Ken Anderson (quarterback)

For the defensive lineman, see Ken Anderson (defensive lineman).

Ken Anderson

No. 14
Position:	Quarterback
Personal information
Date of birth:	(1949-02-15) February 15, 1949
Place of birth:	Batavia, Illinois
Height:
Weight:
Career information
College:	Augustana
NFL draft:	1971 / Round: 3 / Pick: 67
Career history
As player:
Cincinnati Bengals (1971–1986)
As coach:
Cincinnati Bengals (1993–2002) Jacksonville Jaguars (2003–2006) Pittsburgh Steelers (2007–2009)
Career highlights and awards
4× Pro Bowl selection (1975, 1976, 1981, 1982) 1× First-team All-Pro selection (1981) 2× Second-team All-Pro selection (1974, 1975) 3× NFL Completion Percentage Leader (1974, 1982, 1983) 2× NFL Passing Yards Leader (1974, 1975) 1981 NFL MVP 1981 PFWA NFL MVP 1981 NEA NFL MVP 1981 NFL Offensive Player of the Year 1981 Bert Bell Award 1981 NFL Comeback Player of the Year Cincinnati Bengals all-time career leader (career wins, games played, passing yards, pass touchdowns, pass attempts, pass completions, Interceptions) As coach Super Bowl champion (XLIII)
Career NFL statistics
TD–INT: 197–160 Yards: 32,838 QB Rating: 81.9 Pass completions: 2,654 Pass attempts: 4,475 Player stats at NFL.com

Kenneth Allan "Ken" Anderson (born February 15, 1949) is a former American football quarterback who spent his entire professional career playing for the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL and later returned as a position coach.

Playing career

NFL

Anderson was born in Batavia, Illinois. After playing for and graduating from Augustana College (Illinois), he was drafted 67th overall in the 1971 NFL Draft by the Bengals and earned the starting quarterback job in 1972. He would become one of the most accurate short-range passers in the league, and was extremely effective at rushing the ball for a quarterback.

Because Bill Walsh was his quarterbacks coach, Anderson is considered to be one of the first quarterbacks to run what would become known as the "West Coast Offense." One of the finest performances of his early career was in a 1975 Monday Night Football game against the Buffalo Bills. In the game, Anderson passed for a franchise record 447 yards while the Bengals racked up a franchise record 553 offensive yards on their way to a 33-21 win. It was the team's first ever win in a Monday night game.

Anderson's best season was in 1981, although it started out very badly for him. In the Bengals opening game against the Seattle Seahawks, Anderson was intercepted twice in the first half and the Seahawks built up 21-10 halftime lead. In the second half, Cincinnati coach Forrest Gregg benched Anderson and brought in third string quarterback Turk Schonert (second string quarterback Jack Thompson was injured at the time). With Schonert in command of the offense, the Bengals stormed back and won the game 27-21. Gregg considered starting Schonert or Thompson for the next game against the New York Jets, but decided to stick with Anderson after an impassioned discussion the two had during the week leading up to the game. Anderson took advantage of his second chance by throwing for 246 yards and 2 touchdowns, and the Bengals won the game 31-30.

By the time the season ended, Anderson had completed 62.6% of his passes for 3,754 yards and 29 touchdowns, with only 10 interceptions leading the NFL with a career-high 98.4 passer rating. He also gained another 320 yards and 1 touchdown on the ground. This performance earned him both the Associated Press and Professional Football Writers of America NFL Most Valuable Player Awards and the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award. Anderson then lead the Bengals to their first ever playoff victory over the Buffalo Bills, and then he led Cincinnati to a 27-7 win in the AFC championship game (which later became known as the Freezer Bowl) over the San Diego Chargers, earning a trip to the first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.

The Bengals lost Super Bowl XVI 26-21 against the San Francisco 49ers, but Anderson had a solid performance, especially in the second half, despite his team trailing 20-0 at the end of the first half. He completed 25 of 34 passes for 300 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 2 interceptions, and gained 14 rushing yards and a touchdown on 5 rushing attempts. At the time, his 25 completions and 73.5% completion percentage were both Super Bowl records.

The following season (1982), Anderson set an NFL record by completing 70.6% of his passes. But his team lost in the first round of the playoffs at Riverfront Stadium to the New York Jets. Anderson continued as the Bengals starting quarterback for the next 2 seasons, but in both seasons he threw more interceptions than touchdowns, was injured for stretches, and the Bengals failed to make the playoffs. In 1985 he was replaced by Boomer Esiason for the third game of the season, a home contest against the San Diego Chargers. From this point on, Anderson backed up Esiason before retiring after the 1986 season.

In his 16 NFL seasons, Anderson completed 2,654 of 4,475 passes (59.3%) for 32,838 yards and 197 touchdowns and 160 interceptions. He also gained 2,220 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns on 397 carries. His completions, passing yards, and touchdown passes are all Bengals records. His 2,220 rushing yards are the most ever by a Bengals quarterback. Anderson led the NFL in Quarterback Rating 4 times during his career (1974, '75, '81 and '82) and led the league in passing yards twice (1974, 1975). He was selected to 4 Pro-Bowls (1975-76 & 1981-82). Anderson was voted All-Pro in 1981, 2nd Team All-Pro in 1975 and 2nd Team All-AFC in 1974 & 1982.

