Not to be confused withJim Kelly (TE · 1974).

Also in other sports:mlbJim Kelly (RF · 1914–1918).

Jim Kelly is a Hall of Fame quarterback whose career earned a strong career value score of 71 in the Knox value model. Kelly's enshrinement reflects a career that consistently placed him among the elite of his generation.

On the boards· Appears on 2 boards

QBBUF#12ACT

Jim Kelly

★ HALL OF FAME5× Pro Bowl1× All-ProTop 5% all-time QBsIron Legend⚙️ Sustained Machine · 1991

Height6'3"

Weight

Career Value · VORP

326 career value over replacement — #100 all-time of 4,695. 29.6/season above a replacement-level QB.

Draft OutcomeValue ↑

Pick #14 (Rd 1) · BUF · 1983 · +13.3 vs expected KV-H

71actual

57.7 expected · Δ+13.3

💔+29.3 stolen VORP·0.99 szns lost

Fan Rating

Rate Jim Kelly — All-Time

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Compare Jim Kelly vs Player Report data error

All-Time Standing

how this career measures against the all-time greats at the position

Depth

of 100

Reached 40% of the all-time Passing Yards leader — a rotational/depth all-time profile at the position.

40% of the all-time Passing Yards leader40

2 categories ≥25% of the all-time leader67

A 0–100 scale where 100 = matched the all-time leader at this position. Built only from visible encyclopedia data — career production vs. the all-time leader, plus efficiency (EPA) and comparable-player confidence — so it's a transparent context score, not a subjective rating. Tiers: Elite ≥ 85 · Strong ≥ 65 · Solid ≥ 45 · Depth < 45. Comparable-player confidence: 89%.

Encyclopedia Coverage4/8 data layers

StatVault aggregates multiple open-licensed and proprietary sources into a single profile. The depth indicator above shows which layers are available for this player.

Bio & DraftBirth date, height/weight, draft round/pick, college — sourced from nflverse players.csv (CC-BY 4.0). Covers all NFL eras.

Season Stats (1999–present)Week-by-week box scores aggregated to season totals: passing, rushing, receiving, defense. Source: nflverse player_stats. Counting stats are exact; rates are derived.

Advanced (EPA, 1999–present)Not available for this player

Snap Counts (2012–present)Not available for this player

Defensive StatsNot available for this player

College StatsCollege attribution is present, but this profile artifact does not yet carry a parsed college stat table.

NFL Combine / Pro DayNot available for this player

Proprietary LayersKV-H (Knox Value-Historical) — era-normalized career rating 0–100 calibrated within position group (1999+ coverage). SIS (Snap Impact Score, 2012+) — per-snap production z-scored within position. VORP — value over replacement player. Durability IQ — games-played percentile adjusted for era.

Where this data comes from

Modern-era stats (1999+) come from nflverse's open data releases. Pre-1999 seasons are backfilled additively from Wikipedia and NFL.com's own official season pages — never from rights-restricted sources.

nflverse — CC-BY 4.0 — attribution required
Wikipedia — Facts extracted under Feist v. Rural Telephone; courtesy CC-BY-SA attribution
NFL.com — Official league site; facts extracted under Feist, courtesy attribution

Methodology · Trust Center

Career Aging Trajectory

vs. position group average · KV-H basis

Career Milestones11

Major career thresholds crossed, derived from regular-season totals (1999+).

19861K career passing yards
19875K career passing yards
198725 career passing TDs
198850 career passing TDs
198910K career passing yards
1990100 career passing TDs
1992

Understanding These Stats

Passing

Cmp / Att — Completions and pass attempts.

Cmp% — Completion percentage — completions ÷ attempts × 100.

Yds — Passing yards — total air + yards after catch on completions.

TD / TD% — Passing touchdowns. TD% = TDs per 100 attempts, measuring scoring efficiency.

Int / Int% — Interceptions thrown. Int% = INTs per 100 attempts — the primary ball-security metric.

Y/A — Yards per attempt — passing yards ÷ attempts. The core passing efficiency rate.

AdjY/A — Adjusted yards per attempt: (Pass Yds + 20×TD − 45×INT) ÷ Att. Penalizes turnovers and rewards touchdowns — widely considered the most predictive single-season QB metric.

TD:INT — TD-to-interception ratio — passing touchdowns ÷ interceptions thrown. Elite QBs sustain career ratios above 3.0; HOF greats often exceed 4.0. Not shown when no interceptions.

Rate — NFL passer rating — the official formula combining Cmp%, Y/A, TD%, and INT% on a 0–158.3 scale. Good QB performance ≈ 90+; elite ≈ 110+.

Sk — Times sacked — how many times the QB was brought down behind the line of scrimmage.

College Stats

MiamiCollege listed; stat table pending import

College stats are not imported for this profile yet.

StatVault has the verified college attribution (Miami), but no parsed college box-score table is present in this profile artifact. The section stays here so every profile has a consistent college-stats landing point without fabricating unavailable rows.

Reference Graph

Career teammates and draft class, derived from year-by-year rosters — every name is linked.

