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.

In compiling 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).

Click here to read Part II (#50-21).

Click here to read Part III (#20-11).

The Rankings (#10-1):

10. Otto Graham (1950-1955)

Otto Graham played 10 seasons, but four of those came in the far-superior AAFC. In the National Football League, Graham only played six years. I’m not going to completely discount the AAFC – the fact that Graham came to the NFL in 1950 and won a championship in his first season means he could certainly hold his own with the big boys – but the AAFC was definitely a tad below.

Graham never missed a game due to injury, made the Pro Bowl every season, and earned three All-Pro selections. He got significantly better as his time went on – he posted a 69.8 passer rating in his first three seasons and upped that total to 88.9 over the next three, also leading the NFL in completion percentage his final three seasons. He was a very talented quarterback who also played defense – and he benefited from Paul Brown’s defense that finished first in points allowed four times and second on two other occasions.

Graham had some remarkable postseason performances – he helped the Cleveland Browns win the 1950 championship over the Philadelphia Eagles, a win that solidified the Browns as legitimate contenders in the new NFL. He also accounted for a ridiculous 10 touchdowns in his final two championship games. Then again, there were also some duds in there – a horrific 2-for-15 passing performance amidst three straight title game losses.

Graham’s most underrated asset was his rushing ability – he scored 44 rushing touchdowns in 10 seasons, five times reaching the end zone at least six times in a year.

9. Fran Tarkenton (1961-1978)

Fran Tarkenton is typically overlooked in all-time quarterback lists, and it’s a shame. Tarkenton was a full-time starter for nearly two decades, amassing over 47,000 passing yards and 342 touchdowns, despite never throwing more than 25 touchdowns to a single receiver. Tarkenton was the greatest running quarterback of his era (and perhaps of all-time), yet still managed to stay healthy – he didn’t miss a single game until his 11^th season.

Tarkenton’s teams went 0-3 in Super Bowls, and Tarkenton didn’t help his case by leading the Minnesota Vikings to just 27 points in those three games. Then again, he did play three of the greatest teams ever – the 1973 Miami Dolphins (who repeated), the first champion of the Pittsburgh Steelers dynasty, and a 13-1 Oakland Raiders team.

You could make a legitimate case that Tarkenton deserves to be on the top five of this list. The only reason I didn’t move him higher was that he wasn’t as dominant in his prime as the others – he never led the league in yards per attempt or passer rating, and completion percentage just once. Still, he was a tremendous dual-threat quarterback who would put up even more spectacular numbers in today’s pass-inflated era. He was truly a one-man team and a top-10 QB ever.

8. Sammy Baugh (1937-1952)

There are a handful of quarterbacks from the pre-Super Bowl era that I envisioned would push for spots in the top 10; after looking more closely at their numbers, it’s evident that Sammy Baugh gets a spot over Sid Luckman, Bart Starr, and Otto Graham, trailing just Johnny Unitas among the oldtime quarterbacks.

The Baugh-Luckman rivalry was one of the great ones in the 1940s, and while Luckman’s Chicago Bears beat Baugh’s Washington Redskins in two of their three championship game clashes, Baugh was a slightly better passer. Baugh led the NFL in completion percentage an absurd eight times, plus yards per attempt and passer rating three times each, which makes him one of the most efficient passers of any era. His 70.3 completion percentage in ’45 – at a time when QBs completed 40 percent of their passes – stood for nearly 40 years, and Baugh’s five seasons of leading the league in interception percentage is still a record.

Baugh all but helped bring the short-to-intermediate passing game into the NFL, and this ranking doesn’t even take into consideration his defensive and special teams success, which resulted in one of the greatest single-seasons in league history. If you factor in what he did on defense and special teams, it’s not out of the question to call Baugh the greatest player in NFL history.

7. Steve Young (1985-2000)

Few quarterbacks have had as odd of a career as Steve Young – he began in the USFL, had a failed stint on a dreadful Tampa Bay Buccaneers team, and then spent four seasons backing up Joe Montana in San Francisco. As a result, Young didn’t really get going as a full-time starter until he was 30 years old, but he played well enough to force a living legend in Montana out of San Francisco.

Like Montana, Young struggled with injuries, missing 16 games from 1991 through 1998, and then ultimately having to retire after ’99 due to concussions. Still, when Young was on the field, he was quite possibly the most efficient QB in NFL history.

