This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
Keith Allison from Baltimore, USA, Michael Vick running, November 2006, CC BY-SA 2.0
For most of the modern NFL era, general managers and coaches have had a very defined view of the prototypical quarterback: a tall, usually white, relatively immobile player who is a traditional pocket passer with a strong arm. Even as black quarterbacks such as James Harris, Doug Williams, and Warren Moon began to enter the league, they were still relatively traditional quarterbacks; however, the NFL would soon witness the advent of the dual-threat quarterback with “The Ultimate Weapon” Randall Cunningham in the late 1980s and then later, the electric Michael Vick in early 2000s. As mobile, scrambling quarterbacks have become more popular at all levels of football, we look back upon two of the pioneers of the dual-threat quarterback and ask:
Who was better – Randall Cunningham or Michael Vick?
The Beginning
Though they arrived in the NFL to different levels of fanfare and expectations, both Cunningham and Vick took some time to acclimate to the pace of pro football before being fully unleashed and terrorizing opposing defenses with both their arms and their legs.
When he arrived as a freshman at UNLV, Cunningham was not a particularly heralded college recruit, though by his junior and senior years, he would become a College Football All-American, albeit at punter (Cunningham would actually end up punting occasionally in the NFL and will forever be remembered for his booming 91-yard punt vs. the New York Giants in 1989). Though he was highly sought after by the Tampa Bay Bandits of the upstart United States Football League (USFL), they would ultimately fold and the Philadelphia Eagles would draft Cunningham with the 37th overall pick in the second round of the 1985 NFL Draft. During his first couple of seasons, Cunningham played sparingly behind incumbent quarterback Ron Jaworski, including often in third-and-long situations where his legs would be an asset; despite only starting the last five games of the 1986 season after Jaworski went down with injury, Cunningham was sacked a franchise-record 72 times. After taking over as the unquestioned Eagles starter in 1987, Cunningham would complete 54.9% of his passes for 2,786 yards with 23 touchdowns vs. 12 interceptions for an 83.0 QB rating in his first full season; moreover, he also rushed for 505 yards and 3 touchdowns in leading Philadelphia to a 7-5 record, providing a glimpse of his tantalizing abilities and setting the scene for the years to come.
In comparison to Cunningham, Vick was one of the biggest stars in college football at Virginia Tech. As a redshirt freshman in 1999, he led the Hokies to a perfect 11-0 regular season record and into the BCS National Championship Game, where they would lose to the Florida State Seminoles; that year, Vick led the NCAA in passing efficiency and would win the ESPY Award for best college football player, the first-ever Archie Griffin Award as NCAA MVP, and finish third in the Heisman voting behind Ron Dayne and Joe Hamilton. Following another strong season as a sophomore, in which he led Virginia Tech to a Gator Bowl victory and was named game MVP, Vick entered the NFL Draft in his first season of eligibility (i.e. three years out of high school). He was drafted first overall by the Atlanta Falcons, who had traded the fifth overall pick (which was used to draft future Hall of Fame running back LaDainian Tomlinson), their third-round pick, a second-round pick the following season, and wide receiver Tim Dwight to the San Diego Chargers to move up; interestingly, Vick was also drafted in the 30th round of the MLB Draft by the Colorado Rockies despite not having played baseball since junior high. After playing part-time as a rookie, Vick became the Falcons’ starting quarterback in 2002 and led them to an 8-6-1 record, completing 54.9% of his passes for 2,936 yards and 16 touchdowns vs. 8 interceptions (good for an 81.6 QB rating), while also rushing for 777 yards and 8 touchdowns en route to the first of his four Pro Bowl appearances.
Career Comparison
At their apexes, Cunningham and Vick would put up unique numbers that had never before been seen at the quarterback position; both would encounter mid-career obstacles (either due to circumstances or self-inflicted) that would derail their success before coming back and arguably shining brighter than ever, albeit for a short period of time.
