All time, a few hall of famers had terrible scores. Jim Kelly, Bradshaw, Marino -- all scored a 15. Favre had a 22. Then there were some 'good for awhile' guys like McNabb (14), Vick (20), Cunningham (15), Culpepper (18), McNair (15). Of these guys, Vick was the most recently drafted, in 2001. Of the 100% verified successful career-long franchise QBs drafted in the last 15 years, Roethlisberger is the lowest with a score of 25. But there's something I didn't note before...PhadedCN wrote: Is there any QB with great success that scored very low on the wonderlic? Just curious as you mentioned that study. Or was it literally higher than 25 for all of them?
Newton had a score of 21, and Derek Carr had a score of 20, so if we believe these two will sustain their recent success for the rest of their careers, then they lower the bar. I'm not sold on Newton, though; three medicore seasons preceded his 2015 breakout, which was largely made possible by an O-line that dominated most of its schedule (but which then got beat up in the Super Bowl, and Bad Cam immediately reappeared), so we may have already seen his career's peak. Carr looks legit to me, however.
Personally, what I ultimately conclude from all this is that a QB having a mid-20s or higher Wonderlic score is much more preferable in today's NFL than it was in the 90s and earlier, but it's still only a guideline, not some hard rule.
That said, I do think we're very unlikely to ever see another Hall of Famer with a score of 15.
