The Greatest NFL Quarterbacks of all time

[jmt57]

The 30 Greatest NFL Quarterbacks Of All Time31/?lvl=opt2&stack=ssp&utm_content=

My head is hurting from the violent shaking after seeing Johnny Unitas ranked #14.

Behind Russell Wilson, Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers.

Huh?

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

What a horrible list, though I will say that @SammyBlueCat would need to scratch and claw his way through some normal ones to find ranking like these. Almost every list has Brady 1 and Montana 2. After that there's quite a bit of variation, but most lists have a top five of modern (SB era) QB as Brady, Montana, Elway, Marino, and Manning. Brees at #2 is a huge stretch.

He's better than Aikman and Bradshaw too. Maybe Kelly. Elway, on the other hand, not even close.

Elway and Montana are far too low.

Elway=overrated

55-10

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Elway=overrated

55-10

He made it to five Super Bowls and won two.

That’s second most conference championships for a quarterback.

 

[TheFlyingWedge]

Where’s Baker Mayfield ranked?

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

He made it to five Super Bowls and won two.

That’s second most conference championships for a quarterback.

Revisiting Denver’s cap penalties from the 1990s

 

[primetime]

Where’s Baker Mayfield ranked?

I mean, I think I'd already put him over Phil Simms, which apparently means he belongs in the top 30 of all-time.

 

[fightingirish595]

Elway=overrated

55-10

With a team that didn’t belong anywhere near the field with the team they were playing against

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Revisiting Denver’s cap penalties from the 1990s

Good point on the Broncos, but the guy won a lot of games and big games.

I think his stats don’t show a complete picture of how good he was, mainly because he did a lot of damage on the ground. I can’t stand Elway for many reasons, but I’m sticking with a lot of weight on winning.

But beyond winning, this is an impressive resume:

• 9X Pro Bowl Selection
• NFL MVP (1987)
• First-Team All-Decade Quarterback for 1990s (beating out Young, Aikman, Favre, and Kelly)

In terms of getting blown out in the SB...who cares? He made to a couple of those games with legendary clutch drives. This is almost like the “Brady has lost three Super Bowls!” crowd. Getting there is a great accomplishment, and those AFC teams were mince meat during that time. He also snapped the NFC’s streak of dominance in the late 90s.

 

[Tony2046]

Elway is hilariously overrated by almost all old people. He retired with a worse career passer rating than guys that played in the NFL's version of the Dead Ball Era. GTFO with ranking him top 5.

Because we watched him play. He was a great QB regardless of stats.

 

[Zarozzor]

Where do you guys rank Elway? I have no idea where to place him.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Just wondering why this list was made into a thread when there are a lot of normal lists easily accessible with a Google search. This would be a huge outlier, like the worst one out of twenty or so that come up. Was the purpose of this thread to make fun of this list or to generally discuss the best QBs of all-time using this as a reference? @SammyBlueCat ?

 

[Tony2046]

You and I have debated Bradshaw's place in GoAT status before and we won't agree again. Bradshaw's legacy go beyond numbers.

Aikman played very well in the playoffs. That put him above McNabb. Neither Qb was anything to write home about.

Bradshaw has been underrated his entire professional career including now. It all started with the "he couldn't spell cat even if you spotted him the C and the T" stuff. Funny at the time though. But Bradshaw didn't choke in the big games and was as tough as they come in an era when the the defense could basically maul, mutilate and destroy the QB. He made the big throws when they counted and had a few "Oh that's a catch" moments as well. It's a shame that these young F****ers stare at the stats and think that's the end all be all of the conversation.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Where do you guys rank Elway? I have no idea where to place him.

Brady, Montana, and Unitas have to be top three if you are going with the modern era (and many would say the modern quarterback started with Unitas.)

I can buy an argument that Elway is #4, though there are some strong arguments for others as well. I’d rank him over Brees, Marino, Favre, and Rodgers. I think it’s close between Elway and Manning for #4, but I’d take Elway because Manning was such a g0ddamn choker and always had great players around him.

 

[Tony2046]

Where do you guys rank Elway? I have no idea where to place him.

If I could find it Deus has a pretty good if not very good ranking of QB's in this forum somewhere.

@Deus Irae - do you have a copy and paste of your list handy?

Edit to note: I don't agree with Deus's list 100% but it's light years better than this garbage.

 

[Deus Irae]

@Deus Irae - do you have a copy and paste of your list handy?

I put Manning in the race with a bunch of other QBs at between 9-15

The top 8 QBsOAT, in no particular order:

Starr
Brady
Baugh
Graham
Unitas
Montana
Young
Staubach

The line forms after that.

