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Your top 10 quarterbacks of all time

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Mark2010, Aug 16, 2010.

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  1. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    List your top 10 professional quarterbacks of all time. Any league. Any era. Use whatever criteria you want: wins, championships, passing yards, touchdowns, passer rating, field generalship, whatever. Feel free to add whatever comments you wish in favor of or against any player.

    Yes, I appreciate the difficulty of comparing players from different eras. But that's sort of what these sort of topics do.
     
    Mark2010, Aug 16, 2010
    #1
  2. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    Baugh, Graham, Layne, Starr, Unitas, Staubach, Montana, Elway, Brady, Manning. And Luckman, Marino, Jurgensen and Young could be on the list the next time I pick it. Ten is too few to be comprehensive. Twenty would be better.
     
    Michael_ Gee, Aug 16, 2010
    #2
  3. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Montana, Brady, Elway, Unitas, Manning, Staubach, Marino, Favre, Graham, Tarkenton.

    That is a very difficult list to winnow down to 10, though.
     
    The Big Ragu, Aug 16, 2010
    #3
  4. Flying Headbutt

    Flying Headbutt Moderator Staff Member

    Unitas, Manning, Montana, Graham, Marino, Staubach, Baugh, Young, Elway, Layne
     
    Flying Headbutt, Aug 16, 2010
    #4
  5. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    Bradshaw would be on my list, but that has been argued over and over.

    He is 4-0 in the big game, and his right arm was the reason they won three of them.
     
    93Devil, Aug 16, 2010
    #5
  6. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    93, Bradshaw is certainly in the mix. As I said, 10 is way too few. Twenty would be more historically accurate if summing up the very best at that position. Hell, for running backs you might need 50.
     
    Michael_ Gee, Aug 16, 2010
    #6
  7. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    Honestly, running backs might be easier than QBs.
     
    93Devil, Aug 16, 2010
    #7
  8. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Bradshaw is in the mix, definitely, and I gave it a lot of thought before leaving him off my 10. No argument with anyone who includes him. When it came to the Steelers, I always think defense first. It was completely the focus of that team when I was young. On offense, I thought Bradshaw always managed the game incredibly well, but their offense was always a lot of Franco Harris (3.9 yards, step out of bounds!) and when they needed a big play, Lynn Swann and John Stallworth could make Bradshaw look pretty damned good. That's not to say that Bradshaw wasn't a great QB, though. You just have to make a determination with teams like that, and guess how much you think it was the QB and how much he was boosted by who was around him.

    I don't have Aikman on my list for similar reasons. That Cowboys offense was just so well balanced, and it's not that Aikman wasn't a great QB, but I have trouble figuring out how much of it was him, and how well any QB would have done with that O-line and Emmitt Smith running the ball with Moose Johnston leading the way. The defense could try to go stacked in the box against all that beef, but rarely did, because then they threw Michael Irvin and Jay Novacek into the seams. I think it could have made a lot of QBs look damned good. Again, not to say that Aikman wasn't a great QB, and no quibble with anyone who would include him, because he belongs in the discussion.

    I know you can say these things about any of the QBs that played on great teams. But I look at Joe Montana (maybe this is arbitrary, but this is all opinion anyhow) and think he was a bit more special, in that he could have elevated any team you put around him (not that having Roger Craig, Jerry Rice, etc. hurt him, of course) to something much better than it really was.

    Bradshaw is hard, though, because I tend to value winning over the stats, which is why Marino, who I think is the most talented throwing QB ever, will always fall back a few spots on my list, and Tom Brady will always step up a spot or two.
     
    The Big Ragu, Aug 16, 2010
    #8
  9. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    No love for Roman Gabriel?
     
    cranberry, Aug 16, 2010
    #9
  10. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    The line begins with Bradshaw, Montana, Marino, Elway, Baugh, Graham, Starr, Unitas, Brady, Manning.
    Saw Roman Gabriel have a classic meltdown during a game with the Eagles. No, he doesn't crack the top 10.
     
    Drip, Aug 16, 2010
    #10
  11. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    I would also give Kurt Warner a lot of consideration. Played in three and took one impossibly backward franchise to the big game.

    The list of QBs to take two different francises to the Super Bowl is very, very short.
     
    93Devil, Aug 16, 2010
    #11
  12. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    He had the best cameo ever by a QB on an episode of Gilligan's Island.
     
    The Big Ragu, Aug 16, 2010
    #12
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