When discussing the best qb of all time, some names will pop into your head. Aaron Rodgers is one of those that comes to mind immediately. He has been named the MVP three times and has led his team to tremendous seasons. Tom Brady also is a candidate for the same honors. He has won the Super Bowl twice and has an impressive list of college and NFL titles to prove it. Some might say these are the two best ever, but there is plenty more that came from this great football tandem.
There are many other great NFL quarterbacks that have come before them in the great NFL era. There were a lot of great college stars that came before them as well. Some of them did not have the Hall of Fame status that their contemporary players have earned. However, they still had amazing careers and deserve to be put in the same conversation. We are going to list the best of all time in the upcoming paragraphs.
Johnny Unitas was a great college player. He played for the rival USC Trojans and also spent time with the Miami Dolphins as well. In fact, he is the only true quarterback to start for both the USC Trojans and the Dolphins during their franchises histories. The knock on him is that he never reached the heights of either of those teams, but he was extremely successful as a passer and ran the ball very well for his team. As a passer, he ranks somewhere between Rex Grossman and Tom Brady in terms of overall success.
If we are going to bring up the best NFL quarterbacks of all time, then we need to bring up two other names. Those two men are of course a bit further removed from the mainstream, but they also share a common trait: they won more than they lost. Roger Staubach and Joe Montana are the best of all time at winning the Super Bowl. They are the only two quarterbacks to go undefeated in championship games over three different years. When you throw in a running back like Emmitt Smith and a strong defensive unit, there is no other team that can lay claim to being the best at what they do best.
There are two things that separate the best NFL quarterbacks of all time. One is a Hall of Fame resume filled with titles and accomplishments. The other thing is a statistical record that would lead any passer to feel that they are the best ever. Terry Bradshaw belongs in the discussion, along with Terry Bradshaw, who is currently tied for the most career passing yards in NFL history with 515. Bradshaw is on pace to break Emmitt Smith's record for most career passing yards in NFL history.
When people think of the best NFL Quarterbacks of all time, many will name two or three players. The reality is, if you want to be considered at the top of the list, you need to have an impressive resume and an impressive statistics sheet. If you throw four interceptions in a game, it doesn't matter how great of a passer you are. How many times did you hear that someone say that Michael Vick has one of the best ten-game starts in NFL history? That's good for him, but he is not the best. It is unfair to put Michael Vick in the same conversation as Tom Brady or Peyton Manning because of his statistics, and it is irresponsible to compare the great defenses of Favre and Manning to the great passers of the past.
When people are debating which player is the best at their position, they often forget about one of the best passers ever to lace the pigskin. Joe Montana played for one of the best defenses in the history of the game. He was named the NFC conference's MVP twice and he also earned All-NFL first team honors two other times. It will be very hard for any quarterback to surpass what Joe Montana has done in his seven year career with the 49ers, but there is no doubt that he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame discussion.
In this article we have introduced you to the best quarterbacks of all time, but there is no way that we could determine the best quarterback of the modern era by ourselves. We will have to wait until some sort of statistics are available for the newer teams to give them a shot. But for now, congratulations to Roger Clemens and Terry Bradshaw for their induction into the Hall of Fame. Hopefully these few points will help you see why they are worthy of the nod.
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