Tom Brady voted 2nd best player in NFL history.

 

[Tony2046]

Ka freaking boom. This is a list that can be debated. But not by much. If you don't have any of these guys on your top 10-12 list you're simply wrong. You can stop arguing at that point. These guys either changed how the game was played or were so dominant in their era that it was otherworldly. They belong on your top "8" or so list.

Quoted from Deus: I like this list a lot.

I put Manning in the race with a bunch of other QBs at between 9-15

The top 8 QBsOAT, in no particular order:

Starr
Brady
Baugh
Graham
Unitas
Montana
Young
Staubach

The line forms after that.I put Manning in the race with a bunch of other QBs at between 9-15


I would guess the stat F***ers are losing their minds right now. "Cannot compute"

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Ka freaking boom. This is a list that can be debated. But not by much. If you don't have any of these guys on your top 10-12 list you're simply wrong. You can stop arguing at that point. These guys either changed how the game was played or were so dominant in their era that it was otherworldly. They belong on your top "8" or so list.

Quoted from Deus: I like this list a lot.

I put Manning in the race with a bunch of other QBs at between 9-15

The top 8 QBsOAT, in no particular order:

Starr
Brady
Baugh
Graham
Unitas
Montana
Young
Staubach

The line forms after that.I put Manning in the race with a bunch of other QBs at between 9-15


I would guess the stat F***ers are losing their minds right now. "Cannot compute"

I guess it depends on whether all-time really means all-time or just focusing on the modern era or Super Bowl era, and most lists focus on the latter. I think this is a solid list if you are really going with all-time, though I think Young and Staubach are clearly at the bottom of this group, and Elway is definitely worth considering as many would rank him above those two.

I also think Young’s career is a lot like Rodgers, as both backed up franchise icons, started later, won a single title in dominant SB performances, and set new statistical highs for individual passer rating/efficiency stats, and both were considered to be “the ideal QB” in terms of passing/scrambling by many observers. Both also missed on opportunities to win multiple titles (Young had a phenomenal team but had to face the phenomenal Cowboys) which is also part of their legacies. So if you put Young in here, the argument for Rodgers is fairly similar.

 

[Redman443]

fun fact: patriot fans wanted Bill to sub in Michael Bishop over Bledsoe. Obviously this never happened

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

fun fact: patriot fans wanted Bill to sub in Michael Bishop over Bledsoe. Obviously this never happened

In the mid-late 90s the league was all-in for cannon arm QBs like Bledsoe and Favre. Maybe it was due to guys like Elway and Marino’s influence. Then around 2000, there was a sudden shift towards a running quarterback as one of those drafts had Akili Smith and a bunch of other mobile QBs around the top. McNabb and Vick also came from that frenzy. By that time, Bledsoe’s stardom was coming into question, as he signed a $100M extension but certainly wasn’t carrying a team (which happened to secretly have Super Bowl potential).

 

[Deus Irae]

I guess it depends on whether all-time really means all-time or just focusing on the modern era or Super Bowl era, and most lists focus on the latter. I think this is a solid list if you are really going with all-time, though I think Young and Staubach are clearly at the bottom of this group,

Any "Top QB of all time" list that doesn't have

Brady
Montana
Starr
Baugh
Graham
Unitas

as the top 6 (regardless of order) is a list not worth reading. We (worldwide collective, not specific to this thread or board) probably need to change this to

"Top QB of the Super Bowl era".

So Who's The Second Best Quarterback Of All Time ?

and Elway is definitely worth considering as many would rank him above those two.

Elways in the 9-15 group, along with Manning. It's not really sensible to put Elway above either Staubach or Young. It requires a whole lot of stretching of reality, particularly since Young was clearly better when both he and Elway were starters at the same time.

I also think Young’s career is a lot like Rodgers, as both backed up franchise icons, started later, won a single title in dominant SB performances, and set new statistical highs for individual passer rating/efficiency stats, and both were considered to be “the ideal QB” in terms of passing/scrambling by many observers. Both also missed on opportunities to win multiple titles (Young had a phenomenal team but had to face the phenomenal Cowboys) which is also part of their legacies. So if you put Young in here, the argument for Rodgers is fairly similar.

Not really. Young was stuck behind Montana until he was 30 years old, and forced to retire due to concussion at 38. So Rodgers has had 5 more seasons in his prime as a starter, meaning that argument doesn't really hold up . Rodgers' delay argument matches up much better with Staubach's, but Staubach beats him out pretty easily in terms of accomplishments and record.