For his eight seasons as a primary starter in San Francisco, Young led the league in passer rating six times (Montana did it twice). This came in an era with Troy Aikman, Jim Kelly, and Brett Favre in their prime (and the later years of Dan Marino). Young led in yards per attempt and completion percentage five times and touchdown passes four times. He won two NFL MVP awards. He led the Niners to a Super Bowl victory, throwing a record six touchdown passes in the game. He might not have Montana’s four rings, but Young was a superior regular-season quarterback, as well as being arguably the most dangerous runner at his position in league history.\

Young was blessed to have Jerry Rice on his side, but his numbers really didn’t miss a beat without Rice: When Rice tore his ACL and missed nearly the entire ’97 season, Young still led the NFL in completion percentage, yards per attempt, and passer rating. If Young had gotten the opportunity to start early and had been able to stay healthy, there’s a chance he would be No. 1 on this list.

6. Drew Brees (2001-Active)

I’ve been steady on the Drew Brees bandwagon for many years now, and even after a 2015 season in which he finally missed his first game due to injury in over a decade, he’s still staking his case to eventually be a top-5 quarterback ever.

Since he joined the New Orleans Saints in 2006, these are Brees’ ranks among the 29 quarterbacks to have thrown at least 2,000 passes:

• 1^st in completions (4,240), attempts (6,276), completion percentage (67.56), passing yards (48,555), and touchdowns (348)
• 3^rd in games started (158), passer rating (99.0), and QB wins (94)
• 4^th in ANY/A (7.22)
• 5^th in YPA (7.74)

Those are ridiculous numbers, and they’re even more impressive considering Brees’ career was thought to be in jeopardy after his 2005 shoulder injury. Not only has Brees averaged 4,856 yards and 35 touchdowns over the last 10 seasons, but he’s done so without having a single Pro Bowl receiver. (For what it’s worth, Jimmy Graham made three Pro Bowls as a tight end, but the best wide receiver – Marques Colston – was a seventh-round pick who never made one Pro Bowl).

Brees’ numbers are certainly helped by playing 1) in the greatest offensive era ever and 2) in a dome. But still, don’t confuse his numbers for ordinary. There have been eight 5,000-yard seasons in NFL history. Brees has four of them, including the then-single-season record (5,476 in 2011). Brees has five of the top seven seasons ever in completions, and eight of the top 18, and his career 66.4 completion percentage is the highest ever. He’s also remarkably efficient at preventing sacks, twice leading the league in sack percentage. He’s not mobile, but watch him dance around the pocket. He’s a master at getting rid of the football before he’s taken down.

The Saints put an unbelievable amount of pressure on Brees because they know he can handle it (and how bad is their defense that they can’t seem to make the playoffs with Brees?!) Brees has been asked to throw the ball over 40 times in 43.52 percent of his team’s games; that’s the highest rate in NFL history for a quarterback with at least 100 starts. Only two quarterbacks (Tom Brady and Peyton Manning) have more 50-attempt games. Brees has never played with a top-five rushing offense, and he’s been blessed with a top-10 scoring defense on just two occasions. In fact, since joining the Saints in 2006, his team’s average finish in scoring defense has been 20^th.

Brees’ lone Super Bowl title may look ordinary, but his postseason numbers stack up favorably with any quarterback to ever play – a 65.9 completion percentage, 24 touchdowns to six interceptions, a 100.7 passer rating, and a 7.50 ANY/A that is higher than that of Russell Wilson (7.40), Troy Aikman (6.20), and Tom Brady (6.05). He won the 2009 Super Bowl with a defense that ranked 20^th for the season in points allowed and 25^th in yards allowed. In fact, take a look at how his team’s defense over the last decade compares to his peers.

@cbswartz5 Also, here is the FO DVOA ranks of the defenses he's played with compared to other top QBs pic.twitter.com/Ta8LgfuRFP

— Ryan (@datboywolf) March 6, 2016

Brees has dealt some rough luck too – he’s the only QB ever to lose multiple postseason games in which he passed for 400 yards, he’s one of two to lose three games with 350+ yards, and his defense has allowed an average of 26.7 points per playoff contest. Put Brees on the 1980s San Francisco 49ers, and he may have four or five titles.

5. Joe Montana (1979-1994)

Number five on an all-time quarterbacks list likely seems too low for Joe Montana, but still, being recognized as one of the five greatest players to ever play his position is pretty good.

