Not to be confused withSteve Young (OT · 1976–1979).

Steve Young ranks in the all-time elite tier for quarterbacks — a career that places Young in the top 10% of all players at the position. The Knox value model assigns Young a career score of 68, reflecting sustained impact that most players at the position never approach.

On the boards· Appears on 5 boards

QBSF#8ACT

Steve Young

👑 Dynasty DNA · 14 seasons · 3 titles Top 9% all-time QBsElite Playmaker📈 Late Developer · 1998

Height6'2"

Weight215 lb

Born

Career Value · VORP

290 career value over replacement — #152 all-time of 4,695. 20.7/season above a replacement-level QB.

Draft OutcomeValue ↑

Pick #1 (Rd 1) · TB · 1984 · +4.7 vs expected KV-H

68actual

63.3 expected · Δ+4.7

💔+75.3 stolen VORP·3.64 szns lost

Fan Rating

Rate Steve Young — All-Time

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Compare Steve Young vs Player Report data error

All-Time Standing

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

Depth

of 100

Reached 37% of the all-time Passing Yards leader — a rotational/depth all-time profile at the position.

37% of the all-time Passing Yards leader37

3 categories ≥25% of the all-time leader100

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 Milestones13

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

19861K career passing yards
19881K career rushing yards
19895K career passing yards
198925 career passing TDs
199150 career passing TDs
199210K career passing yards
1993

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

BYUCollege listed; stat table pending import

College stats are not imported for this profile yet.

StatVault has the verified college attribution (BYU), 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

Jerry RiceWR13y Brent JonesTE11y John TaylorWR9y Merton HanksDB8y

Franchise Succession

the room, before and after

Steve inherited the San Francisco 49ers QB room from Joe Montana (1979–1992), and handed it to Jeff Garcia (1999–2003).

Y. A. Tittle 1951–1960Joe Montana 1979–1992Steve Young 1987–1999Jeff Garcia 1999–2003Alex Smith 2005–2012Colin Kaepernick

Similar Players

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

Movementderived from season history

1999final season
Last recorded season with SF
1987team change
Joined SF (from TB)
1984draft
Drafted by TB — Round 1, Pick 1

Athletic & Unique Profile

verified measurements and curated source-tagged facts

6'2" / 215 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 14-season peers. See all →

peak 74

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

D1985

C+1986

D1987

D1988

C1989

F1990

B1991

B1992

B+1993

B+1994

B+1995

C+1996

B1997

B+1998

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
1985	935	187	3,980+3,045	234.1
1986	2,282	163	3,725+1,443	219.1
1987	570	71.3	2,974+2,404	174.9
1988	680	61.8	2,914+2,234	171.4
1989	1,001	100.1	3,162+2,161	186
1990	427	71.2	2,935+2,508	172.7
1991	2,517	228.8	4,214+1,697	247.9
1992	3,465	216.6	4,158+693	244.6
1993	4,023	251.4	4,421+398	260.1
1994	3,969	248.1	4,341+372	255.4
1995	3,200	290.9	4,838+1,638	284.6
1996	2,410	200.8	3,874+1,464	227.9
1997	3,029	201.9	3,874+845	227.9
1998	4,170	278	4,823+653	283.7

Data: nflverse:players, nflverse:player_stats, 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

Calibrated Hall-of-Fame probability — fit against actual enshrinement. See all →

11%

Longshot

What carries the case

League Leads 50.5%Era Quality (KV-H) 43.2%All-Time Ranks 6.3%

Monitor score 31.7 · 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

Longevity80

Peak74

Accolades13

Consistency50

Per-Snap50

On the boards· Appears on 5 boards

Steve Young

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

1984 Draft Class· this player went #1