Otto Graham was an excellent QB. That being said, having Paul Brown as your HC was a monstrous advantage. Brown invented film study, was the first to have full time assistants, first to have practice squads...he reinvented the game. Belichick is a master at finding advantages at the margins. Brown was so ahead of his time that he offered a core advantage that benefitted Graham and his tally of titles.
Regards,
Chris
I understand all of that, but I think if someone is making a Top 10 Quarterbacks of All Time list, Otto Graham should be no lower than 3 in my opinion. I see lots of people do this, and some of my friends are guilty of it too. They'll give their 10 quarterbacks, and throw in Graham, and sometimes Unitas or Starr at 8-10. What that's telling me is their list is more like Top 10 of the Super Bowl era and those guys get a token mention.
Otto Graham did this
His record was 105-17-4 or 57-13-1 depending on where you look. He also had the accolades and dominant stats for his era.
1946: 12-2, 1st in scoring, won Championship
1947: 12-1-1, 1st in scoring, won Championship
1948: 14-0, 2nd in scoring, won Championship
1949: 9-1-2, 2nd in scoring, won Championship
1950: 10-2, 4th in scoring, won Championship
1951: 11-1, 3rd in scoring, lost Championship
1952: 8-4, 3rd in scoring, lost Championship
1953: 11-1, 4th in scoring, lost Championship
1954: 9-3, 2nd in scoring, won Championship
1955: 9-2-1, 1st in scoring, won Championship
And the year after Graham left
1956: 5-7, 11th in scoring
I had the below saved in my notes after seeing it years ago
How big of a difference did one man make? Graham retired after the 1955 season. The 1956 Browns returned their other ten offensive starters
and had the leagues best defense - allowing 41
fewer points than the 1955 title team. They went 5-7.