Although not officially retired by the Bengals, Anderson's number 14 had been held in reserve and not assigned to any player by the team until Anderson started coaching for division rival Pittsburgh Steelers. The holding of number 14 was most evident in 1998, when the Bengals signed Neil O'Donnell, who wore number 14 during most of his career. O'Donnell wore number 12 during his one-year stay in Cincinnati, the only time in his NFL career he didn't wear number 14. Currently, Andy Dalton has acquired number 14 for the Bengals, since being drafted in 2011.

Legacy

At the time of Anderson's retirement following the 1986 season, he held NFL records for consecutive pass completions (20), completion percentage for a single game (20 of 22, 90.9%, vs. Pittsburgh in 1974) and completion percentage for a season (70.6% in 1982), as well as the Super Bowl records for completion percentage (73.5%) (since broken by Phil Simms) and completions (25; Tom Brady holds the current record with 37). Furthermore, Anderson was ranked 6th all-time for passing yards in a career at the time of his retirement. Anderson's record for completion percentage in a season stood for 27 years after his retirement (broken by Drew Brees in 2009). As of 2005, he is among the top 30 all-time leaders in pass attempts (24th), completions (18th), passing yards (21st) and passing touchdowns (28th). He led the NFL in passing yards and completions twice, and lead the league in fewest interceptions per pass attempt 3 times. He ranks seventh in NFL history for postseason quarterback rating, 93.5.

He has been nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame several times, and on two occasions was among the 15 finalists for enshrinement (1996 and 1998).

In 2008, NFL Network selected Anderson as #10 on their list of top 10 players who have not yet made it into the hall of fame.

Every game with two 400 or more yard quarterbacks

Rank	Quarterback	Date	Game	Attempts	Comp	Yards	TDs	INTs	Rating
1	Ken O'Brien Dan Marino	9/21/1986	New York Jets: 51 Miami Dolphins: 45	43 50	29 30	479 448	4 6	1 2	126.0 112.3
Total:			96 Points	93	59	927	10	3
2	Matt Schaub Donovan McNabb	9/19/2010	Houston Texans: 30 Washington Redskins: 27	52 38	38 28	497 426	3 1	1 0	114.0 119.0
Total:			57 Points	90	66	923	4	1
3	Dan Marino Drew Bledsoe	9/4/1994	Miami Dolphins: 39 New England Patriots: 35	42 51	23 32	473 421	5 4	1 2	124.3 96.6
Total:			74 Points	93	55	894	9	3
4	Jim Kelly Steve Young	9/13/1992	Buffalo Bills: 34 San Francisco 49ers: 31	33 37	22 26	403 449	3 3	1 1	126.2 127.0
Total:			65 Points	70	48	852	6	2
5	Dan Fouts Ken Anderson	12/20/1982	San Diego Chargers: 50 Cincinnati Bengals: 34	40 56	25 40	435 416	1 2	2 1	87.0 97.0
Total:			84 Points	96	65	851	3	3
6	Dan Fouts Don Strock	1/2/1982	San Diego Chargers: 41 Miami Dolphins: 38	53 43	33 29	433 403	3 4	1 1	116.2 118.7
Total:			79 Points	96	62	836	7	2

Coaching career

After serving as a color analyst for the Bengals' radio broadcasts from 1987–1992, Anderson re-joined the team in 1993 as their quarterbacks coach, a position he held until 1996. After that, he served as the team's offensive coordinator from 1996–2000, and then again as the team's quarterbacks coach in 2001 and 2002. In 2003 he became a wide receivers coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and was their quarterbacks coach. He was fired after the 2006 8-8 season along with the offensive coordinator Carl Smith and special teams coach Pete Rodriguez by Jack Del Rio. In January 2007, new Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin hired Anderson as his quarterbacks coach under offensive coordinator Bruce Arians. On January 5, 2010, Mike Tomlin announced that Anderson would be retiring, effective immediately. Anderson earned a Super Bowl ring when the Steelers won Super Bowl XLIII.

Personal

He and his wife Cristy live in Pittsburgh. Anderson has three children, Matt, Megan, and Molly. He attended Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University and received a law degree. In the early 1980s, Ken was featured in an ad for the National Coffee Association as a Coffee Achiever.

External links

• Ken Anderson at Pro-Football-Reference.com
• Ken Anderson at the Internet Movie Database
• Pittsburgh Steelers coaching bio

References

Sporting positions
Preceded by Mark Whipple	Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterbacks Coach 2007–2009	Succeeded by Randy Fichtner
Preceded by Bruce Coslet	Cincinnati Bengals Offensive Coordinators 1996–2000	Succeeded by Bob Bratkowski