Anthony Calvillo’s career stacks up with the greatest CFL quarterbacks of all time

After battling a concussion for the latter half of the 2013 season, Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo officially announced his retirement at a press conference Tuesday morning. While this may not spell the end of his involvement with football, it does put the cap on his playing career, and that enables us to start looking at how his numbers stack up from a historical perspective. Calvillo is professional football's all-time leader in passing yards (and one of only two CFL-only quarterbacks in the top 10) as well as the CFL's all-time leader in touchdowns, so his career success is obvious, but he did spend 20 seasons in the league, so some have passed him off as more of a compiler than an a true great. When you look at the numbers more closely, though, it seems clear Calvillo should be up there in the very top ranks of CFL quarterbacks, as he not only put up rate stats that stack up with the best, but also hit peaks that are just as high as some of the greatest. Here's a chart showing how Calvillo stacks up with some of the CFL's greatest (for reference, the comparables here are the other seven players in the top 15 in total pro football career passing yardage who spent time in the CFL; only their CFL stats are considered) from an overall career perspective:

(All stats in that sheet are from totalfootballstats.com, except for 2013 stats, which are from CFL.ca; yards per attempt stats for active quarterbacks don't include 2013, as CFL.ca doesn't track that stat.)

As you can see from that list, Calvillo does very well in overall numbers, but he spent more time in the CFL than anyone but Damon Allen. However, he also stacks up well against that list in rate numbers such as completion percentage (he's behind only Ray), yards per attempt (he's tied for third with Flutie, behind just Moon and Burris), TD/INT (he's the only quarterback over 2.0) and passer rating (he's behind only Ray). Thus, Calvillo was just as successful of any of these guys on a year-to-year basis. To further illustrate that point, here's a list of the top five CFL seasons in passing yards:

(All stats in that sheet are from totalfootballstats.com.)

While this is far from an exhaustive list of the greatest CFL quarterbacking seasons ever (you could come up with alternatives by sorting by touchdowns, TD/INT, completion percentage, passer rating, etc.), it's a good starting point to show the peaks Calvillo hit. His 2004 season is the only one on that list outside the high-scoring environment of the early 1990s CFL, and it stacks up well even against the cross-era competition: Calvillo's 2004 campaign is the second-best by completion percentage (to Flutie's 1991 season) and TD/INT (to Flutie's 1993 season). Moreover, that was no fluke: Calvillo also has the seventh-highest single-season yardage total in CFL history (5,891 yards in 2003), making him and Austin (second and eighth) the only non-Flutie quarterback with multiple top-10 seasons (Flutie has five of the top 10). Calvillo is also in the top 10 twice in touchdowns in one season (fifth and 10th), and he has three of the top 10 (third, seventh, and ninth) seasons in completion percentage, plus three of the top eight spots (third, fifth, and seventh) in consecutive games with a touchdown.

Other quarterbacks on these various lists have their own cases for greatest CFL pivot ever. Moon's CFL stay was short, but very impressive both by championships (he was a key part of the Eskimos' five straight Grey Cup wins, especially the last couple) and by the numbers (he put up incredible TD/INT and Y/A numbers in particular), and he went on to more NFL success than any other CFL quarterback. He and Allen in particular were also effective at picking up yards with their feet, something Calvillo didn't really bring to the table. Allen's longevity and success in many different situations put him in the discussion, and he's definitely the greatest rushing quarterback in CFL history.

Flutie's name comes up again and again in any list of CFL passing records, and for good reason; he had eight remarkable CFL seasons and dominates the single-season yardage list. Ray's incredible completion percentage stands out, and if he keeps putting up remarkable years like 2012 and 2013, he'll have an excellent case as the best ever. Lancaster and other early quarterbacks like Sam Etcheverry and Russ Jackson also have plenty of points in their favour, especially when you consider how their era affected things. Still, Calvillo belongs in any list of the best CFL quarterbacks, and you can make a strong argument for him as the greatest ever when you consider peak, duration and consistency. He had an incredible 20 years in the CFL, and will long be remembered as one of this league's top players.