Who doesn’t love a good quarterback legacy debate? Following a 2015 season that saw passing numbers rise to an all-time high – and a year capped by Peyton Manning winning his second Super Bowl title and then metaphorically sailing off into the sunset, it seems like a good time to rank my top 100 quarterbacks to ever play the game.
What I Looked At to Compile My Rankings:
I focused on the major passing statistics – completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdown-to-interception ratio, and passer rating – to gauge a quarterback’s effectiveness compared to his peers. But I also looked at some of the less notable ones, such as adjusted net passing yards per pass attempt (ANY/A – my personal favorite), sack percentage, and rushing numbers. And there’s no way to get around the ‘rings’ argument; while I didn’t focus solely on the number of championships a quarterback obtained, his role in his team’s performance – particularly in the postseason, when the stakes are highest – was factored in. After all, it’s the most important position in sports, and how far a team advances in the postseason is frequently a reflection on how the quarterback performs.
I looked at how many times a quarterback was viewed as dominant – Pro Bowl selections, All-Pro nominations, MVP awards, as well as season’s leading the league in statistical categories. Being ‘good’ typically only gets a team so far; it’s the teams with elite quarterbacks that have the best chance of hoisting the Lombardi trophy.
I also looked at a quarterback’s supporting cast, notably his rushing attack, the receivers he was given, the quality of his offensive line, and the caliber of his defense. Was he a one-man team or just a caretaker who was along for the ride? You’d be amazed at what a top-5 defense or rushing attack can do for a quarterback. Likewise, there’s a lot of pressure on a quarterback who has to throw the ball 40-50 times per game to overcome his defense’s struggles and running game ineptitude.
Measuring quarterbacks across eras is a near-impossible task – how do you compare Sammy Baugh’s league-leading 1,367 yards and 12 touchdown passes in 1940 to Drew Brees or Peyton Manning’s totals?, but that’s part of the fun. It requires an attempt to view all eras as equal, even the time period when throwing the ball forward was considered too dangerous and risky to be much more than a passing fad.
This is not solely a stathead list, but let’s be honest: A quarterback can best be measured by the statistics he puts up on the field of play. Having a cannon arm and an amazing ability to run with the ball is terrific, but can it translate to results during a game?
There’s no minimum season requirement to make this list, but no matter how good a quarterback was (sorry, Greg Cook or Robert Griffin III), one season of quality play isn’t going to be enough. I looked for signal-callers who were able to sustain excellence over a large number of years, and a quarterback’s ability to avoid injury and stay on the field was a major factor in my rankings. I also did not look at other leagues that weren’t the NFL – USFL or AAFC, specifically – and I did not count old-timers like Benny Friedman, for whom there are no statistics. I’m sure Friedman was a great quarterback, as evidenced by the fact that he’s in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but I have no way of knowing how to rank him.
I broke this article series into four parts: Part I will cover quarterbacks 100-51, Part II will cover quarterbacks 50-21, Part III will highlight quarterbacks 20-11, and Part IV will cover the 10 best quarterbacks of all-time.
Side note: I didn’t go by the traditional rankings. Ask most experts who the greatest QB of all-time was, and they’ll tell you Joe Montana. That may very well be the case, but I wanted to see if I reached the same conclusion after some in-depth analysis. There are some quarterbacks on my list who differ significantly from the ‘generally accepted quarterback rankings’, but there are also those that fall right in line with everyone else’s views. Check it out and see for yourself.
Click here to read Part I (#100-51).
The Rankings (#50-21):
50. Carson Palmer (2003-Active)
In a different world, there’s a good chance Carson Palmer would be a Hall of Famer. He’s passed for over 40,000 yards and 250 touchdowns with three different teams, and rebounded from a pair of devastating ACL injuries, each of which occurred when he had a good chance to make a playoff run. Palmer played the best football of his career in 2015 with the Arizona Cardinals, leading the league in yards per attempt (8.7), ANY/A (8.41), QBR (82.15), and game-winning drives (5). His downfall has been his lack of postseason success – he was injured after his first playoff pass with the ’05 Bengals and never won a January football game with Cincinnati, and then he was horrific in last season’s NFC Championship loss to the Carolina Panthers.
