The Top 5 QBs of ALL-Time
The Top 5 Quarterbacks list took a lot of time, hard work, dedication, and study. If you do not agree with the list you are wrong. I'll start with the honorable mentions and work my way to number one.
Honorable Mention:
Dan Fouts- Hall of Famer and an Oregon Duck. He was the first quarterback to pass for over 4,000 yards three consecutive seasons, was selected two times All-Pro, and two times 2nd team All-Pro. He passed for over 40,000 yards and also won NFL offensive player of the year.
Fran Tarkenton- The proof is in the pudding. Tarkenton passed for 47,003 yards and 342 TDs. He was selected to nine Pro Bowls, was league MVP in 1975, and was All-Pro two times. Only one problem, no championships.
Doug Williams- First Black QB to win Super Bowl MVP. The QB was looked at as a white man's position and for a long time and he helped change that. Doug gets on the list simply because he changed the game by breaking ground and paving the way for a new era of players.
Warren Moon- He amassed over 49,000 passing yards and 261 touchdowns in the NFL alone. When you add his CFL and NFL career together, you see how truly great he was. Moon was clearly an NFL quarterback, but at that time black quarterbacks were not given the same opportunity to lead franchises as they are today. He was selected to 9 Pro Bowls, and was NFL league MVP in 1990.
Tom Brady-This man has three championships. Brady, aka the "Check Down King" is calm, cool, and collected. In big game situations ice water runs through his veins. He doesn't make all the throws that the guys in the Top 5 make, and when the defense gets to him he becomes a different QB, so that's why he is honorable mention. He still has plenty of time to get on the Top 5 list. He has the championships on his resume but he just needs to pile up some nice stats after coming back from his knee injury. That said he is still clearly one of the best QBs of all-time.
Dan Marino- Marino piled up a ton of stats but couldn't stack them on top of a championship. People will argue that his unbelievable numbers make him the best of all time, but they don't. Kareem Abul-Jabbar has easily scored the most points in NBA history and 3rd all-time in rebounds but we don't call him the greatest of all-time. I cannot put him in the Top 5 because he has no championships.
Brett Favre- He's 40 and still doing it well. This season with the Vikings could have arguably been his finest if he had reached or won the Super Bowl. He is one of the best to play the position, but his stats are a product of inevitability with the number of years played. But I will say, if he was not one of the greatest he could not have done it for this long at such a high level. He won't WOW you with completion percentage or accuracy but he has everything you ask for in a great QB: Toughness, Leader, Winner, MVP, and Champion.
Kurt Warner- This Arena League QB who went undrafted out of college has turned into one of the best quarterbacks the league has ever seen. He bagged groceries for $5.50 per hour to earn money for his family and lived with his in-laws to keep his NFL dream alive. Now, Warner is a future Hall of Famer and owns the three highest single game passing yardage totals in Super Bowl history. He also earned the NFL league MVP twice and was the MVP of Super Bowl XXXIV. Warner has cemented his place in NFL history; all you have to do is check the record books.
5. John Elway- California boy from Granada Hills HS (which is minutes from my house, FYI). When you hear "The Drive" you already know what game they are referring to (Jan. 11 1987 Denver Broncos vs Cleveland Browns in the AFC Championship game). He has championships, wins, played in five Super Bowls, and basically invented the 4th quarter comeback stat! Not only was he selected to nine Pro Bowls, he is also a two-time Super Bowl Champion, Super Bowl MVP, and 1987 league MVP.
4. Steve Young- If "Montana to Rice" was a good combo "Young to Rice" was even better. He helped revolutionize the position to what it is today. Teams only wanted a "pocket" passer until Young showed how much a mobile quarterback could help the offense. Three time Super Bowl champion. Two-time NFL MVP. Young holds numerous NFL records including highest career passer rating (98.6), and most rushing touchdowns by a QB (43). And he did it all with a disability, he's left-handed. Joke. LOL
3. John Unitas- Innovator of the passing game. He revolutionized the QB position therefore he changed the game. There would be no Jerry Rice or Randy Moss without Unitas because there would be no Young, Montana, or Brady. I would not be acknowledging history if I left "Johnny U" off the list. Its like Michael Jordan. A better/more talented player may come along but he will always be regarded as the man who changed the game; the original QB. He was league MVP three times and still owns the NFL record for most consecutive games with a TD pass (47) which has stood since 1960!
