bennett, Matt Leonard, Carson Palmer, and 67 other quarterbacks, as he attempted to compare them by taking into account their career statistics, number of years played at the collegiate level, and other accomplishments (national titles, Heisman, trophies, etc.) in hopes of creating a definitive ranking. Connelly’s Top 10 includes (1) Baker Mayfield, (2) Cam Newton, (3) Vince Young, (4) Tim Tebow, (5) Joe Burrow, (6) Deshaun Watson, (7) Kyler Murray, (8) Lamar Jackson, (9) Marcus Mariota, and (10) Robert Griffin III.

Of course, it’s important to note the subjectivity of the list (after all, it was solely Connelly’s undertaking with no outside input of any kind). Nonetheless, the rankings have spawned debates and quarrels across the college football landscape, specifically as it relates to whether or not a quarterback is too high or too low on the list. In the case of this article, the list gives Florida State fans an opportunity to highlight the accomplishments of one former Seminole and fervently argue that he deserves more respect than the No. 16 spot, and that’s former Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston.

That’s right, James Winston falls to the No. 16 spot on Connelly’s list, which means the ten listed above and an additional 5 quarterbacks are supposedly “better” than Winston all-time. Those additional 5 are (11) Trevor Lawrence, (12) Colt McCoy, (13) Johnny Manziel, (14) Kellen Moore, and (15) Sam Bradford.

If you’re reading this list and thinking to yourself, Jameis deserves to be higher than a few of those names, then you are not alone. Even Connelly’s reasoning for this decision comes off as dismissive and downplays Winston’s accomplishments. He writes, “Winston was around for only two seasons, but his impact was absurd: FSU rolled to its first national title in 14 years when he was a redshirt freshman -- he won the Heisman by more than 1,500 points -- and went on to win the first 27 games of his career.” Sure, he highlights the national championship, the Heisman, and his statistics, but truly that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of Winston’s accomplishments. So, before we dive into the many intricate arguments both for and against Winston’s ranking, let’s take a look back at those “absurd” two years.

Jameis Winston: A Career in Review

James Winston was the nation’s top ranked quarterback coming out of high school in 2012. The young, talented quarterback out of Alabama received countless All-American and MVP honors over the course of his high school career, and saw scholarship offers come in from nearly every major college and university in the country. Ultimately, Winston elected to commit to Florida State University over Stanford, Alabama, LSU and Ohio State. He spent the 2012 season as a redshirt for the Seminoles, learning the ins and outs of then-head coach Jimbo Fisher’s offense as an understudy to Florida State’s veteran quarterback EJ Manuel. However, that narrative quickly shifted as many in and around the program expected Winston to take over the reins of the offense for the 2013 season. Before long, reports from Spring camp and early fall practices heralded the young phenom as the future of FSU football. Of course, none can forget that fateful Monday night in Pittsburgh when the legend of “Famous Jameis” was born.

Over the course of the rest of the 2013 season, Jameis Winston not only had one of the most prolific individual seasons of all time but he helmed an offense that broke school records, national records, and set benchmarks for team offense that went unsurpassed for years. “[Winston] guided the most prolific offense in school and conference history as the Noles set FSU and ACC records for single-season total offense (7,267 yards) and the national record for total points (723), while averaging 51.6 points per game,” states Seminoles.com. The national record for total points lasted for nearly six years before LSU, led by quarterback Joe Burrow, dethroned the Seminoles with a point total of 726, which remains the current record to this day. Per Seminoles.com, Winston’s individual accomplishments during his redshirt freshman season are as follows:

At the time, he became the youngest player ever to win the Heisman Trophy at 19 years, 342 days (a record only recently surpassed by Louisville’s Lamar Jackson in 2016 by a margin of 5 days); won the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s best quarterback; was a finalist for the Maxwell Award; the first freshman to capture ACC Player of the Year honors in the 61-year history of the Atlantic Coast Conference; captured ACC Offensive Player of the Year, ACC Rookie of the Year and ACC Offensive Rookie of the Year honors; shattered the ACC record, Florida State record and national freshman record for touchdown passes (40) and broke the national freshman record for passing yards (4,057); is the first freshman to lead his team to 14 wins; All-ACC First Team; led the nation and set the ACC record in pass efficiency rating (184.8), which still ranks as the highest ACC player all-time and 16th all-time across the entirety of the FBS; tossed 26 touchdowns and passed for 2,641 yards in just the first half alone; threw more first-half touchdowns than 105 starting quarterbacks had in all snaps; only played in 82 percent of Florida State’s total offensive snaps and just 62 percent of the Noles’ second-half snaps; seven-time ACC Rookie of the Week; three-time ACC Offensive Back of the Week; three-time Davey O’Brien National Quarterback of the Week; seven 300-yard passing games; eight three-touchdown passing games; threw for over 200 yards in the first half nine times; led Florida State to its first national championship in 14 years; and was named Offensive MVP of the national championship game.

By season’s end, Jameis Winston’s redshirt freshman season stat-line was as follows: 66.9% completion rate, 4,057 passing yards, 10.6 y/a, 40 TDs, 10 INTs, and a 184.8 PER. His single-season performance is among the best in the history of college football and equals, if not surpasses, the heralded single-season performances of other members of Connelly’s list such Joe Burrow and Cam Newton (more on that later). Not to mention, he did so while only playing in 62% of FSU’s second-half snaps.