49. Daryle Lamonica (1963-1974)
First a backup to Jack Kemp and then a starter for John Madden’s Oakland Raiders, Daryle Lamonica earned the nickname “The Mad Bomber” for his propensity to throw the ball deep down the field. He led the AFL in touchdown passes twice and averaged 28 over a four-year span from 1967-1970. Lamonica’s career AFL winning percentage was 90.0 (40-4-1 record), and he was an exceptional postseason performer.
48. Bob Griese (1967-1980)
Bob Griese had the good fortune to play for Don Shula’s Miami Dolphins in the 1970s. In the Dolphins’ run from 1971 through ’73 that produced three Super Bowl appearances and a pair of championships, Griese averaged just 17.5 passing attempts per game. Griese was efficient when he didn’t have to throw the ball much – leading the league in touchdown percentage twice and passer rating once, and making eight Pro Bowls in his career.
It’s unfair to say Griese was simply along for the ride, but my biggest criticism of him is that he holds the remarkable distinction of having won four separate playoff games while completing six or fewer passes. In his five biggest wins with the Dolphins (three conference championship games and two Super Bowls), Griese threw a grand total of 37 passes. In regular-season contests, Griese was 0-12 when he had at least 34 pass attempts and 4-23 when he had at least 29 attempts.
47. Mark Brunell (1994-2011)
For an eight-year span from 1995-2002, Mark Brunell was a steady quarterback who guided the Jacksonville Jaguars to four different playoff berths, advancing as far as the AFC Championship Game in the ’96 season. Brunell made three Pro Bowls, kept his interceptions low (once leading the league in interception percentage), and was a plus runner who ran for over 2,400 yards and 15 touchdowns in his career. He also put together a solid season as Washington’s starting quarterback in 2005.
46. Eli Manning (2004-Active)
I could write a book on Eli Manning. He’s a perplexing case; according to adjusted passer rating, Manning’s 98 mark (100 is average) means he’s actually been a below-average quarterback since joining the league, yet he’s probably going to make the Hall of Fame one day, due largely to his two Super Bowl rings. Beating Bill Belichick twice in two attempts in the NFL’s biggest game is an amazing accomplishment; missing the playoffs in six of the last seven seasons is not so impressive.
Manning will crack the top 10 in passing yards next season (he’s currently at 44,191), and his 294 touchdowns means he has a good chance at 60,000 yards and 375 touchdowns when he’s finished. Manning has never led the league in any statistical category except interceptions – three times – and he’s thrown at least 14 of them every year since 2005 except one. In fact, Manning seemed to be on his way out of New York after a dismal 27-pick output in ’13, but then the Giants drafted Odell Beckham, and Manning has all but been revived – he’s averaged 4,423 passing yards, 32 touchdowns, and a 92.9 passer rating since.
Manning probably hasn’t been as good as his 2004 draft counterparts, Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers, and you could even argue (as I will) that Tony Romo has been better. But would Giants fans trade Manning for any of those others? I can’t imagine why they would, considering Manning has led them to two titles, and that’s really why you play the game.
45. Jeff Garcia (1999-2011)
An undrafted free agent out of San Jose State, Jeff Garcia spent five seasons in the CFL before joining the San Francisco 49ers as a 29-year-old rookie in 1999. Garcia was benched once during his initial campaign, then proceeded to make the Pro Bowl each of the next three seasons, throwing for 30 touchdowns twice and leading the Niners on a 24-point comeback in a playoff game. After failed one-year stints in Cleveland and Detroit, Garcia revived his career in Philly (sparking a mini quarterback controversy) and then put together a Pro Bowl season with the 2007 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
44. Bob Waterfield (1945-1952)
Bob Waterfield was a unique player in that he split time with Norm Van Brocklin in a two-QB system for the Los Angeles Rams; Waterfield made the Hall of Fame despite playing just eight seasons (and in a part-time role, no less).
Waterfield won the NFL’s MVP award as a rookie, leading the league in touchdown passes, and doing so without splitting time with Van Brocklin (Van Brocklin was not yet on the team). Waterfield led the NFL in TD passes again in his second season, and he made three All-Pro teams in his career. For what it’s worth, Waterfield also played defensive back, kicker, and punter for the LA Rams.
