Greg Landry

Greg Landry

No. 11
Position:	Quarterback
Personal information
Born:	(1946-12-18)December 18, 1946 Nashua, New Hampshire, U.S.
Died:	October 4, 2024(2024-10-04) (aged 77) Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Height:	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Weight:	210 lb (95 kg)
Career information
High school:	Nashua
College:	UMass
NFL draft:	1968 / round: 1 / pick: 11
Career history
As a player:
Detroit Lions (1968–1978) Baltimore Colts (1979–1981) Chicago Blitz (1983) Arizona Wranglers (1984) Chicago Bears (1984)
As a coach:
Cleveland Browns (1985) Quarterbacks coach Chicago Bears (1986–1988) Quarterbacks, wide receivers & tight ends coach Chicago Bears (1988–1992) Offensive coordinator Illinois (1993–1994) Offensive coordinator Detroit Lions (1995–1996) Quarterbacks coach
Career highlights and awards
NFL Comeback Player of the Year (1976) First-team All-Pro (1971) Pro Bowl (1971)
Career NFL statistics
Passing attempts: 2,300 Passing completions: 1,276 Completion percentage: 55.5% TD–INT: 98–103 Passing yards: 16,052 Passer rating: 72.9 Stats at Pro Football Reference

Gregory Paul Landry (December 18, 1946 – October 4, 2024) was an American professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) and United States Football League (USFL) from 1968 to 1984. He played college football for the UMass Minutemen from 1965 to 1967 and was selected in the first round of the 1968 NFL draft with the 11th overall pick. Landry played in the NFL for the Detroit Lions, Baltimore Colts and Chicago Bears. He became an assistant coach after his playing career.

Playing career

Landry was the first quarterback selected in the 1968 NFL/AFL draft (eleventh overall) after a stellar career at the University of Massachusetts where he was selected All-Yankee Conference for two seasons. With the Lions in 1971, he passed for 2,237 yards and 16 touchdowns and was named to his only Pro Bowl that year. In 1976, Landry passed for 2,191 yards and 17 touchdowns and was named the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year. He established a couple of passing records with the Lions. He was benched by Lions head coach Tommy Hudspeth late in 1977 and supplanted by Gary Danielson as the starting quarterback the following year.

Landry's request to be traded was granted when he was acquired by the Colts from the Lions for fourth- and fifth-round selections in 1979 (88th and 131st overall–Ulysses Norris and Pittsburgh center Walt Brown respectively) and a 1980 third-round pick (62nd overall–Mike Friede) on April 29, 1979. During his three seasons with the Colts, he played brilliantly in 1979 despite a 5–11 record after a season-ending injury to starting quarterback Bert Jones. Landry passed for a career best 2,932 yards and 15 touchdowns that season. He then played for George Allen on the Chicago Blitz and Arizona Wranglers in the United States Football League (USFL) in 1983 and 1984. He started one game as an emergency quarterback for the Chicago Bears in 1984 before retiring as a player.

Landry was also notable as a rusher; in the 1970 opener at Green Bay, he ran for 76 yards on a quarterback sneak, which was for a time the longest rush by a quarterback in NFL history. He rushed for over 2,600 yards and 21 touchdowns in his career, exceeding 500 yards on the ground in both 1970 and 1972, as well as averaging ten yards per carry in 1970 and scoring 9 touchdowns in 1972. He ranks third on the all-time Lions career passing yardage list (12,451), and ranks second in touchdown passes with 80.

Coaching career

Landry began his coaching career in 1985 handling the Cleveland Browns quarterbacks, and later joined Mike Ditka's staff as quarterback coach in 1986, following the Bears' rout of the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX. With the Bears, he was also the wide receivers and tight ends coach before taking over as offensive coordinator from 1988 to 1992.

Following the 1992 season, Landry was hired as the offensive coordinator at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign for two seasons. The 1994 Illinois Fighting Illini had the second-best passing offense in the Big Ten Conference, which carried the team to a 30–0 win in the Liberty Bowl over East Carolina,

The following year, Landry returned to the Lions as quarterback coach, helping them to become the top offensive unit in the NFL and guiding Scott Mitchell to record-setting passing numbers that season. He retired from coaching after the 1996 season to become a local radio host.

Death

Landry died in Detroit on October 4, 2024, at the age of 77.

NFL career statistics

Legend
	Led the league
Bold	Career high

Regular season

Year	Team	Games			Passing									Rushing
		GP	GS	Record	Cmp	Att	Pct	Yds	Avg	Lng	TD	Int	Rtg	Att	Yds	Avg	Lng	TD
1968	DET	4	2	0–2	23	48	47.9	338	7.0	80	2	7	45.7	7	39	5.6	14	1
1969	DET	10	7	5–2	80	160	50.0	853	5.3	43	4	10	48.3	33	243	7.4	26	1
1970	DET	12	6	5–1	83	136	61.0	1,072	7.9	58	9	5	92.5	35	350	10.0	76	1
1971	DET	14	14	7–6–1	136	261	52.1	2,237	8.6	76	16	13	80.9	76	530	7.0	52	3
1972	DET	14	14	8–5–1	134	268	50.0	2,066	7.7	82	18	17	71.8	81	524	6.5	38	9
1973	DET	7	7	2–4–1	70	128	54.7	908	7.1	84	3	10	52.5	42	267	6.4	18	2
1974	DET	5	3	1–2	49	82	59.8	572	7.0	45	3	3	77.9	22	95	4.3	19	1
1975	DET	6	3	2–1	31	56	55.4	403	7.2	36	1	0	84.2	20	92	4.6	14	0
1976	DET	14	12	5–7	168	291	57.7	2,191	7.5	74	17	8	89.6	43	234	5.4	28	1
1977	DET	11	11	4–7	135	240	56.3	1,359	5.7	39	6	7	68.7	25	99	4.0	13	0
1978	DET	5	5	1–4	48	77	62.3	452	5.9	20	1	1	77.4	5	29	5.8	19	0
1979	BAL	16	12	2–10	270	457	59.1	2,932	6.4	67	15	15	75.3	31	115	3.7	17	0
1980	BAL	16	1	1–0	24	47	51.1	275	5.9	32	2	3	56.6	7	26	3.7	14	1
1981	BAL	11	0	–	14	29	48.3	195	6.7	34	0	1	56.0	1	11	11.0	11	0
1984	CHI	1	1	1–0	11	20	55.0	199	10.0	55	1	3	66.5	2	1	0.5	1	1
Career		146	98	44–51–3	1,276	2,300	55.5	16,052	7.0	84	98	103	72.9	430	2,655	6.2	76	21

Honors

In 2012, Landry was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame.

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Pro Football Reference