Throughout the long history of the National Football League, the quarterback has emerged as the premiere position in the league, and for a good reason. However, that does not mean that all the greatest quarterbacks have come from the modern era.
So, who are the 10 greatest quarterbacks of all time?
(Honorable Mention: Fran Tarkenton, Brett Favre, Steve Young, Terry Bradshaw, Troy Aikman)
10. Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay Packers)
A four-time NFL MVP, second to only Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers has set a standard of success in Green Bay that will likely be hard to replicate in years to come. One of the most efficient quarterbacks of all time, Rodgers led the Packers to a Super Bowl XLV victory over the Steelers where he was named MVP. Upon retirement, Rodgers will be among the Top 10 in just about every significant statistic for a quarterback.
9. Bart Starr (Green Bay Packers)
The most often overlooked of the Packers’ great trio of quarterbacks, Bart Starr is the owner of the best playoff-winning percentage in NFL history. His 9-1 record is good for a .900 winning percentage which pairs nicely with his 104.8 passer rating in the postseason. Starr led the Packers to back-to-back wins in Super Bowls I and II which came on the heels of three straight NFL Championships from 1965-1967.
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Ep 161: Lions Dissapoint; NFL MVP; Week 12 Discussion
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8. Roger Staubach (Dallas Cowboys)
His passing numbers don’t stand out relative to what we see today (he had just 153 passing touchdowns), however, Roger Staubach was another quarterback way ahead of his time with his scrambling ability. His penchant for leading the comeback (23 game-winning drives) earned him the name, “Captain Comeback”. Staubach is a two-time Super Bowl Champion and won was named MVP of Super Bowl VI.
7. Otto Graham (Cleveland Browns)
It’s nearly impossible to put into context the era in which Otto Graham played to where some will think he is too high on the list and others will think he is far too low. Both would likely have a good argument. However, without punishing him for the era, Graham played 10 seasons and played in 10 championship games for the Cleveland Browns. Graham won four titles in the AAFC, a rival to the NFL at the time, between 1946-49. Upon arriving in the NFL in 1950, he led the Browns to six-straight NFL Championship Games, winning three of them. He is a member of the NFL’s 1950s All-Decade team.
6. Dan Marino (Miami Dolphins)
Dan Marino was a quarterback before his time. His quick release is tailor-made for the current game but he put up current numbers nonetheless. Marino took the league by storm in 1983 and in 1984 he threw a then-record 48 touchdown passes, a record that would stand for 30 years. He led the Dolphins to the Super Bowl that season, however, he came up short and unfortunately never got back again. He ended his career as the league’s leader in career touchdown passes with 420 and 61,361 yards.
5. John Elway (Denver Broncos)
Another quarterback that would likely thrive in the current game, John Elway led the Broncos to five Super Bowl appearances which, at the time, was a record for quarterbacks. However, it wasn’t until his final two seasons he was able to hoist the Lombardi trophy for the only two times in his career.
4. Johnny Unitas (Baltimore Colts)
Before there was Peyton Manning, there was Colts legend Johnny Unitas. A two-time NFL champion and Super Bowl V winner, Unitas dominated the passing game in an era of rush-first (and often) offenses. Unitas won league MVP three times, including in 1959 with 32 touchdown passes. He ended his career with 40,239 yards passing and 290 touchdowns. He was a 10-time Pro Bowler.
3. Peyton Manning (Indianapolis Colts/Denver Broncos)
The first overall selection of the 1998 NFL Draft, Peyton Manning came to the Colts with a ton of hype and surpassed in just about every way. He led the Colts to two Super Bowl appearances, winning one and he won four of his five league MVP awards with Indianapolis. After a career-threatening neck injury, Manning went to the Broncos and led the team to two Super Bowls, winning Super Bowl LV, his final game. He added a fifth MVP award with the Broncos… an NFL record.
2. Joe Montana (San Francisco 49ers/Kansas City Chiefs)
A perfect 4-0 in the Super Bowl, Joe Cool set the standard for “G.O.A.T” quarterback play. In those four wins for the 49ers, Montana didn’t throw a single interception and led one of the best game-winning drives in Super Bowl history with his 97-yard gem in Super Bowl XXIII. Montana was named Super Bowl MVP in three of his four wins and won league MVP twice. He ended his career throwing for 40,551 yards, 273 touchdowns, and a 92.3 passer rating.
1. Tom Brady (New England Patriots/Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
Not surprisingly, the seven-time Super Bowl Champion lands firmly at number one on this list. A sixth-round pick in the 2000 NFL Draft, Tom Brady won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, two more than any quarterback in NFL history. After nearly 20 years with the Patriots, Brady took his talents to Tampa Bay where he won his seventh ring in his first season as a Buccaneer and became the first player to surpass 100,000 yards passing.