43. Steve McNair (1995-2007)
The late Steve McNair didn’t put up overwhelming passing numbers as the quarterback for the Houston Oilers and then the Tennessee Titans, but he won a lot of games as one of the better dual-threats the league has ever seen. Case in point: From 1997 through 1999, McNair threw for over 8,000 yards and 41 touchdowns while winning 58 percent of his starts; he also rushed for 20 touchdowns, which would have been the 10th-best mark among running backs during that span.
McNair peaked in ’03 with the Titans, winning co-league MVP honors in a season in which he led the league in yards per attempt (8.0), passer rating (100.4), and threw 24 TD to just seven picks, leading Tennessee back from a 1-4 record all the way to the conference championship game. McNair is one of just four QBs in league history with at least 30,000 passing yards, 3,000 rushing yards, and 30 rushing touchdowns; the others are Steve Young, Fran Tarkenton, and John Elway.
42. Joe Namath (1965-1977)
Joe Namath was larger than life when he played; he truly helped transcend the game of modern football. There was the Super Bowl guarantee that Namath backed up, but there were other highlights too – he was the league’s first 4,000-yard passer, he once threw for 496 yards and six touchdowns on just 15 completions, and he led the NFL in game-winning drives on four occasions. Namath’s knees ultimately gave out on him, but he still played long enough to make five Pro Bowls, and win a quartet of impressive awards – AFL Rookie of the Year, two AFL MVP awards, NFL Comeback Player of the Year, and Super Bowl MVP.
41. Bobby Layne (1948-1962)
If not for Paul Brown and Otto Graham, Bobby Layne’s Detroit Lions would be known as the NFL’s great dynasty of the 1950s. Layne reached three championship games, actually winning two of them, despite posting absolutely horrific statistics – 1 TD pass to 12 interceptions, a 29.9 passer rating, and a 0.49 ANY/A. Layne threw 47 more interceptions than touchdowns over his regular-season career, but actually posted a better-than-average INT % index. Layne was a six-time Pro Bowler and two-time First-Team All-Pro who retired with NFL records in touchdown passes (196) and passing yards (26,768).
40. Rich Gannon (1987-2004)
Twelve seasons into his NFL career, Rich Gannon was a 33-year-old journeyman with just 66 touchdown passes to his name; there wasn’t much evidence to suggest he would go on a four-year run that was enough to land him close to the top 40 on this list.
The best thing that happened to Gannon was that Jon Gruden became his coach; the next-best thing was that Jerry Rice joined the Oakland Raiders. In the four years from 1999 through 2002, Gannon was 41-23 as a starter, completing 63.4 percent of his passes for 105 touchdowns to just 44 interceptions. He made the Pro Bowl all four seasons, was First-Team All-Pro twice, and won the league MVP as a 37-year-old in ’02. It’s unfortunate that he had such a poor Super Bowl (a record five interceptions) against his former coach, because his two prior postseason contests were terrific (five touchdowns to just one pick, and a plus-100 passer rating in each).
39. Dave Krieg (1980-1998)
Dave Krieg’s specialty was throwing touchdown passes; he’s one of just three quarterbacks whose careers started after the NFL merger to lead the league in TD percentage at least three times (the others are Brett Favre and Steve Young), and he threw 261 as pro – more than Joe Montana, Dan Fouts, or Young. Krieg never reached a Super Bowl, but he won almost 100 regular-season games as a starter.
38. Cecil Isbell (1938-1942)
If Cecil Isbell hadn’t retired after just five NFL seasons, he would probably be considered one of the 10 greatest quarterbacks of all-time. Isbell set a league record with 1,479 passing yards in 1941, then broke his own record with 2,021 yards the following year (plus a record 24 touchdowns). Isbell – who started his career as a halfback for Curly Lambeau’s Green Bay Packers – made four Pro Bowls in his brief tenure and threw a TD pass in his final 23 games, a record until Johnny Unitas broke it in 1957.
37. Boomer Esiason (1984-1997)
Taking over for a star like Ken Anderson is no easy task, but Boomer Esiason did a pretty fine job, passing for over 37,000 yards and nearly 250 touchdown passes over a career that started with Cincinnati, and then included the New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals, and Bengals again. Esiason made four Pro Bowls, led the league in ANY/A twice, and came within 34 seconds of becoming the only quarterback ever to beat Joe Montana in the Super Bowl.