Cunningham’s career peak was from 1988 to 1990, when he was named to three straight Pro Bowls, including becoming the first black quarterback to be a Pro Bowl starter in 1988. That season, he completed 53.8% of his passes for a career-high 3,808 yards with 24 touchdowns (including an unforgettable touchdown against the New York Giants on Monday Night Football that fully showed off his multidimensional abilities) against 16 interceptions for a 77.6 QB rating, while also adding 624 yards and 6 touchdowns on the ground en route to leading the Eagles to a 10-6 record and being a Second Team All-Pro and the Bert Bell Award winner for NFL Player of the Year. Following another Pro Bowl-worthy season in 1989, “The Ultimate Weapon” was fully unleashed in 1990 – Cunningham threw for 3,466 yards, 30 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions on 58.3% passing for a 91.6 QB rating, while also compiling a career-high 942 rushing yards with 5 touchdowns in leading Philadelphia to a 10-6 record. For his play, he was named to the Pro Bowl, recognized as a First Team All-Pro, and won his second Bert Bell Award, PFWA MVP, and UPI NFC Player of the Year, though finished second to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana for AP NFL MVP (the de facto official MVP Award).
The next year, Cunningham would tear his ACL in the first game and miss the rest of the 1991 season, but bounced back to win Comeback Player of the Year in 1992 by completing 60.7% of his passes for 2,775 yards, 19 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions for an 87.3 QB rating, while also rushing for 549 yards and 5 touchdowns to lead the Eagles to a 10-5 record. However, the rest of his term in Philadelphia was plagued by injuries and despite a good 1994 season, he was eventually benched for Rodney Peete. After “retiring” post the 1995 season and sitting out all of 1996, he was convinced by coach Dennis Green to join the Minnesota Vikings in 1997. Playing with star wide receivers Cris Carter and Randy Moss, Cunningham experienced a renaissance and had a career year in 1998, throwing for 3,704 yards, a career-high 34 touchdowns, and only 10 interceptions on 60.9% passing to lead the Vikings to a 13-1 record as a starter and setting a then-NFL record for most points scored in the regular season; by then, he was more passer than runner, “only” rushing for 132 yards and 1 touchdown. Cunningham’s individual accolades included a fourth Pro Bowl, a third Bert Bell Award, the highest QB rating in the NFL (106.0), First Team All-Pro, and NEA MVP. The magic was short-lived, however; after struggling the following season, he would bounce around for a couple of seasons as a backup in Dallas and Baltimore before retiring for good in 2001 at age 38.
Meanwhile, after his first Pro Bowl season in 2002, Vick only played five games in 2003 due to injury, but would come back with two straight Pro Bowl seasons. In 2004, he led the Falcons to an 11-4 record while completing 56.4% of his passes for 2,313 yards with 14 touchdowns vs. 12 interceptions (good for a 78.1 QB rating), and rushing for 902 yards and 3 touchdowns. The next year, his numbers were similar: 55.3% passing for 2,412 yards, 15 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions for a 73.1 QB rating, plus 597 rushing yards and 6 touchdowns en route to an 8-7 record. While Vick did not make the Pro Bowl in 2006 and only quarterbacked the Falcons to a 7-9 record, it would be a historical season – along with his 2,474 passing yards, 20 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions (75.7 QB rating), Vick rushed for 1,039 yards and 2 touchdowns. In the process, he was the first quarterback ever to rush for 1,000 yards in a season (Cunningham had come close with 942 yards in 1990), set a record with 8.3 yards per rushing attempt, and teamed with running back Warrick Dunn to become the first quarterback-running back tandem to both have 1,000-yard rushing seasons.
Unfortunately, after the 2006 season, Vick would plead guilty to involvement in a dog-fighting ring in Virginia and spend 21 months in federal prison, in the process being suspended by the NFL and later released by the Falcons. Upon his release from prison, he was signed by the Eagles and played sparingly in 2009. But after Philadelphia traded long-time quarterback Donovan McNabb to the rival Washington Redskins in the offseason, Vick would beat out Kevin Kolb to become the starter and had arguably the best season of his career in 2010: while leading the Eagles to an 8-3 record as a starter, he completed 62.6% of his passes for 3,018 yards and 21 touchdowns vs. 6 interceptions (by far his best touchdown-to-interception ratio) for a career-best 100.2 QB rating, and added 676 rushing yards and a career-high 9 touchdowns on the ground. In addition to winning Comeback Player of the Year, Vick was named to his fourth Pro Bowl and won the Bert Bell Award. After another strong 2011 campaign (a career-high 3,303 passing yards with 18 touchdowns vs. 14 interceptions for an 84.9 QB rating, with 589 rushing yards and 1 touchdown), Vick spent two more injury-marred years in Philadelphia, and then bounced around as a backup with the New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers for a couple of seasons before hanging up his cleats for good at age 35 in 2015.