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If you watch most of Tom’s games. 90% of the close calls were in his favour. I am wondering how many rings he bought the for the REFS. He is a great quarterback ( no question). But to me he had help.
No inventen como que el número uno el más tramposo de la historia, hay que ser decentes y obrar con honestidad
Y dónde dejaron a Terry Bradshaw? Merece estar en esa lista!
Deflategate was the less impactful of the 2 Patriots cheating scandals, but it most likely lasted for 10 years. Brady lobbied the league in 2005 to allow teams to bring their own footballs and wasn’t caught with his deflated balls (other than the one kicking ball) until January 2015. Now we know the reason. But Spygate and Spygate II (2019) were certainly much more important to Brady’s and Belichik’s success than Deflategate. Having Ernie Adams tell your quarterback which defense is on and where to throw the ball, on the play that has been chosen specifically to counter that defense, is way more important than making the ball a little more grippy by altering air pressure. We know Spygate started in 2000 and did not stop in 2007 (when they were first caught) because the Patriots kept McDaniels as their offensive coordinator until after the 2008 season. They won 10 games with Matt Cassel, basically a high school QB who threw only 33 passes in his college career. So if they had done that well without Spygate in 2008, ask yourself why McDaniels continued to use a Spygate system when he was head coach at Denver (where he was caught in 2010 and quickly fired). Add to that the Patriots were caught again in 2019 recording the Bengals’ sideline and you have a pretty good picture of just how long this continued. After that season, Ernie Adams, the guy who most likely did the brain work of pairing illegal tape with plays and signals and countering them with the appropriate offensive plays on the fly, promptly retired. By the way for the final month of the 2019 season the Patriots offense looked horrible after being caught “Spygating” that second time. Of course Brady coincidentally left New England when Ernie Adams did. Why stick around a franchise that is otherwise poorly run on the offensive side of the ball if you can’t use the system that got you every accolade you received up to that point? Brady was able to use his sway to choose his destination, a well stocked team lacking only decent QB play, and bring a few old friends along like Gronk and Antonio Brown. For those who wonder how Brady can function in Tampa without Spygate I would say you must learn a few things by hanging around for 20 years. And you can hang around for 20 years when you are getting the ball out quickly and not taking hits most of your career, because you know where the ball needs to be thrown when you have been told (by Ernie Adams) before you break the huddle. Even Rich Gannon figured it out at the age of 36. The league is loaded with guys who can throw a nice ball. It’s knowing where to throw it in 2 seconds and getting it out quickly while live ammo is flying around you that is the hard part. New England took care of that in a way that is against the rules for good reason. Here’s where New England fans lose it, saying everyone was doing it or that everyone else is whining and jealous, or they just cover their heads in sand denying the facts. Go ahead and shoot the messenger but I’m just explaining, that’s all lol.
Too funny. No one’s going to read all this. The length of this dissertation is laughable and clearly shows your anti-Brady bias so who really cares what you think? I might as well ask Pelosi to give me her opinion on Trump.
This is bogus without the greatest of all time, Drew Breeze. All these choices are good players but, did they ever make pigs fly. Breeze did. Did they ever make hell freeze over, Drew did. The greatest of all time, completely ignored by this comparison makes it completely bogus.
Absolutely not. Terry Bradshaw won 4 SB. He should be at the top 3 of your analysis.
Stupid. The refs, really? I mean, that’s it?
Just stupid.
CHEATER!!!!! let’s see if we can quantify his actions. Lance Armstrong, Barry bonds Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa. Etc…. An Asterix goes on all records when a cheater breaks a record, or has success in sports and in life.
and you could easily remove 3 wins from his list
You are so full of crap. If you make an assertion, then prove it.
No Drew Brees? Wow!
That’s crazy! Look at the record books.
Faltó Bob Grease!
Que risa me das… Aaron Rodgers mejor que Bradshaw?, No mames
Aaron Rodgers, Jonh Elway? Mejor que Tarkenton, Aikman o Bradshaw???? Creo que esta fuera de lugar!!!
Drew Brees es mejor en eatadiaticas que la gran mayoria….donde esta?
And Bradshaw? 4 rings!!…
No. Pues faltan,varios sobretodo Bradshaw. Eli Manning. Dan faust. Joe Theismann. Jim McMahon. Steve Young. Troy Aikman,
Yup, Steve Young should go in there too.
Exactly my thouhts…
Dan Fouts
Pésima selección !!
Good grief. Please redo your heading for Bart Starr. He only played for GB. Vikings didn’t even exist then. Think Bret Farve.