36. Randall Cunningham (1985-2001)
Randall Cunningham, ‘The Ultimate Weapon,’ was a once-in-a-lifetime talent who would absolutely be in the Hall of Fame had Buddy Ryan given him the coaching he deserved. Whether he was eluding Bruce Smith in the end zone or taking a hit from Carl Banks and still throwing a touchdown on the play, Cunningham was a SportsCenter Top 10 moment waiting to happen.
For a four-year span from 1987 through 1990, Cunningham averaged 3,365 passing yards, 24 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions per season, earning three Pro Bowls and winning the league MVP award in 1990. Cunningham also averaged a ridiculous 6.9 yards per carry, accumulating 2,692 yards and 18 touchdowns on the ground during that span, but his downside was his penchant for taking an absurd amount of sacks. Cunningham led the league in sacks taken five times with the Eagles, taking almost 500 for his career.
It wasn’t until he re-emerged with the Minnesota Vikings that Cunningham became a true pocket passer; in an MVP-caliber ’98 season, Cunningham led the Vikings to a 13-1 record, throwing for 34 touchdowns to just 10 picks and leading the NFL with a 106.0 passer rating. Cunningham came within a missed field goal of getting to a Super Bowl. Put Cunningham with later Eagles head coach Andy Reid, and there’s a good chance there would have been a world championship in there somewhere.
35. Troy Aikman (1989-2000)
Having Troy Aikman ranked this low seems ludicrous, but allow me to justify my case: Aikman was a good quarterback who played a key role as the signal-caller for the Dallas Cowboys teams in the 1990s, which won three Super Bowls. Aikman was also blessed with as much surrounding talent as any QB on this list – he played behind 25 seasons’ worth of Pro Bowl offensive linemen (14 First-Team All-Pros), four top-five rushing offenses, and seven top-five scoring defenses.
Aikman was an efficient passer, completing 61.5 percent of his passes and leading the NFL once. He also retired with some fairly underwhelming statistics – of the 94 passers in history with at least 3,000 attempts, his 3.5 TD percentage is sixth-worst. Aikman’s career 81.6 passer rating is more in line with Neil O’Donnell (81.9) and Jeff George (80.9) than Steve Young or Brett Favre.
Aikman had some stellar postseason performances though – he won the 1992 Super Bowl MVP and threw eight touchdowns to no interceptions that January, and he posted a 100-plus passer rating in nine of his 16 career playoff games. Like other quarterbacks of dynasties – Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw, and Bart Starr – Aikman elevated his game in the playoffs, but once the Cowboys started falling apart in the mid-to-late ‘90s, Aikman’s game suffered.
34. Ken Stabler (1970-1984)
Snake was one of the best quarterbacks of the 1970s, winning the ’74 league MVP award and catapulting the Oakland Raiders to five consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances, and a 32-14 Super Bowl victory over the Minnesota Vikings in 1976. Stabler threw his fair share of interceptions – he threw 222 in his career, topped 20 five times, and holds the NFL record for most games with both four and five INTs.
But he was a risk-taker who also led the league in completion percentage and touchdowns twice each, and took the Raiders to a 50-11-1 record from ’73 through ’77. Per Football Perspective, Stabler outperformed his expected ANY/A by a full 3.45 yards; that’s the fifth-best total of any QB (min. 3 starts) in the Super Bowl era.
33. Roman Gabriel (1962-1977)
It took Roman Gabriel a handful of years to get started with the L.A. Rams, but he led the league in interception percentage in his fourth season, made the Pro Bowl in year six, and won the NFL MVP award in 1969. Gabriel had success for two organizations – the Rams and Philadelphia Eagles – and retired with almost 30,000 passing yards and over 200 touchdowns. At one point, Gabriel started 87 consecutive games as well.
32. Arnie Herber (1930-1945)
The Green Bay Packers franchise has a ridiculous five quarterbacks in the top 40 on this list. You know Brett Favre, Bart Starr, and Aaron Rodgers, but don’t overlook old-timers like Cecil Isbell and Arnie Herber. Herber was one of the NFL’s first great passers at a time when the forward pass was still looked at as too risky.
Herber led the league in a multitude of passing statistics – yards, touchdowns, and passer rating three times each, completion percentage twice, and yards per attempt once. When he retired, he trailed just Sammy Baugh and Sid Luckman on the NFL’s all-time passing yards and touchdowns list.
