Windy City Gridiron
10 Greatest QBs of All-Time? Nope. 25 Greatest QBs of all time? Nope. 50 Greatest QBs of All-Time? We went all the way to 100.
It started as a simple task. With Aaron Rodgers saying this is probably his last season, I wanted to rank my top ten quarterbacks of all time. When I finished my top 10, there were a few more names I wanted to rank. I reached about 17 and said, Well, now I need to make a top 25. After that, nerdom took over.
I tried to look at everything. Era, which I look at with basically four eras. Pre-modern era (1920-1958), early passing era (1958-1980), birth of the modern passing era (1980-2005), and the current era (2005-present).
I weighed postseason performance heavily. QBs need to perform well in the regular season, but in the end, this game is about championships, not compiling statistics.
For current quarterbacks, I used 5 years as a starter as the threshold; Jalen Hurts and Trevor Lawrence would be “eligible” starting next year.
I reviewed the statistics, examined the eye test for those I’ve seen, and analyzed how historians view the players from the early years of the NFL. With that being said, here’s my top 100 quarterbacks in NFL history. Made comments for some, but not for all.
There’s not even a debate at this point; Mahomes needs to win two more Super Bowls to even enter the conversation.
He doesn’t have the perfect Super Bowl record like Montana does, but the skills and success are hard to argue.
4-0 in Super Bowls, a game-winning drive in Super Bowl XXIII, 55 points scored in Super Bowl XXIV.
Unitas’ passing skills in an era of running the football helped start to evolve the game into what it is today.
Some may argue that he’s this high on the list, but nobody wanted to face John Elway with two minutes to go in a one-score game. He was a magician.
Greatest regular season QB of all time, unfortunately, he had some stumbles in the postseason that cost him a couple of spots.
Possibly the best pure arm talent of any QB I’ve ever seen.
Had he won a Super Bowl, he would probably be a little higher on this list, but his arm talent, release, and volume stats were second to none for his era.
Graham had success throwing the ball in an era when nobody was throwing the ball.
Only 8 seasons as a starter keep him a little further down, he was the best QB of the 70s, even with Bradshaw’s 4 championships.
His ability to run and throw was remarkable. I’d say he’s underrated, and he’s 11th all-time.
He and Sean...
