Drafted in the third round in 1973, Fouts helped lead the Chargers to the playoffs from 1979 to 1982 and twice to the AFC title game (1980 and 1981). He led the league four times in passing yards; ending his career with over 40,000, the third player to surpass that landmark. Fouts was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993.
Fouts was a 6-time Pro Bowl selection (1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1985) and compiled passer ratings over 90.0 for a 3-year stretch (1981–83). Fouts was the first NFL player to surpass 4,000 passing yards in three consecutive seasons (1979–81), led the NFL in passing yards in four consecutive seasons(1979–1982) and six times eclipsed the 20-touchdown mark with a career high 33 in 1981. His career high of 4,802 passing yards during the 1981 season was an NFL record at the time.
Fouts set NFL season passing yardage records in three consecutive seasons from 1979 to 1981 with totals of 4,082, 4,715, and 4,802 yards. He broke Joe Namath‘s record of 4,007 set in 1967, and Dan Marino broke Fouts’ record in 1984 with 5,084 yards. The Chargers in 1979 were the first AFC Western Division champion to run more passing plays (541) then rushing (481). In 1982, a season shortened to 9 games because of a strike, Fouts averaged 320 yards passing per game, an NFL record that stood until Drew Brees averaged 342.25 in 2011. (The current record is 342.31, set by Peyton Manning in 2013.) Highlights that season included back-to-back victories against the 1981 Super Bowl teams San Francisco (41-37) and Cincinnati (50-34) in which Fouts threw for over 400 yards in each game to lead the Chargers to shootout victories. That season, he was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player by Pro Football Writers Association and Newspaper Enterprise Association. He finished second in the Associated Press poll behind Mark Moseley, the only kicker to ever win the award.
Fouts garnered All-Pro selections in both 1979 and 1982, while also being named 2nd Team All-Pro in 1980 and 1985. In addition Fouts was also named 2nd Team All-AFC in 1981 and 1983. However, Fouts and the Chargers lost both AFC Championship Games in which they played.
Fouts’s first few years in the league were inauspicious, but with the arrival of head coach Don Coryell in 1978 the Chargers’ fortunes turned. Yet it was actually two years earlier, with the arrival of Bill Walsh as the Charger’s offensive coordinator, that the seeds of success were planted. Under Coryell, the Chargers were known as Air Coryell for the deep passing game and the involvement of the tight end as a key receiver. This required a tough, intelligent quarterback with a strong arm. Fouts fit the bill.
Fouts was not a mobile quarterback and the deep passing game led to many hits. Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh, a Chargers assistant coach in 1976, said “Dan Fouts had a cool, steel-like nerve and courage … He took a lot of beatings, a lot of pounding, but continued to play, hurt or otherwise. He played more physical football than anybody on his team, including the linebackers”.[13] Rarely using the shotgun, Fouts would drop back from center and look for one of a bevy of great receivers. Wide receiver Charlie Joiner and tight end Kellen Winslow were the most famous, both now in the Hall of Fame, but John Jefferson and Wes Chandler, among others, were also key. Fouts’s passing enabled Winslow to lead the NFL in receptions twice (1980,1981), while Winslow (1982) and Lionel James (1985) led the AFC in receptions on another 2 combined occasions. James, in fact, set the NFL record (since broken) in 1985 for receiving yards by a running back at 1,027. Jefferson became the first receiver to have 1,000 yards receiving in each of his first three seasons in the NFL. Both Jefferson (1980) and Chandler (1982) led the NFL in receiving yards. Chandler’s 129 yards receiving per game average in 1982 is still a league record.Both Jefferson (1978, 1980) and Chandler (1982) led the NFL in receiving TDs. In 1980, Winslow, Jefferson and Joiner became the first trio on the same team to have 1,000 yards receiving in a season. When he retired after 1986, Joiner was the NFL’s all-time leader in receptions with 750.
Despite going to the playoffs from 1979 through 1982 and playing in 2 AFC Championship Games, the Chargers never went to the Super Bowl under Fouts (although they went 7 years after his retirement). Usually this is attributed to poor defense and their unwillingness to run the ball. In Fouts’s prime the defense was not as stellar, but the running game became far better with the addition of Chuck Muncie, traded from New Orleans in 1980, and the drafting of James Brooks from Auburn in 1981. It is believed the defense had little opportunity to improve as the offense often scored quickly, leaving the defense to spend far too much time on the field. It also hurt that Fred Dean, an All-Pro sack specialist, was traded away to the San Francisco 49ers in 1981 in a contract dispute, and Dean would win UPI NFC Defensive Player of the Year (while playing in only 11 games) that year en route to a Super Bowl victory and help the 49ers to another Super Bowl title three years later. Dean would later be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Fouts playoff career ended in the AFC Championship game against Miami, where he threw 5 interceptions to only one touchdown pass. Fouts went on to play for four other season with the Chargers, retiring in the year 1987 after 15 years with them. He ended his career as the Chargers all time leader in passing yard and touchdowns with 43,040 and 254 respectively.
Smallthoughts: Old School Tuesday salutes …Dan Fouts.
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