Teams
- Washington Redskins (1984-1987)
- Los Angeles Raiders (1988-1992)
- Cincinnati Bengals (1993)
- Arizona Cardinals (1994)
Accolades
- 1x Pro Bowl (1986)
- Super Bowl Champion (XXII)
“I think Jay, right now, wants to be somewhere else and shouldn’t be playing quarterback for this team with his frame of mind. So, that’s how it stands right now . . . It’s tough for him to be mentally right.”
-Joe Gibbs, Hall of Fame Head Coach, Washington Redskins (source)
Jay Schroeder (pronounced “SHRAY-der”) wasn’t even supposed to play pro football. He played only one season at UCLA, throwing the ball just 70 times. Instead, he had his sights set on Major League Baseball, and as a catcher was taken #3 overall in the 1979 MLB Draft. But Schroeder never made it past A-ball and entered the NFL Draft in 1984, where he was taken 83rd overall by the Washington Redskins. After seeing no action his rookie year, he replaced Joe Theismann during the infamous 1985 game in which the former league MVP suffered a compound fracture. Down the stretch, Schroeder was terrific, winning four of five starts and averaging 234.5 passing yards per game as Washington just missed the playoffs at 10-6.
Following Theismann’s retirement, Jay Schroeder took over the starting job in the Nation’s Capital and outdid his previous season’s stretch run. In becoming the eighth player of the decade to exceed 4,000 yards passing (4,109), the former Blue Jays prospect scored 23 TDs and led the NFL with 14.9 yards per completion. Although he also tossed 22 picks, he led the Redskins to a Wild Card berth at 12-4.
In a 19-7 win over the Rams, Schroeder only threw for 90 yards, but a touchdown as well. The real test came the following week against the defending Super Bowl Champion Bears and their NFL-best defense. In a stunner, Schroeder totaled 200 yards and two TDs in a 27-13 upset over the Monsters of the Midway. Washington would fall just short of the Super Bowl though against the league’s #2 defense. In a 17-0 loss to the Giants, Schroeder would attempt 50 passes, but only complete 20 of them for 195 yards and a pick. New York would defeat Denver two weeks later to win their first Super Bowl.
The 1987 season was a strange one as the NFL players went on strike and were replaced by scabs for three weeks. Between the strike, and injuries, Jay Schroeder was limited to ten starts, but he won eight of them. Although, his 71.0 QB rating was only good enough for 20th in the league. More importantly though, he found himself on the bench for the postseason run for Doug Williams, further fueling a mutual dislike between the competitors for the starting job. When Williams went down with a leg injury in Super Bowl XXII, Schroeder stepped in and was promptly sacked, before being induced into an incompletion. Doug Williams would heroically return on the next drive, en route to winning Super Bowl MVP in a 42-10 trouncing of Denver.
With a pickle on their hands, Washington chose to commit to their Super Bowl MVP and traded Jay Schroeder to the L.A. Raiders at the beginning of the 1988 season. This was partly helped along by Schroeder’s “toxic” locker room behavior. It would be a rocky year for Schroeder and the Silver & Black. He went 3-5 as starter while his competitor at the QB position, Steve Beuerlein, went 4-4. Neither QB eclipsed a 70.0 passer rating as the Raiders went 7-9. Schroeder started the 1989 campaign as the #1 signal caller, but struggled with just eight TDs in 11 appearances to 13 INTs. He would go 4-5 in his starts and L.A. missed the playoffs again at 8-8.
In 1990, his first full season as head coach, Art Shell went with Jay Schroeder at quarterback. His choice ended up starting all 16 games for only the second time in his career. And like in ’86 with Washington, he led his team to a 12-4 record. It would be a career year for Schroeder. While he wouldn’t surpass 3,000 yards passing, he tossed 19 TDs to just nine INTs, led the NFL in yards/attempt (8.5) and yards/completion (15.7), and posted a career-best 90.8 QB rating. He would also have his best career posteason game. In a 20-10 defeat of Cincinnati, Schroeder threw for 172 yards, two TDs, and one INT. Again on the cusp of the Super Bowl, he would again fall short. In a 51-3 embarrassment at the hands of Buffalo, Schroeder would be intercepted five times and held to just 150 yards passing, ending his finest season to date on a sour note.
The 1991 season would also end on a sour note for Jay Schroeder. Despite leading the Raiders to a 9-6 record, he would be benched for the final regular season game, as well as the Wild Card match-up (both against Kansas City), for Todd Marinovich. The result was two losses. Schroeder split starts with Marinovich in ’92, and both were awful, neither managing to exceed a passer rating of 63.3. Jay Schroeder would start three games for the Bengals in ’93, failing to win a start. The 1994 season would be his last in the NFL. And while he went 5-3 as starter for Arizona, he only scored four TDs to seven picks.
If Jay Schroeder could just freeze the 1986 and 1990 seasons in time, he’d have a helluva career to hang his hat on. But two memorable seasons weren’t enough to keep the baseball prospect turned NFL gunslinger on either of the franchises that were committed to him for a short time. Still, a 4,000 yard season in the ‘80s was truly a feat, and in 1991 he became only the second quarterback to have led both an NFC team and an AFC team to their respective league championship games. Schroeder also managed to be tops in the NFL in yards per completion three times, showing that a catcher’s arm could translate to pro football. Unfortunately, despite his indisputable talent, he was often his own worst enemy. An unfortunate cloud lingering over a career that was laden with potential.
Chart
| Season | W-L% | Tot Y/G | Tot TD/G | Tot TO/G | Y/C/Y/A | Cmp % | TD% | Int% |
| Reg Season | 0.093 | -0.088 | -0.115 | 0.050 | 0.101 | -0.096 | 0.025 | -0.016 |
| Playoffs | 0.080 | -0.305 | -0.333 | -0.239 | -0.168 | -0.185 | -0.251 | -0.370 |
Longevity Bonus = 0.8 Title Bonus = 0.3
Index Score = 0.282 (average QB = 0.0)
Deviation Rank (out of 153)
| Season | W-L% | Tot Y/G | Tot TD/G | Tot TO/G | Y/C/Y/A | Cmp % | TD% | Int% |
| Reg Season | 32nd | 120th | 119th | 101st | 5th | 151st | 81st | 109th |
| Playoffs | T-26th | 137th | 123rd | 124th | 145th | 143rd | 117th | 124th |
Why isn’t he on the Top 100 list?
Jay Schroeder was a big league downfield passer… which also means he was inaccurate and turnover prone. He’s a Bottom 5 guy for completion percentage deviation (#151). He’s also outside the Top 100 in both turnovers per game (#101) and INT rate (#109). Despite going 3-2 in the playoffs, he didn’t contribute solid postseason numbers. While he’s Top 30 in win-loss percentage, he’s outside the Top 100 in the other seven postseason categories.
But what made him good?
Jay Schroeder could win games (despite himself)? He holds an impressive 61-38 record in the regular season to go with his 3-2 postseason record. But I mentioned he was a gunslinger, right? He’s #5 all time in regular season average of yards/completion + yards/attempt. Unfortunately that didn’t somehow translate to the postseason where he’s in the Bottom 10 for the same category. Still, he won eight games for the eventual Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins in ’87, earning him a 0.3 point bonus. And he was his teams’ primary starter for 7.5 years, earning him another 0.8 point bonus.
The Quarterback Project 