Top 10 Quarterbacks of All Time By mathayus [39 more lists]

It's the most glamorous position in all of American sports, and possibly the most debated. Here are my choices for 10 best quarterbacks to ever grace the gridiron.

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Rank Name

1

Otto Graham

When I point out to people that Graham's accomplishments surpass every other quarterback in history, they inevitably respond that things were different back then, and you've got to normalize the accomplishments a bit to really have a fair comparison. They're right, but they're wrong. You do have normalize Graham's accomplishments, but they're so far ahead of everyone else, that they only way he loses is if you insist on throwing them out. For example, while Joe Montana had 3 All-League years, Graham 9 in a career shortened by WWII.

Add in also: Pretty much everyone agrees that Jim Brown stacks up favorably to running backs that have come since. But Brown joined the same team Graham had left just a year before, and while he had a positive impact, it was clearly not in the same league as Graham.

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2

Joe Montana

Aside from the off-the-charts career of Graham, I can't put anyone else ahead of Montana. Aside from his stellar regular season career, his playoff performances, and how they clearly improved on his regular play makes him the standard by which I judge modern quarterbacks.

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3

Johnny Unitas

Unitas is the pre-80s quarterback most often works his way into these type of discussions, and for good reason, he accomplishments clearly surpass his peers, and later quarterbacks including Montana. When you do the era normalization though, and consider just how amazingly good Montana was in the playoffs, he slides in at #3.

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4

Brett Favre

Sigh. It's frustrating watching the end of Favre's career. What can't be denied: His recklessness causes problems that the other great quarterbacks don't have, but the dude is 40 and his been at or near MVP caliber performance his whole career. The way the Vikings came alive when he joined the team says it all.

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5

Peyton Manning

It seems inevitable to me that Manning will at least spend some time at #2 on my list. He just won MVP #4, surpassing everyone but Graham (who had 6). If he ends up having longevity like Favre, playing at the level he does, it will be hard to keep him from being #1. Nobody's smarter, and nobody works harder.

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6

Steve Young

It's chic to leave Young off these lists, essentially dismissing him as a system quarterback. I don't know how you do that and not dismiss Montana as well, and of course if you dismiss Montana, then we devolve into chaos. I go along with the Montana > Young wisdom, but I can't go much further. Bottom line is that the Niners didn't miss a beat when they went from Montana to Young, and it's rather crazy to knock Young's longevity in comparisons with anyone below Montana's level because it was clear to all years before Young finally was handed to the reins that he was a Pro Bowl caliber QB.

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7

John Elway

Elway's a tough one. It's pretty common to see him listed as someone's "surprise" pick for GOAT. He was arguably the greatest prospect in history because he had all the tools, and he ended up living up to the hype reaching the ultimate at the end of his career.

Still, I can't overlook that he tended to look pretty bad in Super Bowls, and that when he did break through it was with running support that blows away anything these other quarterbacks ever had the luxury to play with.

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8

Dan Marino

I always feel a bit uncomfortable rating Marino so low. His numbers are stellar, and everyone agrees that there's never been a superior pure passer. But much of what makes a greater QB is his leadership, and I've heard enough negative tidbits about Marino in that realm that I can't disagree with the wisdom of the experts.

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9

Tom Brady

Brady's status is really a work in flux. I was set to move him significantly higher after his amazing 2007 seasons, but then the Pats lost the Super Bowl, and he got hurt, and the team did pretty well without him. All is not lost though. He has come back in impressive fashion. In terms of quantity of accomplishment, it won't take much for him to take major leaps on this list.

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10

Sid Luckman

Old-timers bookend my list. There's controversy whenever picking a pre-Super Bowl player, and my Graham choice ought to act as lightning rod there. More subtly, Luckman's contemporary Sammy Baugh normally rates above Luckman on most lists. But here's the thing, while Baugh was a good quarterback, such rankings typically factor in Baugh's other work, since he was a star on defense and special teams as well. Simply in terms of QB performance, Luckman's accolades hold up to Baugh's, he had more team success, and he played a style of QB more like what we know quarterbacks to be today.

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