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As a player, John Elway was every AFC West teams’ nemesis. In all of history, no other quarterback has terrorized the division more. At least according to the statistical analysis from Football Perspective.
The first breakdown came from total passing yards.
| Team | Nemesis | Passing Yards | Games |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEA | John Elway | 7013 | 30 |
| KAN | John Elway | 6606 | 29 |
| SDG | John Elway | 6548 | 31 |
| OAK | John Elway | 5851 | 28 |
| DEN | Dan Fouts | 5612 | 22 |
Elway torched the AFC West in his 16 seasons, while Dan Fouts torched the Denver Broncos. Fouts did it in far fewer games, too.
Passing yards are good, but touchdowns is where the winning is. Fouts stole the Oakland Raiders nemesis title away from Elway, but few could match what former San Diego Chargers quarterback John Hadl did to those woeful Broncos teams of the 60s and early 70s.
The second breakdown is from passing touchdowns.
| Team | Nemesis | Passing Touchdowns | Games |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEA | John Elway | 44 | 30 |
| SDG | John Elway | 38 | 31 |
| KAN | John Elway | 28 | 29 |
| OAK | Dan Fouts | 36 | 24 |
| DEN | John Hadl | 43 | 23 |
Anyway, this was a fun little post from a few years ago that caught my attention today. It was nice to have Peyton Manning around for a few years to remind us all how much fun it is to dominate a division again.