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Top 5 or 10 NFL QB's All-Time...

DesertDawg526

Resident Dawg
Club Member
I cannot whittle it down to 5.

In no particular order (and please add to that which I'm missing)...

Elway
Brady
Manning
Favre
Tarkenton
Staubach
Unitas
Moon (imagine his yardage with CFL totals as well)
Marino
Montana
Young

...that alone isn't even a Top 10.

Manning is definitely Top 10 IMO. Not sure about Top 5. Elway is definitely Top 5...

Tough list to crack Top 10.

Plunkett
Fouts
Brees

Thoughts?
 
Manning is Top 5 to me. If he can find another ring then that should cement him up there.
 
I'm a homer but even if I wasn't I would put Elway #1. He got two rings when he had talent around him, he got teams to the bowl three more times when those teams had no business being in the bowl.

His statistics are less than some others but that is mostly due to having a HC who wanted to play stone age football for years. I remember a reporter asking Bill Walsh how Elway would have done in SF instead of Montana. Walsh responded that there were things designed into the offense that Montana couldn't do that were specifically designed for a guy like Elway. He finished by saying that SF would have won the super bowl every year with him.

I put Montana and Brady right behind Elway. Lots of rings for each of them, playing with a variety of guys around them.

Staubach, Marino, Manning, and Brees are in the next group. Also have to put Bart Starr someplace in there, man didn't do much but what it took to win.

Hard guy to figure is Bradshaw. He had tremendous teams to play on but you can't ignore the rings and his stats for the era he played in compare well with the stats for the eras of a lot of other guys on the list.

Another interesting question is if Eli manages to win another couple of SB rings where does he fit? Seems like he never gets much respect but when it matters who is much better?
 
I'm a homer but even if I wasn't I would put Elway #1. He got two rings when he had talent around him, he got teams to the bowl three more times when those teams had no business being in the bowl.

His statistics are less than some others but that is mostly due to having a HC who wanted to play stone age football for years. I remember a reporter asking Bill Walsh how Elway would have done in SF instead of Montana. Walsh responded that there were things designed into the offense that Montana couldn't do that were specifically designed for a guy like Elway. He finished by saying that SF would have won the super bowl every year with him.

I put Montana and Brady right behind Elway. Lots of rings for each of them, playing with a variety of guys around them.

Staubach, Marino, Manning, and Brees are in the next group. Also have to put Bart Starr someplace in there, man didn't do much but what it took to win.

Hard guy to figure is Bradshaw. He had tremendous teams to play on but you can't ignore the rings and his stats for the era he played in compare well with the stats for the eras of a lot of other guys on the list.

Another interesting question is if Eli manages to win another couple of SB rings where does he fit? Seems like he never gets much respect but when it matters who is much better?

Well thought out post... YMSSR

I think Moon is at least a nominee for career Top 10. More passing yards than any other pro player in a career by more than a mile... (yes counting CFL despite the 49,000+ yds NFL combined with 21,000+ CFL yds...)

I have no beef with Elway at #1. He was that good...
 
  1. Joe Montana
  2. Tom Brady
  3. John Elway
  4. Peyton Manning
  5. Johnny Unitas
  6. Dan Marino
  7. Otto Graham
  8. Terry Bradshaw
  9. Roger Staubach
  10. Steve Young
 
There is no way that Elway is the best QB of all time. He is #62 in all-time passer rating.
 
There is no way that Elway is the best QB of all time. He is #62 in all-time passer rating.

Stats are not everything.

Hands down the best QB with less than 2:00 to go in the game. Brady is close...

Elway found ways to win when he shouldn't have. Pure winner. (this from a fan of another old AFC West team)
 
Stats are not everything.

Hands down the best QB with less than 2:00 to go in the game. Brady is close...

Elway found ways to win when he shouldn't have. Pure winner. (this from a fan of another old AFC West team)
I know stats aren't everything. That's why I can put Elway in the top 10 despite #62 all-time passer rating.

Super Bowl XXIV - 10-26, 0 TD's, 2 Int's
 
Totally unrelated strange fact...I went duck hunting with Johnny Unitas when I was 12. Came to our farm on the eastern shore of Maryland. My dad told me I was all about Bert Jones those days.
 