2.Peyton Manning- We are watching him rewrite history. There isn't a throw he can't make or a receiver he won't hit in stride. Peyton is the consummate perfectionist but you could never tell by his pre-play antics. At first glance he looks like a mad man in disarray, but after the whistle blows and the clock has all zeros you know Peyton is the Chess Master. Defenses try to throw everything at him: blitzes, zone dogs, and every other scheme to no avail. He will be #1 while he's still in uniform with one more championship. Do I really need to list stats to qualify this?
1. Joe Montana- The best QB of all-time. Four time Super Bowl champion. Three time Super Bowl MVP. Two-time league MVP. He holds postseason records for most career passing TDs (45), games with over 100.0 passer rating (12), and games with 300 passing yards (6). The most important stat of them all, 0, that's the number of interceptions he threw in four Super Bowls! What more can you say? He is the very definition of what a coach, owner, or teammate could ever ask for in a QB!
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i would put Marino on instead of young.
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i agree k......but where is mcnabb? i demand atleast an honorable mention.....i mean he is the best qb in "eagles history" you know lol
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lol.
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I also agree khollen. That's no surprise.
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did i really deserve 2 thumbs down for what i said? lol
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How could you take Young off the list?
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looking back i didnt see elway at 5th....i would knock him off and put marino at #5.......maybe terrell davis at #5 instead of elway lol!
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did you even consider sammy baugh or y.a. tittle?
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i might be asking a stupid question here but who are those 2 dudes k?
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Yes I did consider them. But these guys are undeniable. It's only Top 5
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monster,
sammy baugh 1937-1952 redskins. 21,886 yds,187 td`s.
y.a. tittle 1948-1964 giants,49ers, and colts. 33,070 yds, 242td`s. both in HOF. -
Too soon to put Peyton that high. He needs to play consistently better in the post season. He would go to NE and Rodney Harrison would have as many catches as Marvin. In his Superbowl victory and the run up to it I think he had 3 TD's and 8 INT's. His superbowl came down to which QB could play worse and Rex Grossman won.
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you might be right but he defenitly in the top 5
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I like Peyton, he is our hometown guy. The records he is rewrting are Marino's. He should be on this list.
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Let's see, there was Bradshaw, Jurgensen, Theismann, Starr, Dawson, Anderson. Guess they didn't count.
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I would take out Young, move Elway to 4 and toss Favre in the 5 spot, dude holds almost all the QB records!
Tought list to make though! -
If you play forever and are good you will have a lot of stats. but he has had too many inconsistent years to be in the top 5. Too many INTs and incompletions. QB rating lower than other guys.
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when will people realize despite his consistency during the regular season he simple transforms into the mindless gunslinger when it counts most!
No Favre on top 5 thx! -
Good point, but time heals all bad records, those INTs will be forgoten in time... maybe it's too soon for Favre.
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Nanaplank,
You live by Favre and die by Favre, the guy success is the same thing that is his biggest fault! He tries to thread the needle, and when it works (ie. end of the SF game this year) he's a hero and when it doesn't (Last toss NFC championship game) he's a fool! I like him for the risk, even though it cost my fav. team a chance at the super bowl. -
Yeah he holds most the records INCLUDING most INTs
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marino should be on the list no matter if he won titles or not any qb with the talent he had wouldn't have won and why is manning so high and unitas
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Great list. I think I would have done the exact same thing. It's nice to see Steve Young get some recognition. Most people won't put him on their top 10, let alone top 5, but he definitely deserves it.
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1. Otto Graham
2. Montana
3. Steve Young
4. Manning
5. Staubach -
stahbach shouldn't even be in anyone's top 50 .
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Again why put Manning on a list with WINNERS? He could not win it all in college and then the year he left Tenesee won the championship.
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Not even having Graham as an honorable mention is insane.
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Yeah, I'm sure you've seen a lot of Otto Graham. How can you argue someone who you've never seen play in his prime?
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You can't put someone on the list just because they are old. It does not make them better. Otto Graham was a great QB for his era but the game has changed a lot and his TD/int ratio shows he would could not have been successful in todays game. The rest of the QBs would be excellent in any era.
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It wouldn't even be a game if it weren't for the old guys. And besides the intervention of PED's wasn't available, along with the other game enhancements in today's sports as a whole.