On the whole, Cunningham had the longer and more illustrious career as a quarterback – in three additional seasons and 28 more games started, he leads Vick in most major passing categories and has more 3,000-yard passing seasons and 20+ touchdown seasons (5 to 2 for each). Likewise, his per-game averages are also favorable vs. Vick: 186 passing yards and 1.29 touchdowns vs. 0.83 interceptions against 157 passing yards and 0.93 touchdowns vs. 0.62 interceptions. On the awards and accolades front, while both players were 4x Pro Bowlers and won Comeback Player of the Year, Cunningham was a 2x All-Pro vs. none for Vick and had more Bert Bell Awards and a couple of MVP-type seasons to his name. As a runner, however, Vick was more dynamic, rushing for more yards and touchdowns both on an absolute and per-game and per-rush basis. All in all, as field generals, Cunningham was 30 games above .500 for his career vs. only 10 games above for Vick (though of course football is a team game).
Regular Season Statistics
| Randall Cunningham | Player | Michael Vick |
| 16 (1985-1995, 1997-2001) | Seasons | 13 (2001-2006, 2009-2015) |
| 161 | Games Played | 143 |
| 2,429 | Completions | 1,807 |
| 4,289 | Attempts | 3,217 |
| 29,979 | Passing Yards | 22,464 |
| 56.6% | Completion % | 56.2% |
| 207 | Passing Touchdowns | 133 |
| 134 | Interceptions | 88 |
| 81.5 | QB Rating | 80.4 |
| 4,928 | Rushing Yards | 6,109 |
| 6.4 | Yards Per Attempt | 7.0 |
| 35 | Rushing Touchdowns | 36 |
| 82-52-1 (61.2%) | Starting QB Record | 61-51-1 (54.5%) |
| 4x | Pro Bowls | 4x |
| 2x | All-Pro | – |
| – | MVP | – |
| – | Super Bowls | – |
| 3x Bert Bell, 1x NEA MVP, 1x PFWA MVP, 1x UPI NFC POY, Comeback Player | Other Awards | 1x Bert Bell, Comeback Player |
| – | Hall of Fame Induction | – |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
Relative to their regular season successes, neither Cunningham nor Vick was truly able to elevate their teams in the postseason, posting sub-.500 records overall and never reaching the Super Bowl while putting up numbers generally below their regular season norms.
During his peak with Philadelphia, Cunningham led the Eagles to the playoffs each year from 1988 to 1990, but was unable to win a postseason game; notably, in the “Fog Bowl” in the 1988 Divisional Playoffs vs. the Chicago Bears, he threw for 407 yards, but 0 touchdowns vs. 3 interceptions in a 20-12 loss. While he did lead the Eagles to their first playoff win in a dozen years in 1992 (with the last victory being in 1980 en route to a Super Bowl loss), Cunningham’s greatest playoff success came later on with the Vikings. As the number one seed in 1998, the Vikings would make it to the NFC Championship Game vs. the Atlanta Falcons and were in position in the fourth quarter to put the game away. However, after being the first kicker to make every single kick (field goal and extra point) in the regular season, Gary Anderson missed a field goal that would have put the Vikings up 10 points and instead, the Falcons would march back and win 30-27 in overtime before falling in the Super Bowl to the Denver Broncos; despite the loss, Cunningham played well in his last hurrah, completing 29 of 48 passes for 266 yards and 2 touchdowns with no interceptions.