It’s well-known that Montana won four Super Bowl championships, and his career Super Bowl numbers (11 TD passes to no interceptions, plus three of the game’s MVP awards) are in a class of their own. I’m not going to downgrade what he did in the Super Bowl; those are insane numbers on the game’s biggest stage. Joe Cool was simply the best Super Bowl quarterback who ever lived.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t blemishes in between – there was a painful three-year stint from 1985-1987 where the San Francisco 49ers were bounced in the Wild Card game all three times, scoring a total of nine points with Montana under center (and Montana was even benched in one of the games). But Montana’s overall body of postseason work is still up there with the greatest of any QB in history. He had more playoff games with a 100 passer rating (12) than without (11), including a span of eight straight contests from 1988 through 1990, and it’s appropriate that Football Perspective named him as the game’s greatest postseason QB ever.

In the regular season, Montana was an eight-time Pro Bowler, two-time league MVP, and an underrated scrambler who racked up 20 scores on the ground. He was extremely blessed with where he landed though – Montana had a Hall of Fame supporting cast that made his life so much easier. Aside from Jerry Rice, Montana had a Hall of Fame coach in Bill Walsh, a running game that routinely ranked in the top 10, and a defense that finished in the top five in scoring on eight separate occasions.

Montana also missed extensive time due to injuries, which forced Steve Young to start 36 games from 1987 through 1992; the durability issue is probably the biggest reason why I have Montana ranked behind Dan Marino. After the age of 27, Montana never started 16 games in a full season; Marino did it seven times after his age-27 season. Montana’s inability to stay healthy meant the Niners had to have a great backup quarterback (as they did), which is why I cannot rank Montana higher than fifth on this list.

4. Johnny Unitas (1956-1973)

Football was a different game when Johnny U played. Quarterbacks were allowed to get hit, and Johnny Unitas had a reputation as a gunslinger who would all but stare down the defensive end coming at him, deliver a pass, and then take a bone-crunching hit. That makes the fact that Unitas missed games in just two of his first 12 NFL seasons even more impressive.

The legend of Unitas started when he led the Baltimore Colts to an overtime championship victory in the 1958 ‘Greatest Game Ever Played’, but many forget that Unitas and the Colts repeated as champions the following season. Unitas struggled with injuries later in his career and was a backup in the famous Joe Namath Super Bowl guarantee game, but he did come off the bench late to lead the Colts to their only touchdown of the contest.

Unitas retired holding all the major records for a quarterback – yards (40,239), passing touchdowns (290), and wins (118), plus touchdowns in a season (32), although his most notable accomplishment was probably throwing a TD pass in a league-record 47 consecutive games. He’s also one of just three QBs in history (Brett Favre and Peyton Manning are the others) to win three NFL Most Valuable Player awards.

3. Dan Marino (1983-1999)

It’s amazing that a quarterback who threw for over 60,000 yards and 420 touchdowns can be underrated, but such is the case of Dan Marino. By virtue of never having won a Super Bowl title, Marino is often branded as the ‘best quarterback to not win a ring,’ as if the fact that his team wasn’t good enough to win a championship somehow negates everything Marino has done.

After falling to 27^th in the 1983 NFL draft, Marino made the Pro Bowl as just a nine-game starter as a rookie, then went on a five-year run that ranks among the greatest stretches of any in league history. Marino led the NFL in passing yards four times during that span, averaging 4,329 yards and 35 touchdowns, including an unprecedented total of 48 in 1984. Marino’s finest attribute was his lightning quick release; as a result, he led the league in sack percentage each of his first seven seasons in the game and a record 10 times total. Don’t underestimate the importance of sack percentage; it’s why I use the statistic ANY/A over passer rating – it takes into effect sacks, while passer rating does not.

Marino’s 1984 season still doesn’t get the credit it deserves, as it was – and still is – the greatest season by a QB in league history. Marino set NFL records in passing yards (5,084) and touchdowns (48), in a season in which the next-best passer had just 32 touchdown passes. That’s a 50 percent increase over the second-best quarterback. Marino didn’t have a running back gain over 606 yards all season, and his two regular-season losses came when his defense allowed 34 and 45 points (and then 38 in the Super Bowl).

It’s a shame Marino was never paired with an elite running game; in fact, his Dolphins never finished in the top 10 in rushing during his entire tenure as a starter, and their average finish of 22^nd in the league meant Marino had to regularly pass the ball 40+ times to win a game. Marino was remarkably durable, never missing a game due to injury 1993, and he rebounded from that to play another six years.

Even Marino’s postseason accolades, which are often deemed as ‘disappointing’ – an 8-10 record, 32 touchdown passes to 24 interceptions, and just one Super Bowl appearance – hold up pretty well when compared to the all-time greatest postseason quarterbacks in league history.