In 2014, Winston’s sophomore campaign saw more of the same from the nation’s top quarterback with a final season stat-line of a 65.3% completion rate, 3,907 passing yards, 8.4 y/a, 25 TDs, 18 INTs, and a 145.5 PER. He led the Seminoles to the first-ever College Football Playoff Semifinal, and climbed FSU’s single-season and career record lists in the process. Winston’s final game as a Seminole came in a CFP matchup against the Oregon Ducks, which was his only loss throughout the entirety of his college career (snapping a 26 game win streak). Soon thereafter, Winston declared for the NFL Draft and left behind a formidable legacy. When the dust settled on Winston’s college career, his name was left etched in the record books. He holds FSU’s single-season records for completions, touchdown passes, yards per attempt and 300-yard games; ranks second in FSU history in touchdown passes; ranks third in FSU history in career passing yards; ranks second and third in FSU history in single-season passing yards; holds the ACC record in passing yards per attempt; holds the ACC record in total yards per play; and ranks 10th and 13th in single-season passing yards among FBS schools all-time.

The real kicker?

Jameis Winston did it all in just two seasons.

No other quarterback in the top 10 of FSU’s record books has appeared in less than 3 seasons. Only one of the quarterbacks listed above Winston in the top 75 list is attributed with playing two seasons, that being Johnny Manziel. Connelly admits that Jameis Winston had a brief career at the collegiate level, but he failed to fully grasp just how groundbreaking his performance as a redshirt freshman really was.

The Case for James Winston

First things first, Connelly admitted to the difficulties of putting such a list together, and he goes so far as to write (sarcastically), “I'm sure you will not disagree with a single one of the picks below!” These quarterbacks all played in different systems, sometimes in different decades altogether. It stands to reason that comparing quarterbacks like Deshaun Watson and Matt Ryan is sometimes like comparing apples to oranges. “We've seen single-season explosions from the Cam Newtons of the world, and we've seen controlled, four- or five-year fires from Case Keenum's and Baker Mayfield's that produced seemingly untouchable career totals,” writes Connelly. So, where does one even begin to try and make the case for Jameis Winston jumping up a few spots? With the low-hanging fruit, of course.

Let’s take a look at Winston’s trophy case. His Heisman victory would definitely give him some sort of advantage over the guys that never won the award: Kellen Moore (No. 14), Trevor Lawrence (No. 11), Deshaun Watson (No. 6), and Vince Young (No. 3) (Before you’re up in arms about this one, I’m aware Young was retroactively offered the Heisman after Reggie Bush was stripped of the trophy, but he finished second in voting).

Also in Winston’s trophy case is the ol’ crystal ball, the BCS National Championship. Winston led the ‘Noles to the mountaintop of the CFB world in 2013 in his redshirt freshman year, something that the following quarterbacks could not do in the entirety of their careers: Sam Bradford (No. 15), Kellen Moore (No. 14), Johnny Manziel (No. 13), Colt McCoy (No. 12), Robert Griffin III (No. 10), Marcus Mariota (No. 9), Lamar Jackson (No. 8), Kyler Murray (No. 7), and Baker Mayfield (No. 1). Sure, college football is a team game, but no one who appears on the Mount Rushmore of any other sport (from any era) does so without at least one championship to their name. This list has 9 national title-less quarterbacks ahead of Winston.

What hurts Wisnton’s case is that his career stat line doesn’t quite match up to those above him. For example, Kellen Moore’s 14,667 passing yards and 142 TDs are borderline untouchable, and Winston’s 7,964 passing yards and 65 TDs just don’t quite match up. But, as I’ve pointed out before, Winston only played 2 seasons. What’s more is that Winston hardly ever played in the latter part of games during his 2013 campaign. However, Connelly punishes Jameis for this and, in my opinion, doesn’t give enough weight to the factors that don’t show up in a box score. Connelly does, however, praise the single-season performances of other quarterbacks on the list, stating, “Newton, Young and Burrow had the best seasons.” He even goes so far as to classify Cam Newton’s 2010 campaign as “the greatest single-season supernova the sport has seen,” which is evidently the reason behind a No. 2 ranking. So, let’s put Cam Newton’s 2010 season side by side with Winston’s 2013 season.

For starters, Newton was a junior by the time his “supernova” season rolled around. Conversely, Winston was helming a college offense for the first time. Newton passed for 2,854 yards in his 2010 season, but it was the astounding 1,473 rushing yards that dazzled the masses. Winston only had 217 yards on the ground during the 2013 season, but his 4,057 yards through the air more than make up for the deficit. Winston’s 40 TDs through the air outclass Newton’s 30, but Newton also accounted for 24 on the ground, bringing his total to 54. The picture is clear: you can go back and forth with these two, and while Newton might slightly edge out Winston as far as single seasons go, it’s evident that Winston deserves to be much higher in the conversation. Winston’s single-season performance is on par with the highly celebrated single-season performances of Young, Newton, and Burrow. Heck, Winston’s accomplishments in 2 seasons nearly put him on par with the guys that had 3 or 4 seasons under their belt.

No matter what side of the argument you are on, the 2000s produced some of the game’s most prolific, efficient, and downright entertaining quarterbacks in the history of the game, and Jameis Winston is undoubtedly one of college football’s biggest legends. 

What do you think? Where should Jameis rank on this list?