I’d like to thank everyone for the feedback of our Greatest QB of All Time Preview article. A lot of votes came in for Otto Graham, Johnny Unites, Joe Montana, Dan Marino and Joe Namath. As we discussed in the preview article we selected 14 QB’s and performed a statistical analysis to try to determine who the Greatest Quarterback of All Time is. As we stated the passing craze that began in the 1970’s eliminated many great QB’s from earlier times when the ball wasn’t thrown every down. Greats like Johnny Unites, Bart Starr, Otto Graham, Norm Van Brocklin and others of that era just couldn’t compare statistically, which doesn’t take away from them in any way as all time greats of the game. We will do a second study that would include just QB’s prior to 1970. We have selected the following as our Top 14 in alphabetical order:
- Troy Aikman
- Drew Brees
- Terry Bradshaw
- Tom Brady
- John Elway
- Brett Favre
- Dan Fouts
- Jim Kelly
- Peyton Manning
- Dan Marino
- Joe Montana
- Ben Roethlisberger
- Roger Staubach
- Steve Young
Each of these QB’s are either members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, won a Super Bowl or have won a Super Bowl and will be members of the Hall of Fame in the future.
We selected 8 regular season statistical categories that we felt would put all of the players on a level field without showing bias to a QB that played longer than the rest, Brett Favre, and holds many of the career QB records. What we did was break it down by how they performed in the categories by percentage across their career.
If a player did not play in at least half of his teams games in a season that seasons numbers were not included. For example, Tom Brady played in just 1 game in 2008 due to injury. Also, one of the hardest guys to include in this was Steve Young. There are several seasons in which Young missed games, mainly because he was backing up Joe Montana when he was in San Francisco but he also split time early in his career in Tampa Bay. With that said here are the 8 regular season categories:
- Career Total Yards Produced versus Teams Total Yards %
- Career Passing Yards/Game
- Career Yards per Pass Attempt
- Career Yards per Pass Completion
- Career Pass Completion %
- Career Pass Interception %
- Career Pass TD’s %
- Career Game Winning Drives
Each QB was given 14 points if they finished 1st in the specific category 13 for 2nd, 12 for 3rd, down to 1 point if they finished last in the category. All 8 categories were added up and the QB with the most total points in the 8 categories becomes our Greatest Regular Season QB of All Time.
We will show you who finished 1-5 in each of the categories and we will show you how all 14 finished and what their total points were. You may want to match how the QB finished and who had Hall of Fame running backs in the same backfield.
Once we came up with those results we added 2 Playoff stats, Super Bowls played in and Super Bowls won. We used these 2 categories since playoff stats are all over the board and impossible to compare based on numbers of games each played. Obviously doing this helps Tom Brady and John Elway, as it should since they’ve played in more Super Bowls than any other QB with 5 but also helps Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw who have won the most Super Bowls with 4. It also helps Jim Kelly with his 4 Super Bowl appearances even though he didn’t win. Making 4 Super Bowls is an amazing accomplishment. The guys it really hurts are Dan Fouts with no Super Bowl appearances and Dan Marino with 1. You will see how the addition of the Super Bowl stats changed the overall ranking.
Here are the results. See what you think and feel free to click “Respond” and say your piece. Did we miss anybody that should’ve been included? Did we include statistics that didn’t make it fair? Finally, did you like the results?
Career Total Yards Produced versus Teams Total Yards %
- Brett Favre
- Peyton Manning
- John Elway
- Tom Brady
- Drew Brees
Career Passing Yards/Game
- Peyton Manning
- Drew Brees
- Dan Marino
- Tom Brady
- Brett Favre
Career Yards per Pass Attempt
- Ben Roethlisberger
- Steve Young
- Dan Fouts
- Roger Staubach
- Peyton Manning
Career Yards per Pass Completion
- Terry Bradshaw
- Roger Staubach
- Dan Fouts
- Ben Roethlisberger
- John Elway
Career Pass Completions %
- Drew Brees
- Peyton Manning
- Steve Young
- Tom Brady
- Joe Montana
Career Pass Interception %
- Tom Brady
- Joe Montana
- Steve Young
- Drew Brees
- Peyton Manning
Career Pass TD’s %
- Tom Brady
- Steve Young
- Peyton Manning
- Terry Bradshaw
- Roger Staubach
Career Game Winning Drives
- Dan Marno
- John Elway
- Peyton Manning
- Brett Favre
- Tom Brady
FINAL RESULTS – REGULAR SEASON
1. Peyton Manning – 88 points of 112 possible points
2. Tom Brady – 84 points
3. Drew Brees – 73 points
4. Dan Marino – 68 points
5. Ben Roethlisberger – 66 points
6. Joe Montana – 65 points
7. Steve Young – 64 points
8. Brett Favre – 60 points
9. Dan Fouts – 55 points
10. John Elway – 54 points
11. Jim Kelly – 48 points
12. Roger Staubach – 48 points
13. Terry Bradshaw – 40 points
14. Troy Aikman – 30 points
The categories below were calculated like the rest. Due to my formatting they had to be listed in numerical order but the points were done the same way. For example on Super Bowl Wins both Bradshaw and Montana got 14 points and Brady, Aikman and Young got 12. This covers the ties.
Super Bowl Wins
- Terry Bradshaw – 4
- Joe Montana – 4
- Tom Brady – 3
- Troy Aikman – 3
- Steve Young – 3
Super Bowl Appearances
- John Elway – 5
- Tom Brady – 5
- Terry Bradshaw – 4
- Joe Montana – 4
- Jim Kelly – 4
- Roger Staubach – 4
GRAND TOTAL GREATEST QB OF ALL TIME
1. Tom Brady
2. Peyton Manning
3. Joe Montana
4. Steve Young
5. Ben Roethlisberger
6. Drew Brees
7. John Elway
8. Dan Marino
9. Brett Favre
10. Roger Staubach
11. Terry Bradshaw
12. Jim Kelly
13. Dan Fouts
14. Troy Aikman
The results are in. As we stated we’re open for any and all comments and opinions. Thanks again for your interest in Philly Pressbox. Feel free to follow us on Facebook at Philly Pressbox as well.
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