31. Tony Romo (2004-Active)
His postseason struggles (just a 2-4 record) are well-documented, but would you believe Tony Romo actually has a higher career playoff passer rating than Troy Aikman (93.0 to 88.3)? Romo’s regular-season winning percentage is better (61.4 to 57.0), and his regular-season passing statistics run circles around those of Aikman. Would the Dallas Cowboys have won those Super Bowls in the ‘90s with Romo? I absolutely believe so.
Romo has managed to stay remarkably underrated as a passer – his career 97.1 passer rating is the third-best in NFL history, behind just Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson, and it’s the highest ever for a passer with at least 4,300 attempts. Romo’s career 7.02 ANY/A is the fourth-best mark ever, higher than Tom Brady, Drew Brees, or Steve Young, and that’s largely because Romo is exceptional at avoiding sacks.
Romo was arguably the NFL’s best passer in ’14 (leading the league in completion percentage, TD percentage, yards per attempt, passer rating, and QBR), before missing most of last season with a collarbone injury. He’s going to be 36 by the time next season starts, but if he can avoid injury, he should have several more years of elite play left.
30. John Brodie (1957-1973)
John Brodie has long been forgotten among great quarterbacks, particularly since he’s nowhere near the player his San Francisco contemporaries Steve Young and Joe Montana were. But Brodie was a talented quarterback for 17 years, winning an NFL MVP award, leading the league in passing yards three times and touchdowns twice, and retiring fourth on the all-time passing yards list.
In his career, Brodie started more games with the Niners (157) than either Young or Montana; in fact, just 13 quarterbacks in history have started more games for the same team than Brodie. Brodie’s best aspect may have been the underrated ability to avoid sacks; sack data is only available for Brodie’s last five seasons, but still, he led the league in sack percentage three times in those final five years. Brodie was also calculated to have had the most difficult stadium/weather conditions of any quarterback in history (min. 2,000 attempts); had he played in a dome, there’s a good chance he would now be in the Hall of Fame.
29. Terry Bradshaw (1970-1983)
Four seasons into his NFL career, Terry Bradshaw was well on his way to being a bust. He had just gotten benched for Joe Gilliam, and Bradshaw’s numbers were frightening even for a player who wasn’t the No. 1 overall draft pick – of the 30 qualifying quarterbacks during that span, Bradshaw was 27th in completion percentage (48.38) and passer rating (52.9), 28th in ANY/A (2.79), and 29th in interception percentage (6.77).
Fortunately for Bradshaw, Gilliam didn’t sustain success and Bradshaw regained the starting job in time to lead the Pittsburgh Steelers to the 1974 Super Bowl championship, then another title the following year. When it was all over, Bradshaw had accumulated four rings in six seasons. Bradshaw evolved into one of the NFL’s best players – he won the 1978 league MVP award, made three Pro Bowls, and won a pair of Super Bowl MVP awards.
Bradshaw was at his best when it mattered the most; three of his seven career 300-yard games came in the postseason, two of those were in the Super Bowl, and he was probably the best postseason QB ever aside from Joe Montana. And there were a handful of memorable playoff moments in his Hall of Fame career – the Immaculate Reception stands out the most but the 73-yard game-winner to John Stallworth in his last Super Bowl was a thing of beauty.
Bradshaw’s specialty was throwing touchdowns – he retired with a 5.40 career TD percentage, the sixth-best mark among 95 qualifying quarterbacks since 1970, and a better mark than Joe Montana, Drew Brees, or Dan Marino. He was also a pretty effective runner, who gained 2,257 yards and 32 touchdowns on the ground.
28. Kurt Warner (1998-2009)
We all know Kurt Warner’s incredible rags-to-riches story – from the Arena Football League and stocking grocery store shelves to NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP in his first year as a starter with the St. Louis Rams. What’s even more remarkable is that after his three-year run of dominance with the Rams, he was benched four times in four years (2004-2007), and then put together another (brief) run of greatness with the Arizona Cardinals. That’s two franchises that have hit their pinnacle of success with Warner at the helm.