The number of Super Bowls seems to get a lot of weight in this list without noting that 3 of the 10 played their prime before the existence of the Super Bowl. Unitas, Starr and Otto Graham. Unitas threw 32 TD passes in 1959 in a 12 game season. He invented the pro quarterback position that Manning, Montana, and Brady play,
As a lifelong (incurable) Broncos fan … Elway does not crack the Top 10.
Drew Brees is glaringly absent from the list, as is Warren Moon if criteria is “career” not just NFL (including time shunned by the racist attitude in the NFL of the time that “blacks-not-intelligent-enough-to-be-QB”
Bart Starr only played for the Green Bay Packers.. never played for the Jets or Vikings. That was Brett Farve after He played for the Packers for 16 years.
Es obvio que los récords son los que hablan, pero la labor de los QBs se complementa con el trabajo de los linieros, los corredores y los corners.. Yo veo a Joe Montana arriba de todos, Me hubiera gustado ver a Stabler, Plunket, Steve Young, Joe Namath..
No Ben Roethlisberger??? He is number 5 all time in pass yds with 64,000. He has like 420 TD passes and top 10 in every passing category not to mention 2 SB wins and 3 appearances and 5 Afc championship appearances with 3 of those being wins. This list is wack
Aaron Rodgers??? jajajaja better than Troy Aikman or Terry Bradshow jajajaja I dont know who made this article but knows nothing of NFL QB’s
Troy Aikman, Terry Bradshaw. Lot more jewelry than most on that list
Bradshaw, Young?
Terry Bradshaw not in there..!!??? You would fail a drug test for sure… You must of gotten a brown envelope for that kind of bad evaluation… Really bad article about football.
Roger S was a winner, rare combination of arm and brains. his passing numbers resulted from a good running game. His completion percentage when he retired was the top number for all to chase for a long time after he retired
I dont agree with the idea that Tom Brady its the best quaterback of all times. If he plays on the Staubach, Montana or Elway times he dont plays until 45 years.
Dang, maybe the most accurate list I have seen. I think Elway is overrated, but I am alone in that. My brother was a receiver in the Bay Area when Elway was in college. He caught some passes from him. He didn’t through as catchable a ball as others. But, 5 trips to the Super Bowl and 2 victories, probably deserves his place in the top 10. Can’t really argue against anyone. Might be some preferences, Farve over Starr, or maybe Brees, but seriously, pretty spot on.
I Don’t Think that Tom Brady is the Best Quarterback he was a Crueked player and had Help While Jose Montana was Smart in the Pocket, Tom Brady is nothing but a Clown.
I saw Staubach, and I think any on the mentions were better than him. I think his Best game was the SB game he lost to Steelers, whem He really try try to sin, not for his statistics.
I agree re Moon, what about Meredith? I think Montana should be 1st. the comments re Unitas are pertinent of course all have their preferences I also like Stabler
Winning Super Bowls is great, but did he alone win them or did the teams win them? Tom Brady’s’ bread & butter play for most of his career was throwing a 5 yard pass 100 mph. John Elway was the same way. Joe Montana was the only QB who always threw the easiest pass a receiver could catch. When he was throwing to a back he alway led him easy as possible ,when he had a receiver 20 yards down field he threw a rocket . He always made it perfect for the situation. No other Qb was that good. That’s why he won a national Championship team in college with a mediocre Notre Dame team & 4 Super bowls with mediocre teams. Brady lost 2 super bowls vs Eli Manning! Montana almost always won the big game! Yes, and when Tom new New England lost some talent & Tampa Bay looked better, he dumped New England & moved to Tampa Bay!
Correct, it’s hard to judge Otto Graham. He won 7 titles in 10 seasons, Brady took 20 seasons. And Graham held QB rushing TD records only recently broken. He is 1-B, Brady 1-A
STAUBACH on this list , no BRADSHAW ???? Their statistics are almost identical but BRADSHAW won 4 out 4 SUPER BOWLS with 2 of those against STAUBACH lllllll Roger never beat Bradshaw in his entire career that’s pre-season/ regular season/ or play-offs . Oh Bradshaw won 2 Super Bowl MVP’s ( 1 against STAUBACH ) and a League MVP ????? It sounds like I am a STAUBACH hater but I am not !!!!! How can you put STAUBACH on this and not have Bradshaw !!! Absolutely RIDICULOUS !!!!!!!!!!!! Makes it not much of a list !!!!
I think it is a good list – Graham and Unitas are definitely deserving.
If Terry Brashaw is not in top ten you dont know Football
Les faltaron Jake Plummer, Neil Lomax, Kurt Warner, Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, Ken Stabler, Dave Krieg!!!!
This list is suspect without Terry Bradshaw on it. Only Brady has more Super Bowl win that Terry!!!!
Terry Bradshaw should be in the top 5.