It's okay, we have different opinions on Elway, Marino and Favre supporting cast during their early years.
I believe Sterling Sharpe > Duper + Clayton > Johnson + Jackson
Plus Favre had Reggie White, Sean Jones, LeRoy Butler and Eugene Robinson on D during his Super Bowl years. For Elway, Atwater (and Humphrey) was drafted in 1989, he wasn't on the 1986 and 1987 teams that went to the Super Bowl. And Humphrey had 2 good years, was beaten out by the immortal Gaston Green, and out of the league by age 27. Shannon Sharpe was probably the first perennial Pro Bowler Elway had, and Sharpe was drafted in 1990.
The volume in passing stats is nice to build a pedigree, but for QBs, wins and championships are more important. Because QB is the most important position (probably in all of sports), and teams can't win constantly with average QBs. For a time, Elway was the QB with the most wins in league history, and he is still 2nd with 5 Super Bowl appearances.
To me, saying Elway wasn't dominant is trying to re-write history (similar to that other thread when we are supposed to believe the Patriots have always been relevant throughout their 60 years history). Belichick has said Elway was one of the most dangerous player he has ever faced. He also voted to include Elway in the top 100 players of all-time. And using some statistics 25 years after the fact doesn't give the full picture; heck, if you remove the first 4 years from Marino's resume, the rest of his career doesn't look quite as spectacular : 278 TDs versus 185 INTs (no season more than 30 TDs), 58.9% completion percentage...that's not very far from Bledsoe's career numbers. The difference between Marino and Elway is that when they had a great supporting cast around them (Marino at the start of his career, Elway at the end), Elway won championships but Marino couldn't.
As for Favre versus Elway : a prime Favre, during his MVP years, was a 11-points favorite going into Super Bowl 32 over Elway's Broncos. It says to me that everyone thought the Packers, at the time, had the better team. Yet Favre lost, Elway won. Shouldn't that be a big knock against the league's MVP playing on the better team ?
One final thing that didn't help Elway : Dan Reeves. Reeves was a good coach, but he was very conservative. Shula and Holmgren were much more willing to use the passing game than Reeves was. There's more to it than that, but basically it was mostly running until Elway had to save the day. Reeves career winning percentage with Elway : 62.0%...without Elway : 46.7%.
Even though I disagree with every word, good post. Thoughtful and genuine.
The whole supporting cast arguments are kinda boring imo. In this case anyway.
None (Favre, Marino, Elway) had
great weapons but they weren't the JV team either. So whoever had the best or worst, the margins are thin there.
And Elway needed guys like Neil Smith, Rod Smith, T Davis, McCaffrey, Romo ...
It's interesting you mention "volume" stats bc honestly that's one of the things Elway has going for him. He played a long time and eventually acquired some decent stats but decent is good enough to be that close to the GOAT imo.
I listed his stats near by and statistical he's barely a top 10 QB from his class and that's being nice. Not my opinion, just stats. He's inferior when you compare him to his peers and guys like Manning, Brees. That's not a top 10 QB imo.
Next... QB Wins are not a stat. I can tell you from actually talking to players, that's not a pov or something they share.
I'm literally thinking of countless times QBs would play awful and win. We've seen teams have a really good offense, good enough defense but putrid ST so they miss the playoffs. Kickers deciding the biggest games of all time.
It's just a casual fan stat tbh. If you wanna site go ahead. Lets look at the list though ...
Philip Rivers is top 10 and counting. I actually like him but top 10? No way.
Eli is top 10 I believe and Big Ben has to be close if not there.
Are they top 10-12-15?
Matt Ryan is very close and after him you get greats like Flacco and McNabb.
All with more wins than Steve Young. So again it's a useless stat if you're being objective.
Also you brought up Elway/Favre SB ... Look at how he performed in those games. He was awful. 12-22 for 123 and a INT. 3/8 TD/INT in SB.
Look I respect Elway and loved watching him play. I think he's in that 15-20 range though as opposed to top 5-10.