Warner’s roller coaster of a career had unbelievable peaks – he’s one of three quarterbacks in history to lead the league in completion percentage three straight seasons and he’s one of four quarterbacks to lead the league in ANY/A in three straight seasons. Warner has the second-best completion percentage ever of a retired QB, and the third-best passer rating. As the quarterback of The Greatest Show on Turf, Warner was named league MVP twice in a three-year span.
Warner was also one of the best postseason quarterbacks ever, playing in three Super Bowls, winning one, and coming pretty close to winning all three. He threw for over 300 yards in all three Super Bowls, topping out at 414 in his first-ever appearance (when he was still essentially a rookie). Warner also beat Aaron Rodgers in a slugfest in 2009, doing so despite his own defense allowing 45 points. Warner’s career postseason numbers (66.5 completion percentage, 8.6 yards per attempt, 102.8 passer rating, and 7.95 ANY/A) are all better than his regular-season numbers, and the only QB with a higher career postseason passer rating (min. 10 starts) than Warner is Bart Starr.
What keeps Warner from ranking higher then? To start, his career was brief. He only really had four terrific seasons (1999, 2001, 2008, and 2009), then parts of two more (2000 and 2007). He had the luxury of playing his home games in St. Louis in a dome, and he was surrounded with Hall of Fame talent his entire career – Marshall Faulk, Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce, Orlando Pace, Larry Fitzgerald, and Anquan Boldin. He threw too many interceptions (largely due to his high-risk passing), he fumbled too much, and he was way too inconsistent on a year-to-year basis. Warner had the peak of a Hall of Famer, but Hall of Fame quarterbacks don’t get benched in four consecutive seasons.
27. Len Dawson (1957-1975)
Len Dawson absolutely dominated the old AFL, winning six passing titles and leading the league in completion percentage seven times, touchdowns four times, and yards per attempt three times. His numbers trailed off after the NFL and AFL merged in 1970, but then again, Dawson was 35 years old by then. How would Dawson have performed had he been in the NFL for his whole career?
There’s reason to think he would have still excelled. In his first three seasons in the NFL (1970-1972), Dawson still rated as the league’s sixth-best quarterback in terms of passer rating (75.3), and that was at age 35, 36, and 37. Dawson led the Kansas City Chiefs to two Super Bowl appearances, winning after the 1969 season, and earning the game’s MVP honors. It’s a projection for sure, but Dawson likely would have still thrived had he played the entire ‘60s in the National Football League.
26. Donovan McNabb (1999-2011)
The best quarterback in Philadelphia Eagles’ history, Donovan McNabb made six Pro Bowls and is one of the most dangerous dual-threat quarterbacks the league has ever seen. McNabb was too often an erratic passer, completing just 59.0 percent for his career, but he kept his interceptions down (fifth-best career mark in league history) and finished with a better TD:INT ratio (2.00) than Joe Montana (1.96), Dan Marino (1.67), or John Elway (1.33).
McNabb never won a Super Bowl with the Eagles, and too often the NFC Championship Game was the breaking point for the franchise. He still threw for 357 yards and three scores (against the heart of a New England Patriots dynasty!) in his only Super Bowl, and the most criticized drive in the city’s history – you know the one I mean – ended with a touchdown pass to Greg Lewis.
He’s one of just 14 quarterbacks with nine or more playoff win, although he and Jim Kelly are the only two without a ring. Had McNabb been paired with Terrell Owens for more years than just 1.5 – or a better trifecta than the early days of James Thrash/Todd Pinkston/Freddie Mitchell – there’s a good chance he and Philly would have won a Lombardi trophy.
25. Y.A. Tittle (1951-1964)
Yelberton Abraham “Y.A.” Tittle, besides being photographed in one of the most famous pictures in sports history, was a Hall of Fame quarterback in the 1950s and early ‘60s.
Tittle was pretty good, although inconsistent, for the majority of the ‘50s, before stringing together three straight phenomenal seasons from ’61 through ’63. During that span, Tittle went 31-5-1 as a starter, averaging 8.4 yards per attempt and throwing 86 touchdowns to just 46 interceptions. He broke the single-season touchdown record in 1962 (33), then broke his own record a year later with 36, an achievement that earned him the league MVP award. Tittle was also a top-notch runner, registering 39 career touchdowns on the ground.