2. Tom Brady (2000-Active)

Tom Brady’s career has seen him evolve from almost a game manager quarterback for early championship teams to arguably the best quarterback in football since 2007. Brady falls a little short to competitor Peyton Manning in completion percentage and yards per attempt, but Brady’s significant edge in touchdown-to-interception ratio gives him virtually the exact same passer rating, and Brady has generally done it in more difficult weather conditions.

Then again, the 38-year-old Brady is signed for another four years, which could certainly make this comparison more interesting by 2019. Brady fans will point to his much superior playoff record (22-9 for Brady compared to just 14-13 for Manning), but their postseason numbers are nearly identical.

Without making this all about another Brady-Manning debate, the Brady backers will point out that he’s played the majority of his career with an underwhelming supporting cast (aside from two seasons of Randy Moss and now Gronk) and whoever Belichick can find to play running back, and that he’s done it outdoors in Foxborough, compared to Manning, whose home games are played in a dome. That’s all true, and I have no problem with Brady being ranked ahead of Manning (as long as both are recognized as being in the top 5 all-time, and as long as it’s not simply a ‘Brady has more rings’ argument).

My biggest reasoning for putting Brady second on the list is the head coach. Bill Belichick is arguably the greatest head coach in the game’s history; look no further than the fact that he still won 11 games when his quarterback was injured (2008), while Manning’s 2011 Indianapolis Colts completely collapsed (2-14) without him. Brady can’t help who his head coach is, and I think he’s pretty darn happy with having Belichick. But I think the Colts built their team around Manning much more than the Patriots did around Brady. Still, No. 2 on an all-time list is still pretty good.

1. Peyton Manning (1998-2015)

In terms of what he accomplished on the field, it’s not out of the question to consider Peyton Manning as not just the greatest quarterback in league history, but the NFL’s greatest player ever. Manning is the only five-time MVP ever, and he did it while regularly going up against contemporaries Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Drew Brees for the award. He’s a 14-time Pro Bowler, seven-time First-Team All-Pro, and owner of some of the most impressive passing achievements ever – career passing yards (71,940) and touchdown passes (539), as well as single-season passing yards (5,477) and touchdown passes (55). To put Manning’s dominance in perspective, since the ESPN statistic QBR was invented, Manning has led the league six of the nine seasons he’s played (Brady has done it once).

Aside from the statistics and accolades, no player has ever commanded the line of scrimmage quite like Manning. He’s a field general out there, his team’s quarterback, offensive coordinator, and head coach. Brady has had Bill Belichick his entire career; Manning has gone to the Super Bowl with four different head coaches.

When he sat out the 2011 season recovering from neck surgery, Manning was already in the conversation as the league’s best quarterback ever. He then proceeded to sign with Denver and turn the Broncos into instant contenders, advancing to two Super Bowls and winning one with them. That’s pretty unbelievable considering he couldn’t throw the football 10 yards after his surgery.

Manning’s playoff ‘failures’ are said to be his shortcoming, but I see a quarterback who qualified for the postseason an NFL-record 15 times, one who is the only quarterback in history to advance to multiple Super Bowls with multiple teams (winning a ring with the both the Indianapolis Colts and Broncos), and one who has outperformed his expected playoff ANY/A value at nearly twice the rate of that of Tom Brady.

Every quarterback has his duds in the playoffs – no one remembers that Tom Brady threw three interceptions in the 2007 AFC Championship Game against the San Diego Chargers, and that’s probably because his defense bailed him out. No one knows Joe Montana was benched in a playoff game, Ben Roethlisberger has the lowest passer rating ever by a Super Bowl winner, and even Russell Wilson is left entirely off the hook for throwing a game-ending interception in the Super Bowl; rather, it’s his coaching staff’s fault for the play call. But Manning? Everyone knows his nine one-and-dones and his game-ending pick-six to Tracy Porter in the Super Bowl.

Do people remember that he led a 21-point comeback to beat the Patriots in the 2006 AFC Championship Game, that he’s 3-1 against Brady in playoff games, that he has one of four perfect single-game passer ratings in postseason history, or that he threw nine total touchdowns against the Denver Broncos in consecutive AFC Wild Card games? You change a few plays here and there – maybe Mike Vanderjagt converts a field goal in 2005 or Nick Folk misses a 50-yarder in 2010, and all of a sudden, Manning’s playoff record looks much better.

If you’re giving me the chance to start a brand-new NFL team with any quarterback in history in his prime, I’ll take Peyton Manning.

Posted by Cody Swartz

The oldest and wisest twin. Decade-plus Eagles writer. 2/4/18 Super Bowl champs. Sabermetrics lover. Always ranking QBs. Follow Cody Swartz on Twitter (@cbswartz5).