There is no way that Elway is the best QB of all time. He is #62 in all-time passer rating.
A lot of objective football folks disagree. Too bad Elway was stuck with Dan Reeves for so long.
 
I find it impossible to compare QBs from different eras, especially with all the rule changes that now heavily promote a vertical passing game.

I also refuse to rank QBs I didn´t see play extensively during their careers, which rules out Unitas, Tarkenton, Bradshaw etc.
 
I find it impossible to compare QBs from different eras, especially with all the rule changes that now heavily promote a vertical passing game.

I also refuse to rank QBs I didn´t see play extensively during their careers, which rules out Unitas, Tarkenton, Bradshaw etc.
It is difficult to compare. These things are subjective.
 
I find it impossible to compare QBs from different eras, especially with all the rule changes that now heavily promote a vertical passing game.

I also refuse to rank QBs I didn´t see play extensively during their careers, which rules out Unitas, Tarkenton, Bradshaw etc.

That's how I feel too. I'm not sure how to look at Brady, Brees, Manning, and Favre to a lesser extent. They didn't play the game when defensive players could actually touch offensive players. Schemes have also advanced quite a bit as well. I mean, can you imagine Elway or Marino running the spread? On the other side, defensive schemes are also a lot more complex these days, so it goes both ways.

I also never saw the older folks, so I'm stuck looking at Marino/Elway/Kelly/Aikman/etc and newer.

Then you get into the rings discussion. Marino is my boy so I naturally hate that part of it and think it shouldn't play the part that it does, but I see why people mention it. For me, it's negated by the fact that the NFL is such a team game, especially back then. Nowadays a QB can carry an offense, but 5-10+ years ago it wasn't going to happen. Then you have a guy like Terry Bradshaw who has 4 rings, I don't see many people bothering to mention him as a GOAT.
 
i agree with jens, but for some different reasons.

now that the league has been around for as long as it has now, i find it quite impossible to pick a straight 10 through one, let alone a 5 through 1.

there are just too many qualifying factors. era, type of scheme, supporting cast, coaches and just the rules of the game. all factor into what certain QB's were able to accomplish or not accomplish during their time playing the game.

when the conversation comes up, i will always say johnny elway. every time. first, because i know i will get a groan out of most any audience i have. second, i feel that i can make a reasonable case for him. and this is how it generally goes...

2 Super Bowl rings.
-yeah but, he only got those because he had a good team around him.

You mean like Montana had?
-yeah, but montana had many more rings than elway. elway got blown out in all those other Super Bowls.

Without Elway, Denver would have never been in any of those Super Bowls.
-but they lost.

I can grant you that, but i will tell you that you put Montana on those denver teams, they never make it to the Super Bowl and you put elway on those SF teams and SF wins just as many if not more Super Bowls than montana ever did.
-how is that? you are out of your mind.

Montana would have never survived a season behind the o-line that JE had to play behind most of his career. he never had all pro WR's. never had all pro RB's. Montana had all of that. So did Marino, who went to one and lost. Montana, Taylor and Rice. Marino, Clayton and Duper. SF also had some damn good d's as well. until elways last few years, he never had any of that. yet, you want to give montana a pass on that and not say elway did more with less?
-its all about Super Bowl rings.

that is where i give up and offer up what i said above with a laugh. the only argument i can make against a guy like montana is to put him in denver. but, you cant. so, he has just a legit argument as any as to why he should be #1. but, what about brady?

there is just no answer to this question.

the real question at this point is, who are the top 15 to QB's who should be tied for the best QB of all time?

that is pretty much the way i see it these days.
 
I cannot whittle it down to 5.

In no particular order (and please add to that which I'm missing)...

Elway
Brady
Manning
Favre
Tarkenton
Staubach
Unitas
Moon (imagine his yardage with CFL totals as well)
Marino
Montana
Young

...that alone isn't even a Top 10.

Manning is definitely Top 10 IMO. Not sure about Top 5. Elway is definitely Top 5...

Tough list to crack Top 10.

Plunkett
Fouts
Brees

Thoughts?

Eli or Payton?
 
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