24. Jim Kelly (1986-1996)
Let’s get this out of the way: Jim Kelly went 0-4 in his Super Bowls, but’s it’s way better to have been to four Super Bowls and lost them all, than been to none. Kelly didn’t play particularly well in those four Super Bowls (2 TD, 7 INT, 56.9 rating, and no TD passes in three of the four contests), but he did go 4-1 in AFC Championship Games.
Kelly got a late start to his NFL career after playing two seasons in the USFL, so he lasted ‘just’ 11 seasons with the Buffalo Bills. Kelly engineered an efficient no-huddle offense in Buffalo, making five Pro Bowls and the eighth-highest regular-season winning percentage (63.13) ever of a quarterback with at least 150 starts. He’s a deserving Hall of Famer.
23. Ben Roethlisberger (2004-2015)
22. Philip Rivers (2004-2015)
I have Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger back-to-back, so I’ll write about them together. It’s probably a surprise to see Rivers ranked higher than Roethlisberger, so here’s my reasoning:
| Name | Starts | W-L | Comp Pct | Yards | YPA | TD:INT | Passer Rating | Sack % | ANY/A |
| Philip Rivers | 160 | 92-68 | 64.8 | 41,447 | 7.8 | 281-135 | 95.5 | 5.7 | 6.89 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 169 | 113-56 | 64.1 | 42,995 | 7.9 | 272-147 | 94.0 | 7.5 | 6.65 |
Rivers wins almost every single lifetime passing statistic except for yards per attempt, although interestingly enough, Rivers led the NFL in yards per attempt three consecutive seasons (2008-2010) in the heart of the Brady/Manning/Brees era. Roethlisberger has a significantly better W-L record, but as I’ll elaborate later, that’s more the product of a better team. Rivers has never missed a game due to injury, while Roethlisberger has missed 19 due to injury (or suspension) since he took over as the starter in 2004.
Rivers doesn’t have the postseason accolades of Roethlisberger (two rings, three Super Bowl appearances, 11 wins), but Rivers’ 4-5 record isn’t nearly his fault: Rivers actually has a higher postseason passer rating (85.2 to 84.6), TD:INT ratio (1.22 to 1.11), and ANY/A (6.29 to 5.81) than Big Ben. Rivers has historically played on significantly worse teams – his San Diego Chargers have averaged a 19th-place finish in the league in rushing offense, with the Pittsburgh Steelers at 14th. Rivers has been blessed with just one top-five scoring defense, while Roethlisberger has had seven such teams, and Rivers has also played behind fewer Pro Bowl offensive linemen than his contemporary, Roethlisberger.
Roethlisberger is admittedly a more efficient runner and he’s tougher to bring down, although Rivers has a quick release that leads to a lower sack percentage. Roethlisberger has some memorable postseason moments – there’s the legendary throw to Santonio Holmes to win the 2008 Super Bowl and the tackle of Nick Harper in the 2005 playoffs or even the 3rd-and-19 completion to Antonio Brown against Baltimore in the 2011 playoffs, but there’s also the dreadful 22.6 passer rating in what counts as a Super Bowl victory over the Seattle Seahawks. Roethlisberger has more notable plays in January games, but Rivers should get a lot of props for literally playing the 2007 AFC Championship Game with a torn ACL.
There’s nothing wrong with taking Roethlisberger over Rivers, and the caliber of the Steelers offense means we may need to revisit this comparison pretty soon. But for now, Rivers has been a model of consistency, and he’s had a better career.
21. Norm Van Brocklin (1949-1960)
Norm Van Brocklin started his NFL career playing in a bizarre two-QB system for the Los Angeles Rams, splitting reps with Bob Waterfield (a Hall of Famer in his own right). Van Brocklin was extremely effective when he did play, leading the league in yards per attempt three straight seasons.
After Waterfield retired and Van Brocklin was the full-time starter, he continued to dominate on the field, posting a 10.1 yards-per-attempt average in ’54 that made him the last quarterback to surpass the 10.0 YPA mark in a season. Van Brocklin’s career mark of 8.2 is the fourth-highest in history.
Van Brocklin ended his career as a winner, taking the Philadelphia Eagles to the 1960 NFL championship, while winning the league MVP in the process.
Stay tuned for Part III, which will count down the quarterbacks ranked #20-11.
Follow Cody Swartz on Twitter (@cbswartz5).
