If you dont like the top 2 selections and i know you won't i'll make a list thats more...........uh......whats the word....i don't know.......modern.
5. John Elway.
It was those last 2 years. They showed he wasn't a good QB. A great one and with the most 4th q combacks of all time you could say he's the best ever without being crazy.
The 4th Quater King.
4. Dan Marino
The best passer who ever played. Accurate. Steady. No Super Bowls but a whole lot of TDs.
On Point
3. Joe Montana
He won 4 Super Bowls. 3 Super Bowl MVPs. He was just a flat out winner.
The Winner.
2. Otto Graham.
Even more of a winner than Joe. He started 10 seasons, played in 10 title games, and won 7 championships.
The Other Winner
1. Johnny Unitas.
Absolutely best leader and captain of an offense. Great stats for somebody who played around 40 years ago.
I'll go a bit different:
1)John Elway just because of him being able to beat teams with his arms, legs, and brain. He didn't have the offensive scheme or all-pros on offense in early years like some of the others in his class like Dan marino and Jim Kelly. In his later years he finally got to chuck the ball and put up quality stats with a good offensive game plan led by a Running game. When they won, he got his due. His wins and quality comeback wins in the crunch elevate him to the top.
2) Joe Montana: only because he made it look so easy. The weapons he had mixed in with the great west coast offense that others were light years away work against him.
3) Brett Favre: Winner, competitor, and has the hardware to go along with it.
4) Peyton Manning: Super Bowl coupled with all his individual records and doing it for so long consistently make him an all-time great, at least top 5.
5) Dan Marino: Never a big fan of his but respect what he did. Could anyone throw for all those yards in a career when the coach let you throw the ball 60 times a game? maybe not as effectively but it would be close. They chose the style to play with and that style didn't allow for their own defense to settle down. They scored a lot points but so did the other team.
David Woodley slowed the game down a bit and let that crummy Dolphin defense actually look pretty good. He handed the ball off to Aundra Franklin and dunmped the ball off to Tony Nathan for short safe gains and then once in a while unloaded to Jimmy Cefalo or Duriel Harris. He got he Dolphins to the Super Bowl and lost j
10. Terry Bradshaw (mostly b/c of the superbowls)
9. Peyton Manning (great stats, still isn't finished)
8.Jim Kelly (toughest quarterback of his era besides maybe Brett)
7. John Elway(mobile, two superbowls, winner)
6. Steve Young(great overall passer, leader in paser rating, very mobile)
5. Brett Favre (bullet passer, tough guy, winner)
4. Fran Tarkenton(still holds so many records, third all time in touchdowns)
3.Dan Marino(best pure passer, but he kindda had to all the time)
2.Joe Montana (name says it all)
1. Johnny Unitas (set so many records that stand even today, even with so much less offense back then)
What do you guys think? If anyone says what about 'Troy Aikman?' you can go #### yourself lol.
Hey guys-Go to my archives, November '07, and check out MY list. more detail, more great names!.. But thanks trueblue-you got me to check you out. Nice pictures for those who can't read.
Last edited by canyondave on June 16th at 3:38 PM.
Good premise to start with. How about letting an old timer like me chime in here? NFL's 5 best QBs:
#1)Sammy Baugh, Texas Christian-The best passer, punter, and defensive back.Played 15 years at peak performance.
#2)Johnny Unitas, Louisville-Stab you in the heart to win. Beautiful control.
#3)Norm Van Brocklin, Oregon-Most underrated killer QB I ever saw. Brilliant passer, leader, and tactician.
#4)Bobby Layne, Texas- Man's man. Put him in the room with these other 4 and he'd have all their money by nightfall. All you need to know.
#5)Bart Starr,Alabama-The one undisputable quality of a QB is that he must lead his team to win. Starr is the only player to QB a team to 3 straight NFL championships, 65,66,67. A record that stands to this day.
A Bonus 6-15 Ranking By The Old Man
#6)Otto Graham, Northwestern-Leader,winner,tough.r>
#7)Joe Montana, Notre Dame-Same as Graham.
#8-Dan Marino,Pittsburgh-Closest to Van Brocklin in passing ability.
#9)Roger Staubach,The Navy-Scrambler extra ordinary with a will to win that soaked into teammates.
#10)Y.A. Title,LSU-Bombs away. Now this was a passer before Unitas and Namath made passing cool.
#11)Dan Fouts,Oregon-Another Duck and one very skilled at the long ball and mid range.
#12)Sonny Jurgenson,Duke-Brilliant passer.
#13)Joe Namath, Alabama-Stats mean nothing here. This was a leader of men like Robert E Lee.
#14)John Elway-Proof that if you stay around long enough someone may hire a team around you that can win a title.
#15)Brett Favre-Proof that if you stay around long enough someone may never hire a team for you
This is tough because I didn't get to watch alot of the old timers. I do go by certain criteria like if Steve Young is on a list then Aikman has to be ahead of him and Bret Favre behind both of them because they were all pretty much from the same era and Favre just wasn't better only played longer.
Im also not big on stats guys like Marino in fact I think a more impressive stat is making it to 4 straight Superbowls which Jim Kelly did playing in the same conference as Marino. So yeah, I'd rank Kelly ahead of Marino.
Then there's championships, Joe Montana, Tom Brady, Terry Bradshaw and Aikman are championship winning QB's. Elway won a couple and lost one or two more so he'd be ahead of Kelly but behind Aikman or at least in a tie with Aikman. This is giving me a headache here is a listing of how I rank modern QB's that I got a chance to see and know about. After learning more about some the older guys I would just plug them in where appropriate. I do think Montana is #1 though.
1.Monatana
Brady
Elway
Aikman
Bradshaw
Kelly
Peyton
Marino
Young
Favre
Love Michigan football. Carolina Panthers. UNC Basketball. Detroit Tigers/Red Sox. Actually I'm not a Tiger guy. My parents love them but my uncle(who i was close with) gave me a Sox hat for my 6th B-day. When I saw MY hat on TV. I guess that was the moment. I'd like to see more successful Tiger seasons but at least I've got the Red Sox to cheer me up(although they don't look too good).
I guess my story is Born in Michigan moved to North Carolina at 13 and saw first ever home panthers game. I loved them for some reason.
