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Gannon and his 114 Regular Season Touchdowns |
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The Breakdown Rich Gannon threw 114 touchdown passes as a Raider. During that 6 year time period Gannon found 21 different players for touchdowns. Here is the breakdown. BIG SHOCK: Tim Brown is #1!! Tim Brown-30 Jerry Rice-16 Rickey Dudley-13 Jerry Porter-9 Charlie Garner-7 Andre Rison-6 Tyrone Wheatley-5 James Jett-4 Jon Ritchie-4 Jeremy Brigham-3 Doug Jolley-3 Roland Williams-3 Napolean Kaufman-2 Alvis Whitted-2 Zack Crockett-1 Ronald Curry-1 Doug Gabriel-1 Teyo Johnson-1 Randy Jordan-1 Terry Kirby-1 Derrick Walker-1 Proven Winner As a starter in Oakland, Rich Gannon's record was impeccable. Click Here for his record in comparison to other Raider starting quarterbacks. So it's time to reflect on Gannon's place in the Raiders universe. Maybe not the best quarterback to ever play for the Raiders, but he's certainly in the discussion. He's absolutely the most important Raiders player of the past decade, since their return to Oakland. He is the most important free-agent signing in Raiders history. He is the most significant Raider since the glory days, which ended in the mid-'80s. It was on Gannon's watch that the Raiders returned to some semblance of greatness. It was thanks to Gannon's efforts that the Raiders stopped being a league joke. That they finally shed the stench of rotten quarterbacks, such as Marc Wilson, Jay Schroeder, Todd Marinovich and Jeff George. ``I think I brought some stability and leadership to the position,'' he said. ``I tried to install a toughness and discipline in players. I think I left my mark on the organization.'' He made the Raiders competitive. ``When I stood under center we were in every game, with a chance to win, with the exception of a few games,'' Gannon said. ``We did it on a consistent basis. And in the games I didn't play, the reality is that wasn't the case.'' He's absolutely right. Of the 81 games that Gannon started, the Raiders only lost six by more than a touchdown (and one of those was the AFC title game against Baltimore that he didn't finish). Of the other 26 losses on Gannon's record, the margin of defeat was an astonishingly low 4.1 points.
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Firsts and Lasts James Jett caught the first touchdown pass that Gannon threw as a Raider quarterback (1999 week #2 against the Vikings in Minnesota) Ronald Curry caught Gannon's 114th and apparently final TD pass as the teams quarterback (2004 week #2 against the Bills in Oakland). Gannon led the Team of the Decades to three consecutive AFC Western Division titles from 2000-02, forwarding the Silver and Black's tradition of playing in Championship games at the start of each of the past four decades.
"Six years ago, in 1999, I was really a journeyman quarterback. I'd played in the league 11 or 12 years, and [was] never given an opportunity to really be an everyday player. In 1999, The Oakland Raiders, Al Davis, gave me that opportunity to be an everyday starter and gave me really a chance to have my own football team, if you will, and I tried to make the most of that opportunity," Rich Gannon 8/6/05 "He gave us something we needed, and we needed it badly. He gave us a work ethic." Al Davis 8/6/05 The Stats tell it all
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