Pro Football Reference, one of the most helpful sites around for stat heads, tweeted an interesting chart they built on Monday. As Panthers quarterback Cam Newton was celebrating his 26th birthday, PFREF compared his numbers to what 34 other starting quarterbacks put up in their first four seasons.You can find a slimmer version of the table below, but first, some notes:

• Among the 35 QBs, Newton ranks
  • Tied for 4th with 62 games played
  • 9th with 1,144 completions
  • 9th with 1,923 attempts
  • 13th with a 59.49 completion percentage
  • 6th with 14,426 passing yards
  • 9th with 82 passing touchdowns
  • Tied for 9th-fewest with 54 interceptions
  • 7th with a QB rating of 85.4
  • 4th in times sacked with 152
  • 12th with 30 wins

• Newton has a better passing rating than John Elway (71.9) and Joe Namath (69.2) had through their first four years, but Jeff Garcia has a rating 4.5 points better than Newton’s.

• Only David Carr (208), Tony Banks (165) and Warren Moon (159) were sacked more than Newton at this point in their careers.

• Joe Flacco leads the list with 44 wins while Matt Ryan is second with 43. Newton’s 30-31-1 record isn’t great, but Peyton Manning started 32-32, Troy Aikman was 27-27 and Moon went 19-38.

• Not included in the chart: Newton’s 33 rushing touchdowns are the most by a QB in his first four seasons; he’s the only player in NFL history to have 10,000 passing yards and 2,000 rushing yards in his first four seasons and the first to have at least 3,000 passing yards and 500 rushing yards in four consecutive seasons.

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