Top Teammates

Bruce SmithDE11y Andre ReedWR11y Pete MetzelaarsTE9y Cornelius BennettOLB9y

Franchise Succession

the room, before and after

Jim inherited the Buffalo Bills QB room from Joe Ferguson (1973–1984), and handed it to Doug Flutie (1998–2000).

Joe Ferguson 1973–1984Jim Kelly 1986–1996Doug Flutie 1998–2000Drew Bledsoe 2002–2004Trent Edwards 2007–2010Ryan Fitzpatrick

Similar Players

Statistical + physical similarity across every player in the database, position-relevant (0–100%).

Movementderived from season history

1996final season
Last recorded season with BUF
1983draft
Drafted by BUF — Round 1, Pick 14

Athletic & Unique Profile

verified measurements and curated source-tagged facts

6'3" / 226 lb

Frame

Knox

StatVault's proprietary player intelligence, informed by full career data. How Knox works →

Historical Knox · KV-H

Era-normalized career quality — z-scored against 11-season peers. See all →

peak 72

Season Report Cards· KV-H era-normalized per season

B1986

B1987

B1988

B1989

B1990

B+1991

B1992

B1993

B1994

B1995

B1996

Availability

Career durability — games played vs. scheduled, across 11 seasons.

Era Translator

Pass Yds translated to the 2025 NFL — each season's standing among its own-era peers, projected onto 2025's scoring environment. Modern-era (1999+) coverage.

Season	Actual Pass Yds	Pass Yds/G	→ 2025 Pass Yds	→ 2025 /G
1986	3,593	224.6	4,199+606	247
1987	2,798	233.2	4,203+1,405	247.2
1988	3,380	211.3	4,023+643	236.6
1989	3,130	240.8	4,274+1,144	251.4
1990	2,829	202.1	3,986+1,157	234.5
1991	3,844	256.3	4,440+596	261.2
1992	3,457	216.1	4,153+696	244.3
1993	3,382	211.4	4,062+680	239
1994	3,114	222.4	4,104+990	241.4
1995	3,130	208.7	3,957+827	232.8
1996	2,810	216.2	4,053+1,243	238.4

Data: nflverse:draft_picks, nflverse:players, statvault:restored-from-history (S316) · multi-source verified via the StatVault Oracle · updated 8/31/2026

Rushing

Att — Rushing attempts (carries).

Yds — Rushing yards.

TD — Rushing touchdowns.

Y/A — Yards per carry — rushing yards ÷ carries. The core rushing efficiency rate; 4.5+ is solid, 5+ is elite.

TD% — Touchdown rate per carry (TDs ÷ carries × 100) — measures scoring efficiency per touch independent of volume. Red-zone workhorses lead here.

1D — First downs gained on rushing plays.

1D% — First-down conversion rate (first downs ÷ carries × 100) — how often a carry moves the chains. Top RBs convert on 25%+ of attempts.

Fmb — Rushing fumbles lost — the key ball-security stat for running backs. Below 1 per season is elite.

Receiving

Tgt — Targets — how many times the receiver was thrown to, regardless of completion.

Rec — Receptions — catches made.

Yds — Receiving yards.

TD — Receiving touchdowns.

Ctch% — Catch rate — receptions ÷ targets × 100. Measures how reliably a receiver turns opportunities into gains. 70%+ is elite.

Y/R — Yards per reception — receiving yards ÷ receptions. Measures big-play ability; 15+ is elite for WRs.

Y/Tgt — Yards per target — receiving yards ÷ targets. The single most complete receiving efficiency metric: accounts for both drops and incomplete targets. Elite receivers post 8+ yards per target.

AirYd/T — Air yards per target — average depth of route at time of target. High values indicate a deep threat role; low values indicate a slot/check-down role.

1D — First downs gained on receiving plays.

Proprietary StatVault Metrics

KV-H (Knox Value-Historical) — Era-normalized career rating 0–100 within position group, calibrated so a 50 = average starter and 90+ = all-time great. Covers 1999–present. Built on a 5-year IQR/robust-std era window.

SIS (Snap Impact Score) — Per-snap production z-scored within position group and era (2012+). Measures how much a player produced per opportunity, not raw volume.

VORP (Value Over Replacement) — Sum of max(0, season KV-H − positional replacement level) across a career. Measures career value above the minimum-roster baseline at each position.

Durability IQ — 0–100 score reflecting how many games a player played relative to peers at the same position in the same era. Adjusts for injury-shortened seasons.

Canton Monitor · HOF

Enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. See all →

✓

Enshrined

What carries the case

Longevity 25.5%Era Quality (KV-H) 23.4%Pro Bowls 23.2%All-Pro 18.6%League Leads 6.2%All-Time Ranks 3.1%

Monitor score 64.6 · components sum to the score (All-Pro ×12 · Pro Bowl ×3 · League Lead ×4 · ranks/era/longevity weighted).

Career Fingerprint

Statistical profile across 5 dimensions

Overall

Longevity87

Peak72

Accolades26

Consistency50

Per-Snap50

On the boards· Appears on 2 boards

Jim Kelly

All-Time Standing

Where this data comes from

Career Aging Trajectory

College Stats

Reference Graph

Top Teammates

Franchise Succession

Similar Players

Movementderived from season history

Athletic & Unique Profile

Knox

Era Translator

1983 Draft Class· this player went #14

Career Geography