Ken Anderson (quarterback)


Kenneth Allan Anderson is a former American football quarterback who spent his entire professional career playing for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League and later returned as a position coach.
After playing college football for Augustana College, Anderson was selected in the 3rd round of the 1971 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals. Over the course of his 16-season NFL career, Anderson led the league in passer rating four times, completion percentage three times and passing yards twice. In, he was awarded AP NFL Most Valuable Player and AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year, a season in which he led the Bengals to their first Super Bowl appearance. In, Anderson set an NFL record for completion percentage of 70.6%—a record he held for nearly 30 years until it was broken by Drew Brees in.
As of the end of the 2018 NFL season, Anderson owns many of the Cincinnati Bengals franchise passing records, including completions, attempts, yards, touchdowns and interceptions.
After his professional playing career, Anderson served as a radio broadcaster for the Cincinnati Bengals from 1987—1993. From — he served as the Bengals' quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. Anderson would later become the quarterbacks coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Pittsburgh Steelers, before retiring from football in 2010.
Anderson has been a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame twice, and is often regarded as one of the best players not in the Hall of Fame.

Early life

Anderson was born in Batavia, Illinois. Growing up in Batavia, Anderson's backyard met up with his friend, Dan Issel’s back yard. Anderson's father was a janitor at Batavia High School, and the Issel property on Harrison Street backed onto that of the Andersons' on Republic Road. Growing up together, Issel and Anderson rode in Issel's red Ford convertible and frequented the Twin Elms restaurant. Later, Anderson and Issel would co-own a 782 farm in Kentucky. Another neighbor and teammate, Byron Von Hoff, played basketball and other sports at Batavia with Anderson and Issel. Issel became a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
basketball player with the Kentucky Colonels and Denver Nuggets. Von Hoff was the 21st pick of the New York Mets in the 1966
Amateur Baseball draft and pitched successfully in the minor leagues before an injury ended his career. Another friend and teammate at Batavia was future NBA announcer Craig Sager.

Professional career

After playing for and graduating from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, he was selected 67th overall in the 1971 NFL Draft by the Bengals and earned the starting quarterback job in 1972. He became one of the most accurate short-range passers in the league, and was extremely effective at rushing the ball for a quarterback.
With Bill Walsh as his quarterbacks coach, Anderson is 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 Monday Night Football game against the Buffalo Bills in November 1975; Anderson passed for a franchise record 447 yards while the Bengals racked up a franchise record 553 offensive yards in a It was the Bengals' 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 a 21–0 first quarter lead. In the second half, with the Bengals trailing 21-10, Cincinnati coach Forrest Gregg benched Anderson and brought in third-string quarterback Turk Schonert. With Schonert in command of the offense, the Bengals stormed back and won the game 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 two 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 one 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 led the Bengals to their first ever playoff victory over the Buffalo Bills, as he led Cincinnati to a 27–7 win in the AFC championship game 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 to the San Francisco 49ers, but Anderson had a solid performance, especially in the second half, despite his team trailing at the end of the first half. He completed 25 of 34 passes for 300 yards and two touchdowns, with two interceptions, and gained 14 rushing yards and a touchdown on five rushing attempts. At the time, his 25 completions and 73.5% completion percentage were both Super Bowl records.
The following season, 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 two 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 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 for 32,838 yards and 197 touchdowns and 160 interceptions and also gained 2,220 rushing yards and scored 20 rushing 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 four times during his career and led the league in passing yards twice. He was selected to four Pro Bowls. Anderson was voted All-Pro in 1981, 2nd Team All-Pro in 1975, and 2nd Team All-AFC in 1974 and 1982.

Legacy

At the time of Anderson's retirement following the 1986 season, he held NFL records for consecutive pass completions, completion percentage for a single game and completion percentage for a season, as well as the Super Bowl records for completion percentage and completions. While Anderson's record for regular season completion percentage happened in a strike-shortened 9-game season, the previous record he surpassed had been set by Sammy Baugh in a 10-game season, in which Baugh threw 125 fewer passes then Anderson did in 1982. 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. He led the NFL in passing yards and completions twice, and lead the league in fewest interceptions per pass attempt 3 times. He ranks eleventh in NFL history for postseason passer rating, 93.5.

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. He then served as the team's offensive coordinator from 1996 to 2000, and 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 season, along with offensive coordinator Carl Smith and special teams coach Pete Rodriguez, by Jack Del Rio. In January 2007, new Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin hired Anderson as his quarterbacks coach under offensive coordinator Bruce Arians. On January 5, 2010, Tomlin announced that Anderson would be retiring, effective immediately. Anderson earned a Super Bowl ring when the Steelers won Super Bowl XLIII.

Honors

Cincinnati Bengals franchise records

’s NFL off-season, Anderson holds at least 29 Bengals franchise records, including: