His Year: Jon Kitna 2003
Before 2003 the Bengals' QB position was death. Jon Kitna's been overshadowed over the years, but this is the season that killed the Bungles.
If you have two quarterbacks, you don't have one.
This is the mentality about quarterback play in 2023. At first, it seems obvious. If you have two QBs that are playing at approximately the same level, then it's virtually assured that neither of those guys are good enough to take your team to the top. It's hard enough to get one good QB, so to get two is seen by NFL teams as being unnecessary and counterproductive.
These days, training camp QB competitions are looked upon with disdain, and are seen as being not great for the future of a team, but nevertheless still need to happen sometimes in order to sort the men from the boys. In years' past, these QB competitions have resulted in great seasons.
Jay Fiedler beat out Damon Huard for the Dolphins' starting job in 2000, and went on to have some great years there. Jeff Garcia had the best season of his career after fending off competition from three separate rookies in the same year. Tom Brady had to fight with Damon Huard to keep his backup job for the 2001 Patriots. Who'd he ever beat?
If those guys are not at a high enough level for you, then how about Drew Brees? He blossomed as a great QB while all the while having to compete with newly drafted Philip Rivers to keep his starting spot. If you'd like a more modern spin, there's Dak Prescott. It's too often forgotten that the Cowboys tried to trade for Josh McCown to take them on that magical 2016 ride. Instead, Dak played so well in his competition for the Cowboys' backup job that Dallas never did swing that trade, and the rest is history.
There are countless other examples (Chad Pennington, Geno Smith, David Garrard, I can go on) of great players being forged in the fire of an honest to goodness competition for the starting QB role. While this approach has generally been done away with in the modern era in favour of empowering your starter, there is one example of a man being hardened by the fires of competition that shines brighter than all the rest.
His name is Jon Kitna.
Coming into 2003, it'd been a long time since Kitna came into the league as an undrafted free agent in 1996. Spotted by the Seahawks at a tryout that was intended for a receiver on his Central Washington college team, they were so impressed by him as a thrower they decided to bring him on.
The competition as an undrafted rookie at the QB position must've been unbearable, but Jon made it as far as the Seahawks' practice squad for '96, and by 1997 he was the team's third string QB.
Now with a toehold in the league, by 1998 Kitna had surpassed John Friesz to be the Seahawks' backup behind Warren Moon, and as such he got to start five of the six games Moon missed at the end of the 1998 season, and played very well. In fact he played so well that his first period of competition was over.
The Seahawks (following Moon's retirement) did not try to replace Kitna for the 1999 season. Instead, they only brought in entrenched backup Glenn Foley, cementing Kitna as the starter. He rewarded them with a good season (by 1999 standards), leading Seattle to win the quite weak AFC West division.
By 2000 however, this honeymoon period was over. New coach Mike Holmgren was not impressed with Jon, and tried to trade for Matt Hasselbeck to replace him. As we know, Hasselbeck would eventually end up in Seattle, but not before a topsy turvy 2000 season which saw Kitna replaced with Brock Huard for four starts, and in the offseason Jon would end up in Cincinnati.
Jon was walking into a dire situation. The Bengals hadn't seen the playoffs since 1990, and over the 2000 season had started both Scott Mitchell and Akili Smith at QB, who were both so bad it makes you cringe to look back on. Jon was an immediate upgrade, leading the Bengals to a 6-10 record (which was pretty good for them at the time), although still generating negative EPA/Play.
As a result, it would again be a QB competition for Kitna, which he would in fact lose and be forced to watch as the combination of Gus Frerotte and Akili Smith scored a combined 23 points in the Bengals' first four games en route to four consecutive brutal losses, the closest of which was 13 points, before the Bengals came to their senses and went back to Kitna.
Jon would play much better than in 2001, but the team around him was much worse, as the Bengals would score at least 20 points in nine out of his 12 starts (recall it took them four whole games to get to 20 points without him). Nevertheless, due to one of the league's worst defences, Cincinnati would fall to 2-14 and be in position to draft first overall in the 2003 draft.
As we know, a team having the first overall pick is often a death sentence for the incumbent QB, especially when that incumbent hasn't generated positive EPA/Play since 1999. This is the situation Jon Kitna finds himself in as the Bengals select Carson Palmer with the first pick in the 2003 NFL Draft. He's gotten himself into another QB competition.
Recall how our prior two competitions have gone. In the first he climbed his way to the starting spot in Seattle, but he then lost that starting spot and was exiled to Cincinnati, where in his first real competition he lost his starting job to Gus Frerotte of all people. The Bengals rectified that mistake quickly, but if he were to lose his starting spot to Carson Palmer we all know the hook will not come so quickly. Yet again, this training camp is packed with pressure on Jon.
Painfully, and with gritted teeth, Kitna did make it into the beginning of the 2003 season with his starting role still intact, but the pressure only got higher after the season began with a 30-10 home loss to the Denver Broncos. Jon played horribly against a Denver team that will go on to rank tenth in pass defence in 2003. Fans and media were already starting to wonder about Carson Palmer, so much that Palmer had to go on stage and proclaim "Jon Kitna is the best QB on this team right now" in order to get the frenzy to die down a little bit.
I respect Carson Palmer for doing that. It takes a real man to go in front of the media (even if it is the mostly toothless Cincinnati media) and say such a sentence as the Heisman trophy winner and first overall pick, but as it turns out it wouldn't have mattered. Jon is about to have his coming out party.
Cincinnati's week two matchup is in Oakland against the defending AFC Champion Raiders. Jon Kitna and his gutless Bengals are going to match up against defending league MVP Rich Gannon. This is regarded as a total mismatch. The Bengals go into Oakland as 12 point underdogs, but the world is about to find out that this isn't the same old Jon Kitna, nor the same old Bengals. We're in a new era now, and this is the jumping off point.
Coming into this game with a win probability (according to NFLFastR's Win Probability model) of just 15 percent, and not at all helping that his first four drop backs are a sack and three incompletions, the Bengals are behind 10-0 before they can even blink, but by the start of the second quarter, the game is tied at ten.
Unfortunately (yet staggeringly common in this era of the NFL), Jon is allowed to throw just two passes for the remainder of the half, and as a result the Bengals don't score any more, and the score at half is still 10-10. The first touch of the second half doesn't help either, as after a healthy 12 yard completion to Chad Johnson on the first play, Jon doesn't get to touch the ball again until third and five, where he throws an incompletion. Yet again, he's been put into a bad position, and hasn't been able to bail the Bengals out. They have to punt.
The second touch however, is a different story. Jon gets to throw four first down passes as Cincinnati marches down the field towards another field goal. At one point, the Bengals face third and 17, but Jon manages to convert it with a 19 yard pass to Peter Warrick. First and goal from the Oakland eight only converts into a field goal, and the game is tied at 13 as we go into the fourth quarter.
It looks like the Bengals are in a good position to take the lead, until a Peter Warrick holding penalty stops a Bengals drive in its tracks. After the defence again holds up, Jon Kitna gets the ball back again, this time at 7:22 of the fourth quarter. This is make or break time, and Jon acclimates himself quite well.
He converts one third and five and then another third and fifteen and gets the Bengals to the Oakland 20. This is prime position to take the lead, but it's also where Jon makes his only mistake of the day.
He throws a backbreaking 83 yard pick six to surrender Cincinnati's chances at taking the lead, and instead land them in a 20-13 hole, now with just 3:38 on the clock.
With a kickoff return that gets the ball all the way out to the Cincinnati 47, there's still more than enough time to get this done, but I don't think anybody expects this to look as easy as it does. The Bengals score easily, with most of the yardage coming on a Kitna to Johnson 28 yard connection. This game is now tied, and if the defence can hold just one more time, there's a chance at a big upset here.
Unfortunately for the Bengal offence, they scored just a little bit too easily, leaving too much time on the clock for the old reigning MVP, who gets his Raiders into field goal range as the clock expires to steal this game from the Bengals 23-20.
This is without doubt disappointing, but recall that Cincinnati were 12 point road underdogs on the road against the AFC's defending Super Bowl representative. They had Jon Kitna to go against the defending MVP. They had no luck stopping either Charlie Garner or Tyrone Wheatley all day, and despite all of this, they came within one minute of winning.
Make no mistake. This was a missed opportunity. Jon Kitna did manage to outplay Rich Gannon, even including the killer pick six. The defence held the Raiders' offence that was so electric in 2002 to a mere 16 points all day, and the Bengals all around were the better team today, but they still managed to find a way out of winning. This is what they need to stop doing. It's what they've been doing for years. Playing well and then losing is not a way to success in the NFL, especially for a man that has Carson Palmer breathing down his neck. This has to stop.
Over the next two weeks, it does stop, for better and for worse. In week three, the Bengals' defence can't keep a lid on Tommy Maddox as the Bengals take a third consecutive (second at home) loss to start the year. In week four the Bengals turn this around by walking into Cleveland (who if you recall were a playoff team in 2002) as five point underdogs and clowning on their defence all day en route to a close (but not lucky) road victory.
Jon Kitna has finally gotten a victory, and generated 0.58 EPA/Play while he was at it, but an overtime loss in Buffalo (where Jon played acceptably against a very good Buffalo defence, but without Corey Dillon there's no rush offence to speak of) in week five drops the Bengals' record to a thoroughly unimpressive 1-4 as they go into the bye week. It's here where everything turns for Jon Kitna.
Over the course of the bye week, quarterbacks coach Ken Zampese pulls Kitna aside and lets him know the secret that nobody has been keeping very well anyways. The Bengals' next two games coming out of the bye are against defences (Baltimore and Seattle) that the top brass have no intention of throwing Carson Palmer to the wolves against, but their following two games are against the Arizona Cardinals, with their 31st ranked defence, and then Houston and their 28th ranked defence. That's a great spot to get a rookie QB into.
The message is clear. Jon has to impress in these next two games, elsewise Palmer will start against Arizona and beyond.
I cannot put into perspective just how impossible of a situation this is. Being put into the position of having to impress against the 2000s Ravens defence is surely the number one thing QBs of this era would want not to have happen to them. 2003 is not just any edition of this Ravens' defence either. It's the best they've had since the Super Bowl, not quite as good but close. It's by far the best defence 2003 has to offer. They haven't had many tough matchups so far, but in their two real tests they've held both Trent Green and Drew Brees to negative EPA/Play. This will not be easy.
If I asked you what you expected would be the result of this game, what would you honestly tell me? Keep in mind that these are the Ravens.
Maybe a 17-10 win? 23-17? Something like that? Just barely enough to keep the dogs at bay long enough to get to face some weaker opponents?
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Jon Kitna's year. The Ravens stand no chance.
Whatever your answer was to my above question, I'm certain blowout victory wasn't it, but that's what you get. Jon takes this elite Ravens defence and hangs it out to dry. The Bengals take three plays to get their first score. It takes four more to get their second, and one 82 yard pass to get their third. At the dawn of the second quarter, the Bengals are already up 21-7.
These Ravens will give up 21 points (including this game) four times all season. The Bengals have just done it in one quarter. It's all over from here. Keep in mind that we are still playing the Ravens, so there's a lot of three and outs from both sides, but on the first play of the fourth quarter the Bengals score to go up 34-10 and officially put the nail in this coffin. Two garbage time touchdowns pull the score to 34-26 at the final, but everybody saw this for the blowout that it was.
Wow. Talk about rising to the occasion. Put into the impossible position of having to play for his starting spot against the best defence the NFL has seen in years (and won't see again until 2006, also the Ravens), Jon went out there and hung 24 points on them in a half. He completed 16 of 27 passes for 274 yards and three touchdowns, and generated 0.37 EPA/Play.
This is unbelievable. In modern terms, this would be like Mitch Trubisky going out there and blowing out the San Francisco 49ers. This is unfathomable, but it wasn't in 2003. Not to Jon Kitna. In the wake of this game, the Ravens would close up and not allow another performance this good again.
Here is an exhaustive list of all the QBs who were able to do as good or better than Jon Kitna against these 2003 Baltimore Ravens.
Tommy Maddox, and Matt Hasselbeck. That's all. That's everybody. Additionally, Hasselbeck balled out in a 44-41 loss to the Ravens, so he's almost in a separate category. If you want to omit the great performance in a loss, the list narrows down to only Jon Kitna and Tommy Maddox.
A list of players who played these Ravens and were not able to do near as good as Jon Kitna includes MVP candidate Marc Bulger, MVP candidate Trent Green, future MVP candidate Drew Brees, former MVP candidate Jeff Garcia, and 2003 NFL MVP Steve McNair. I could go on, but I'll choose to only name the important ones.
Marc Bulger, Trent Green, Drew Brees, Jeff Garcia, and Steve McNair. This is a whale of a list of quarterbacks. Each and every one of them were held to negative EPA/Play against these Ravens. The very same Ravens that Jon Kitna took to the cleaners, while under the pressure of having his starting spot on the line.
Take a bow Jon.
As if that performance wasn't enough to ensure that it would not be Palmer time in Cincinnati, Jon would double down on it the following week at home against Seattle. Yet again playing as underdogs, Kitna would outduel Matt Hasselbeck to the tune of 0.24 EPA/Play in a 27-24 win featuring a go ahead touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.
In all, over the four weeks following the tip that his starting spot was on the line, Kitna would take the formerly 1-4 Bengals and lead them to a 3-1 record. Over that stretch he'd lead two fourth quarter comebacks, and he'd generated 0.198 EPA/Play, fourth in the NFL in that span behind only Marc Bulger, Peyton Manning, and Trent Green. All of this with the pressure of a first overall pick that the Bengals were really wanting to play looking over his shoulder.
All of that is over now. There will be no more debate in 2003 over who the Bengals' starter is, but there is no lack of pressure on Kitna's shoulders, because Cincinnati are staring down their biggest challenge of the season. Their week 11 opponent is the Kansas City Chiefs, led by the very same Trent Green. Currently owning a 9-0 record, they're the NFL's best team. At least the Bengals get to play them at home, but they're doing it with their playoff lives on the line.
The AFC North in 2003 is incredibly weak. 5-4 Baltimore has that elite defence, but their offence is led by Anthony Wright at QB. Our 4-5 Bengals have by far the best QB in the division in Kitna, and by extension the division's best offence. They counterbalance this by coming into week 11 with the league's 25th ranked defence. The two playoff teams out of this division from 2002, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, are both 3-6 and total nonfactors at this point.
This race is between Cincinnati and Baltimore. Considering what happened the last time these two teams played, I'm confident that the Bengals can make that one game up over the course of the season. All of a sudden, our precious moribund Cincinnati Bengals are looking credible for their first playoff spot since 1990. It can really happen.
Here's the thing though. It can only happen if the Bengals host the Kansas City Chiefs and hand them their first loss of the season. This will not be easy. In the years since, people have forgotten how great this 2003 Chiefs team was. At this point, they posses the third best offence and seventh best defence in the NFL. By season's end, that offence will shoot up to number one. Loaded with Trent Green and Priest Holmes (who is well on his way to setting the NFL record for total touchdowns in 2003), how could it not?
To put it bluntly, this is not a game the Bungles are supposed to win. They're here to be the NFL's punching bag, and to mess everything up. If it helps to conceptualize, think of the Bengals from 1990-2002 as the Cleveland Browns from 2008-2019. At this point, that's who everybody thinks the Bengals still are.
I know I told you week two against Oakland is when the Bungles died for good. As it turns out, I think I lied to you. Yes they played well, but they still lost a game they had no right to lose. This time, I have no doubt in my mind. This time there will be no close losses or moral victories.
This time, Jon Kitna will kill the Bungles forever.
After a tight first half that sees the teams struggle to just a 3-3 score at the half, Jon turns it on. A TD on their first touch of the second half (following a KC field goal to start it) moves the score to 10-6. Some help in the form of a punt return TD makes the score 17-6. When the Chiefs narrow the score to 17-12, Jon immediately responds with a 77 yard one play touchdown pass to make the score 24-12.
It's over from here. A late Trent Green touchdown pass narrows the score to 24-19, but the Chiefs never see the ball again. Following the touchdown that moved the score to 17-6, Cincinnati spent a total of one play below a 75 percent win probability, and once that play (a KC two point conversion attempt on 17-12) failed, the game was never again in doubt.
This is amazing. The Bengals haven't just taken the Chiefs' zero, but they've done it fairly handily. Jon Kitna outplayed Trent Green. Rudi Johnson outplayed Priest Holmes. The Bengals' defence held the electric Kansas City Chiefs to just 0.07 EPA/Play, which is good but not as good as they normally do, and is the best that can be expected out of a quite bad 2003 Cincinnati defence. Everything went right in this game, and there's still more that went well for the Bengals today.
This win, combined with a Ravens' 9-6 overtime loss in Miami, means that the Bengals are in the lead of the AFC North. For Cincinnati fans, this Kansas City game is the first in what will be a streak that eventually reaches over 60 games of consecutive sellouts, showing that if you give fans something to watch in Cincinnati they will watch you. Keep in mind this is only 2003. It hasn't been that long since the franchise raked these fans over the coals and threatened to leave Cincinnati before getting their stadium deal in 1996.
Fans have every right to be beside themselves. This franchise hasn't had a playoff berth since 1990. I've said that a few times and you know that already, but it actually goes even deeper than that. These Bengals have not so much as come close. They have not been the first team out of the playoffs. They have not been the second team out of the playoffs. They've finished as well as second in their division just once, in 1996. They've had just one team (also in 1996) with so much as a positive point differential since 1990. That's 12 years folks.
When I tell you these figures I want you to think about the New York Jets, who are currently viewed as something of a laughing stock in the NFL. Over the past twelve years, the Jets have made the playoffs once (in 2010, but it still counts because 2023 hasn't started yet). They've finished second in their division four times, and they've had a positive point differential three times.
These are by no means great numbers. There's a reason why the Jets are a laughing stock of the NFL right now, but they are leaps and bounds better than the Bungles era. That's what Bengals fans in 2003 have had to look back on. That's what Jon Kitna walked into. That's why a 5-5 team with a division lead is so exciting.
It's even more exciting when Jon picks apart the San Diego Chargers to the tune of 0.40 EPA/Play in another one of these soft blowouts these Bengals seem to love so much (the Chargers scored two fourth quarter touchdowns to make a 34-13 game into a 34-27 one. Neither had any effect on the outcome) and this becomes a 6-5 team with a division lead.
It's more exciting yet when Jon balls out again (0.43 EPA/Play) in Pittsburgh. Taking the field down four with 1:10 left, Kitna gets the Bengals all the way down the field and into the end zone with 13 seconds left, and Cincinnati moves to a 7-5 record. At this point, it's a jubilee in Cincinnati. The fans are so ecstatic they can hardly contain themselves.
We know this Bengals team is not great. We know it's barely even good. None of that matters, and a lot of the reason why it doesn't matter is Jon Kitna. If you would have told Bengals fans at the dawn of the 2003 that they were about to get genuine top five QB play out of Jon Kitna, I think they would've laughed fairly hard at you, but they're getting it. No ifs ands or buts.
As of week 13 of the 2003 NFL season, here is the EPA/Play leaderboard. It starts with eventual co-MVPs, Steve McNair in first and Peyton Manning in second. Third is the breakout season of Matt Hasselbeck. Fourth is the resurgent Chad Pennington coming back strong from his wrist injury, and would you look at that. Fifth place in the rankings is our man Jon Kitna.
I'll lay out the whole top ten for you: Steve McNair, Peyton Manning, Matt Hasselbeck, Chad Pennington, Jon Kitna, Jay Fiedler, Trent Green, Daunte Culpepper, Marc Bulger, Jake Plummer.
Which of these names is not like the others?
This is some hefty company to keep Jon. Bravo. McNair, Manning, Pennington, and Trent Green have all already been candidates to be called the best QB in the league. Hasselbeck will not take long to join them with his elite 2005. Daunte will beat him to it, putting up one of the best QB seasons ever just next year in 2004. Jay Fiedler is without doubt on the downhill, but he's been a solid top ten guy for a good few years now. Bulger will go on to be one of the most overlooked and underrated QBs of the decade, forced to watch as his elite Rams core falls apart around him in the ensuing years, and Jake Plummer is also an underrated option that will lead some pretty good Broncos teams to some pretty good places as this decade goes on.
Amidst all this is Jon Kitna, who just seven weeks ago was warned by his QB coach that he was liable to be replaced. I'm willing to bet that they're not thinking about that right now.
This all begins to crumble in week 14. What happens in week 14 is without doubt Jon's worst game of the season in a crushing 31-13 road loss in Baltimore to surrender the division lead back to the Ravens. I spent a whole paragraph explaining the quality of this Ravens defence earlier in this piece. It is no shame at all to have the worst game of the season against them. Plenty of people do it, but boy was it disappointing considering how well Jon did the first time that it worked out this way.
What's worse is that this loss drops the Bengals to 7-6, and surrenders the division lead back to 8-5 Baltimore. Due to the quality of the AFC in 2003, there never has been a chance at a wild card berth. Cincinnati's only chance has been this weak AFC North, and now they've just harmed their chances quite badly. Without an additional Ravens loss in the final three weeks of the year, there is now no way we can win this division.
Week 15 is another instance of Jon and Rudi Johnson teaming up to bully a poor defence. This time it's the San Francisco 49ers. Thanks to one of the final great games of Jeff Garcia's NFL career, Jon's 0.39 EPA/Play, combined with a ton of help from a great day (0.28 EPA/Play) out of the rush game, is still only enough to squeak out a 41-38 home victory.
As is typical with these Bengals, this score is closer than the game actually was, as the 49ers at no point were within one score with the ball, but because they kept coming it meant Jon was kept on his toes for the whole of the game, knowing he had to keep scoring in order to hold Garcia off, and he did. The Bengals failed to score just twice on their eight possessions in this game, as Jon again pulled off a great performance to bail out another poor defensive effort.
After a week 16 game where the Bengals were just outgunned and overmatched by the 11-3 St Louis Rams, they enter week 17 needing the same help they've been needing in order to win the division: a win combined with a Ravens loss. If this were to occur, the teams would be tied in head to head record, but Cincinnati would have a 4-2 divison record, compared to 3-3 for Baltimore, giving the Bengals the division for the first time in years.
Unfortunately, it just isn't meant to be. Of all people, the Bengals' defence gets torn up by Lee Suggs, giving up 186 of the 1074 yards Suggs would tally in the whole of his NFL career. Despite coming in as very large 8.5 point home favourites, the offence can't get anything going, and they fall 22-14 to the Cleveland Browns. The Bengals' season is over at 8-8. No playoffs again, but the corner has been turned.
The Bungles are dead. For one final reminder, the Bengals have not made the playoffs once since 1990. That's the last now 13 years with no playoffs. In the ensuing 13 years (2004-17) this franchise will make the playoffs seven times, and will have three additional seasons of a positive point differential that fail to make the playoffs. Over the course of this 2003 season, the Bengals have gone from a doormat to a moderately successful NFL franchise, and will stay in that mold for a while, and as we now know will eventually make the jump to the perennial contender status they currently enjoy.
This is a fairly well known rags to riches story. Everybody knows about the rebirth of the Bengals, but the forgotten man is Jon Kitna.
Jon Kitna ended the Bungles. Not Carson Palmer. Not Andy Dalton. Jon Kitna.
Jon in 2003 did something that I don't know has ever been done before or since. With the first overall pick in the 2003 draft the Bengals selected the man who was supposed to be their franchise saviour, Carson Palmer. Before he could even hit the field, the franchise was already saved. Kitna had his career year, and pre-empted him.
It's hard to have your career year with a first overall pick sitting on the bench behind you. It's perhaps the hardest thing to do as an NFL QB. Chris Chandler did not have his career year when the Falcons selected Michael Vick. Kurt Warner did not have a great year with Eli Manning on the bench in New York. Josh McCown's first NFL career ended because he played so badly starting over JaMarcus Russell. Tyrod Taylor did not have a resurgence playing in front of Baker Mayfield, and nobody ever got the chance to start over David Carr, Alex Smith, Matthew Stafford, Sam Bradford, Cam Newton, Andrew Luck, Jameis Winston, Jared Goff, Kyler Murray, Joe Burrow, or Trevor Lawrence. All of this just in the play tracking era.
The tremendous outlier is Jon Kitna starting over Carson Palmer. In his try at it, he succeeded where Kurt Warner failed. He succeeded where Josh McCown failed. Both of these QBs were great, and would go onto be great even after they got ousted in favour of the first overall pick, but even they weren't up to this task in the way Jon Kitna was.
The closest things I can think of is when Drew Brees had his breakout season in 2004 with Philip Rivers on the bench behind him, or when Alex Smith had his career year for the 2017 Kansas City Chiefs with Patrick Mahomes on the bench, but got traded anyway. These were both great performances under a lot of pressure, but not first overall pick pressure.
In His Year, Jon generated 0.112 EPA/Play (9th) on a 5.72 ANY/A (14th). CPOE was not measured in 2003, but considering leaguewide expected completion percentage the first year it was measured (2006) was about 61.4, Jon's 62.3% completion percentage makes him look pretty good there too. Keep in mind that 2006 is after all the pro passing rule changes that happen in 2004. This is purely supposition on my part, I implore you not to take it as anything else, but I suspect leaguewide expected completion percentage in 2003 is less than 60 percent. This makes Jon's 62.3 look even better than just the raw number.
On top of all this, Jon was super available, which is a quality harder to possess in 2003 than it is now. Jon touched the ball 609 times this year, seventh most among all QBs.
Despite all of this, Jon would not ever be the starter again for the Cincinnati Bengals. He would be benched to begin the 2004 season in favour of his close personal friend Carson Palmer, who has since remarked on how easy Jon made the transition, despite having every reason not to. Jon played like a top ten QB in 2003. By all means, he should've been traded instead of benched, which is surely what would've happened today, but Jon stuck it out in Cincinnati for two years before going to Detroit in 2006 to be a full time starter again.
Jon would play like a top ten QB in Detroit too, doing some okay things with some really bad offences, but he could never quite get back to his 2003 form. We never got the chance to know whether the Bengals had found a diamond in the rough or not, because by the time that diamond had shown itself, it had already been replaced by a bigger and shinier one. By the time that diamond found its way to Detroit, it was already 34 years old, and not as equipped to play behind awful offensive lines as it used to be.
That awful offence would go 0-16 as soon as Kitna left it. If that doesn't show you his class and quality, I'm not sure what will.
So goes the ballad of Jon Kitna. He had some good years in Seattle, and some good years in Detroit, and even a good season in Dallas in his chance to start there, but none of these years could match his one great season in Cincinnati.
Jon Kitna killed the Bungles. That's a fact that is too often forgotten in modern discourse, but all who've now read this article won't forget anymore. We'll never forget 2003, Jon Kitna's year.