In his early Falcons days, Vick managed to pull off a couple of playoff victories, but could not push Atlanta past the NFC Championship round. Notably, in his first career playoff start, Vick would lead the Falcons to an upset 27-7 Wildcard win over the Green Bay Packers in 2002 at Lambeau Field, passing for only 117 yards, but leading the team with 64 rushing yards. Similarly, in a dominating 47-17 Divisional victory over the St. Louis Rams in 2004, he only passed for 82 yards, but set a then-record for a quarterback with 119 rushing yards. Later on, during his renaissance 2010 season, Vick again carried his team to the playoffs, but was unable to lead the Eagles past the Wildcard round.
Playoff Statistics
| Randall Cunningham | Player | Michael Vick |
| 12 | Games Played | 6 |
| 192 | Completions | 79 |
| 365 | Attempts | 141 |
| 2,426 | Passing Yards | 977 |
| 52.6% | Completion % | 56.0% |
| 12 | Passing Touchdowns | 5 |
| 9 | Interceptions | 4 |
| 74.3 | QB Rating | 77.6 |
| 273 | Rushing Yards | 271 |
| 5.6 | Yards Per Attempt | 7.3 |
| 2 | Rushing Touchdowns | 1 |
| 3-6 (33.3%) | Starting QB Record | 2-3 (40.0%) |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years. However, due to various career circumstances, including injuries associated with being dual-threat quarterbacks and Vick’s legal troubles, I have modified it in this comparison to a “(half)-decade of dominance”.
(Half)-Decade of Dominance
| Randall Cunningham | Player | Michael Vick |
| 1988-1990, 1992, 1998 | (Half)-Decade of Dominance | 2002, 2004-2006, 2010 |
| 78 | Games Played | 73 |
| 1,354 | Completions | 1,063 |
| 2,366 | Attempts | 1,889 |
| 17,153 | Passing Yards | 13,153 |
| 57.2% | Completion % | 56.3% |
| 128 | Passing Touchdowns | 86 |
| 65 | Interceptions | 52 |
| 86.6 | QB Rating | 81.7 |
| 2,868 | Rushing Yards | 3,991 |
| 6.6 | Yards Per Attempt | 7.2 |
| 21 | Rushing Touchdowns | 28 |
| 54-23 (70.1%) | Starting QB Record | 42-29-1 (59.2%) |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
On a more normalized basis across their (half)-decades of dominance, Cunningham’s superiority arguably shines even more. Once again, his passing numbers are much better than Vick’s stats, including a near 2:1 touchdown to interception ratio, and his win-loss record shines, though Vick remains the more electric runner. While neither player quite makes the cut for the Hall of Fame, for a brief period of time, each one was a dynamic playmaker, while also being incredible to use in video games (Cunningham as “QB Eagles” in Tecmo Super Bowl and Vick in Madden 2004).
My Thoughts
Unlike some of the previous head-to-head comparisons, I think this one is relatively clear. While Vick came into the NFL as a number one overall pick and was expected to dominate the league with both his arm and his legs, he fell short of those lofty expectations, though was nevertheless a dangerous and effective player in his prime. There is a bit of “What might have been?” due to the fact that he missed a couple of peak years because of the dog-fighting scandal and its consequences, but that was self-inflicted. Likewise, Cunningham had his bouts of injury and ineffectiveness, but during his prime years, he was essentially the dual-threat weapon that Vick was expected to be, and has both the numbers and the hardware to show for it. He was also a man ahead of his time, who had a bigger overall impact on revolutionizing the quarterback position and paving the way for today’s dual-threat signal callers (think Cam Newton or Russell Wilson) – one can only imagine how well Cunningham would have fared in today’s NFL.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Randall Cunningham
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
More Good Stuff
- Watch: Get tickets to see the Philadelphia Eagles, Atlanta Falcons, or any other NFL team in action
- Wear: Buy sports apparel for the Eagles, Falcons, or any other NFL team
- Collect: Buy unique sports memorabilia for Randall Cunningham, Michael Vick, or your favorite NFL player(s) or team(s)
- Play: Show off your football knowledge by playing daily fantasy football
- Build: Start your own sports website/blog
Previous
H2H 13: Daniel Sedin vs. Henrik Sedin