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I'm not sure you can say that and also have Unitas. Unitas didn't do anything Graham didn't already do. Unitas started his career the year after Graham finished his, and Graham has a better completion percentage, more yards per attempt, and a better TD/INT ratio. In every season he played, his team went to the Championship game.
His 174-135 TD-INT ratio might not look elite by today's standards, but most hall of fame quarterbacks who played at the same time as Graham had more interceptions than touchdowns.
Of the top 25 QBs all time in passer rating, there are only 2 QBs who started their careers before 1980. Joe Montana in 1979, and Otto Graham in 1946. That's how far ahead of his time he was. -
What A crock Where is Joe Namath come on Rookie Gaurantee's a win against the Mighty Colts and Unitas then does it After Laying out all night with not one but two hot chicks and a half Gallon of whiskey.
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joe namath isnt even top 20...go cry about it
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Namath? Are you serious or just trying to get a reaction? Anyone who know about football could tell you that Namath doesn't belong anywhere near the top 50.
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Next thing you will say is put Simms in there--I know a lot of you would, BS.
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NO NAMATH dude Dont KNOW FOOTBALL!!! A Rookie gaurantees a win against The Mighty Colts An Unitas then Does it. This After laying out all night with not one but two hot chicks and a half gallon of Whiskey.Its true Look it Up
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And that makes u 1 of the Top QBs of all-time? smh
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exactly
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i agree, namath not even in top 20.
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You don't know what you're talking about. Did you not see Rudy Fernandez in last year's contest?
Maybe there aren't a lot of white players in the dunk contest because there aren't a lot of white players in the NBA. -
this coming from a hockey fan who has jason smith former captain of the edmonton oilers as his avatar! in a sport like hockey where the black hockey players are a rare commodity how in bloody hell could brent barry be a color barrier player. look up anson carter george laraque mike grier (former oilers) all players in a predominately white sport who opened doors for people who otherwise wouldn't play the sport! (plus basketball was dominated by whites players/ bill russell helped integrate the sport)
And just to prove you don't know sh!@ Warren Moon carved his craft in the CFL and won 5 Championships before heading down south to the NFL! the reason he chose this route was b/c the nfl (at the time) never heard of a black quarterback.
and trust me there would be no McNabb w/o Moon but Moon w/o McNabb! -
Why are all of your comments based on the color of the players skin?
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Here read this:
In his career he threw 173 touchdowns, 220 interceptions, and completed 1,886 passes for 27,663 yards.[2] During his thirteen years in the AFL and NFL he played for three division champions (the 1968 and 1969 AFL East Champion Jets and the 1977 NFC West Champion Rams), earned one league championship (1968 AFL Championship), and one world championship (Super Bowl III).
In 1999, he was ranked number 96 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. He was the only player on the list to have spent a majority of his career with the Jets.
He is known for brashly telling the media that he guaranteed that his team would upset Don Shula's NFL Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III in 1969, and then delivering on his promise
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Here read this:
In his career he threw 173 touchdowns, 220 interceptions, and completed 1,886 passes for 27,663 yards.[2] During his thirteen years in the AFL and NFL he played for three division champions (the 1968 and 1969 AFL East Champion Jets and the 1977 NFC West Champion Rams), earned one league championship (1968 AFL Championship), and one world championship (Super Bowl III).
In 1999, he was ranked number 96 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. He was the only player on the list to have spent a majority of his career with the Jets.
He is known for brashly telling the media that he guaranteed that his team would upset Don Shula's NFL Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III in 1969, and then delivering on his promise
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you answered your own question on why he isnt on the list.
"In his career he threw 173 touchdowns, 220 interceptions" -
"and then delivering on his promise"
his TEAM delivered on the promise
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He was probably half drunk when he made the guarantee and tired of hearing that they didn't have a chance so he said what he said.
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I'd add as honorable mentions, Sid Luckman, the "T" formation changed the whole game and Otto Graham probably the first of the "modern" QB's. Also Bobby Layne.
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The main reason i say Marino over Young is look at the teams around both of them. No hall of fame receiver for Marino.
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hey ah ..... have you ever heard of this cat that use to play for the "EAGLES" i think he was number 12 !! come on atleast put him on the Honorable Mention list !and if we go by stats what about "MCNABB" what kinda list is this ?

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